Products & SERVICES
LYNX CLOUD - SCHOOL BUS ROUTING SOFTWARE
YOUR ALL-IN-ONE SCHOOL BUS ROUTING SOLUTION
Paving the way for school districts with a fast and affordable, easy-to-use, school bus routing software. Lynx Cloud adapts to you, giving you control over your bus routing data. You get to decide who has access to route data, what to name your routes, operation times, bus zones, and which fields are visible. Easily drag and drop students onto any of your bus routes or trips. Optimize, consolidate, break apart or create routes from scratch. Lynx Cloud runs on Windows, Linux or Mac and can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. Use your laptop\computer, phone, or tablet to view all of your important data. With Lynx Cloud, you get what you need and not what you don’t.
LYNX CLOUD FEATURES:
- Lynx Cloud gives you secure encrypted access to your system, using a web browser. Supporting 2 factor authentication (2FA, MFA) (if required by state or your IT department)
- Access from anywhere with an internet connection via Mac, PC, Linux, Chromebook and even on a tablet.
- There is no limit to the number of users who can access the system, and can be used on hundreds of computers should you choose to. Lynx workstations are established on a ‘Simultaneous User’ basis.
- 24/7 monitoring of your system; Lynx runs nightly backups to ensure your data is never lost and can be recovered if disaster strikes.
- Can create entire routing systems from scratch via manual entry, our inhouse Fast-Track service where we do the data entry for you, or with data provided by your school districts student information system.
- Lynx syncs with all major student information systems; both ways!
- Data Processing mode allows you to duplicate existing routes, or create new ones from scratch, without them being visible to anyone but your staff and does not sync to your student information system. Cutting down on calls from parents while you are still in the development phase. When ready to deploy, simply change your route type and it will be added for their viewing!
- Fleet Maintenance with notifications
- Field Trip Management; Access to your field trip information is built right into Lynx so your transportation department can easily approve or deny incoming trip requests, or create them from scratch yourself.
- Field Trips Web Portal; Make Field Trips available to those who need it such as teachers, coaches, and administrative staff. Set-up a flexible approval-based system or enforce a chain of command for all trip requests, and receive email notifications as the status of your trip has changed.
- Driver Web Portal; Allow your drivers to fill out pre-trip and post-trip inspections, view reminders, see all of their assigned route information, and so much more.
- Staff Web Portal; Administrative staff, teachers, or other, can view a student’s route info and submit field trips right from the portal cutting down on inhouse communications. Allowing your staff to see only what they need, and none of what they don’t.
- Parent Web Portal; For parents to see where their bus is, register online for transportation
- GPS Tracking (requires additional hardware)
- Editable maps
- Unlimited tech support/training for your initial Lynx staff.
- 24/7 Emergency service
- We handle all of the IT issues including but not limited to the firewall, malware protection, backups, updates and upgrades involving your Lynx system. No need to bother your IT department!
- Lynx is FERPA compliant so you can rest easy knowing your data is safe and secure.
DRIVER / STAFF PORTAL and FIELD TRIPS
Lynx student transportation software simplifies handling field trips, by including staff access via our Lynx Staff Portal and Driver Portal. With the Staff Portal, it is easy to handle driver check-ins, as well as pre-trip inspections and field trip requests. Teachers and staff can view a student’s route information, cutting down on phone calls between the bus garage and the main office. Lynx will help with questions such as which driver is assigned to which bus, when their route begins, if they have submitted their pre-route inspection, and if the bus is safe to hit the road. With the Driver Portal, you’ll be giving your drivers access to everything they need right from their smartphone or tablet.
PORTAL AND TRIP FEATURES:
- Our Staff Portal gives athletic coaches, teachers and administrative staff the ability to request trips. No phone calls necessary.
- Our flexible approval-based system allows for your transportation staff to either approve or deny trip requests as they come in, and select which staff members receive email updates as progress is made. Set up a chain of approval should you want multiple staff members to approve trip requests.
- A variety of reports can be printed for drivers including directions, trip tickets, and an overview list showing any desired date range.
- You can see how field trips correlate with routes and whether any additional coverage is needed.
- Drivers can view not only their routes, but their assigned trips in the driver portal. Lynx allows you to set reminders, so drivers will be alerted of due dates and renewal dates when they log into the driver portal. With the addition of Lynx GPS, your drivers can access their routes in real time.
- View which trips still need to be assigned and just as quickly make a daily check to make sure each trip is covered.
- Bills can easily be created based on driver time, mileage, flat rate, as well as additional costs for meals, hotels, etc. Invoices can be printed with one click.
- File incident reports right from within the driver portal….and so much more!
DRIVER AND EMPLOYEE MANAGMENT
Lynx makes it easy to handle employee management issues, and with the use of the Driver Portal it is even easier to make sure your drivers are aware of renewal dates, certifications, and alerts. Lynx will help with questions such as which driver is due for training, when drivers’ CPR certifications expire, and who is available for evening field trips.
EMPLOYEE MANAGMENT FEATURES:
- Track important driver data such as hire and termination dates, payroll information, and certifications such as CPR, First Aid, TSA Clearance, license expiration, and annual training.
- Lynx allows you to set reminders so that you are alerted when important dates are due.
- Lynx software can quickly provide driver utilization statistics.
- Tracking issues such as driver absenteeism, your driver availability, and managing driver assistants are all made easier with Lynx Cloud.
STUDENT INFORMATION
Lynx Transportation Software makes it easy to assign students to routes, keep track of student data, and any special circumstances they may have. Critical information for each student is readily accessible, such as allergies, medical concerns, special needs, and custody information. Lynx syncs your data nightly with all major student information systems (both ways!) so you are always up to date. You decide what information you want to send back to your student information system such as busing info, funding related fields like student mileage and ridership, and more!
STUDENT INFORMATION FEATURES:
- Drag and drop the names of students you want to any route. One student can be assigned to infinite routes so that custody issues, day-cares, Vo-tech schools, shuttles, and even field trips are easy to route. Any student, any route, any time!
- Lynx automatically syncs with all major (and most minor) student information system (SIS) to ensure that the Transportation Department is working with the same data as the school district itself.
- Lynx provides quick access to critical student information such as phone numbers, parent information, medical alerts, routes, route times, home location, etc.
- Student contacts are easy to manage, including parents, guardians, babysitters, and emergency contacts.
- Reminders related to students are easy to manage, such as a child’s vacation schedule.
- Student infractions can be tracked and easily customized to your student discipline form. Student infractions can also be filed by your drivers at the time of an incident.
- Ridership for state and federal funding can be easily tracked to generate monthly MIPS and DPI reports with correct information.
FLEET MAINTENANCE \ FUEL TRACKING
Keeping up with buses and vehicle maintenance is another task that is made much easier in Lynx Cloud. With the reports available in Lynx, it is easy to keep up with vehicle depreciation, inventory, open work orders, inspection reports, equipment specifications, cost per bus, scheduled services due dates, and more. It’s important to track fuel, in order to prevent possible theft. Lynx simplifies the process of ensuring that the fuel always goes to buses. You can quickly check to see which buses get the most miles per gallon.
MAINTENANCE AND FUEL TRACKING FEATURES:
- Fuel tracking can be used with on-site and off-site fueling.
- Find out instantly what the average MPG is for your fleet.
- Discover inconsistency in fuel usage; and prevent theft.
- Use your fuel data and MPG to help make decisions when replacing or repairing your buses.
- Easily balance your bill to actual usage if you fuel off-site or at a service station.
BOUNDARY PLANNING AND REDISTRICTING
With our built-in Boundary Manager; matters related to school closings, school openings, and changing of programs are made easier for superintendents and district administration to handle. Lynx makes it possible to quickly analyze the impact of any proposed scenario. Such as impact reports with student counts, gender, grade, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background, to ensure diversity in your schools.
Not only can you complete daunting boundary planning and redistricting challenges using Lynx, you can also create unlimited scenarios to see how the changes will impact your transportation department.
Our Lynx Consulting Team is available to assist, if needed. Our transportation experts have decades of experience handling student enrollment forecasting, school capacity usage, and route consolidation.
Unlike other options in student transportation management software, Lynx is not a difficult program that requires you to participate in training summits. Lynx does not make you deal with the hassle of maintenance routines or system down-time and it does not require regular tech support calls.
