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| FAQ's - Frequently Asked Questions |
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1. WHAT CAN A ROUTING SOFTWARE PROGRAM DO FOR MY SCHOOL DISTRICT ?
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A good (and truly automated) routing program can do numerous things for your school district. Some of the key items are:
- Greatly reduce the manual effort and time that go into creating routes with paper maps and pencils.
- Quickly provide valuable reporting data such as total route mileages, total route time, longest route, slowest route, number of students per bus, etc.
- Provide information for determining future busing needs based on enrollment growth, new school openings (or even closings).
- Rapidly create route driving directions for drivers (especially useful for sub-drivers)
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2. WHO / WHAT IS ESRI ? |
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ESRI is the world leader in GIS (Geographic Information System) technologies and Mapping technologies. ESRI technology and data formats are used by over 90% of the Federal, State, County and Municipal agencies in the US and Canada that have a need for GIS and Mapping. ESRI products and tools are also actively used by a wide range of businesses including airlines, railways, trucking, transit, and utility companies.
US Computing is an ESRI business partner and Web Compass was developed by U.S. Computing using ESRI GIS/Mapping technologies.
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3. WHY IS ESRI FORMAT IMPORTANT ?
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Since Web Compass is based on the ESRI GIS platform, this means that the data used by Web Compass can be viewed and used with other ESRI based tools such as ArcView, etc. which are commonly used at Local Govt. level (such as city or county planning offices or E911 divisions). Also Web Compass can easily and seamlessly consume mapping data from local government agencies that also may be using ESRI based tools.
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4. WHAT IS WEB BASED ROUTING ?
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True Web Based routing is the ability to actually create and modify routes using only a Web Browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or Firefox etc.,) without having to download or install any special software on your computer.
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5. HOW IS “COMPASS” DIFFERENT FROM OTHER ROUTING PRODUCTS ?
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Compass is:
- Truly Web Browser Based. It does not require you to download or install anything special on your computer for creating and updating routes.
- Built on World Renowned ESRI GIS technology
- Built by US Computing which is a prominent ESRI Business Partner.
- Able to create routes for entire fleets at one time through a Web browser interface. Does not require user to build one-route at a time.
- Able to create routes that adhere to specified bell-times through a Web browser interface.
- Able to match students to buses based on equipment needs through a Web browser interface.
- Able to seamlessly read in road map data from local county/municipality of state government offices that use ESRI tools.
- Based on industry standard data formats and not proprietary data formats that require conversion.
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6. WHAT IS TRUE FLEET SCHEDULING / ROUTING ?
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In the K-12 Context, True Fleet Scheduling/Routing is the task of taking a list of bus stops, including the number of riders per stop and the schools they attend and then combining that information with a list of vehicles in a fleet including the capacity of each vehicle and producing routes for each vehicle such that all stops are serviced and all students are correctly transported to the right school on time.
A software is considered a true fleet routing software if it can take the input specified (i.e., Stop list and Vehicle list) and automatically produce routes for multiple vehicles.
- WITHOUT the user having to build one route at a time and
- WITHOUT the user having to group a set of stops into routes manually
If software only builds one route at a time and requires the user to always indicate which stops are to be placed on a single route, then that is not a true fleet routing software.
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7. WHAT IS TRUE ROUTE OPTIMIZATION ?
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True route optimization (in the K-12 space) is the process of creating multiple routes through a set of bus stops and optimizing such stops to route assignments so as to do the following, while taking into account school bell time, bus capacities, student equipment needs etc.
- Produce multiple low Mileage Routes
- Produce multiple low Ride Time Routes
- Reduce, when possible, the number of buses needed to run routes
True route optimization is much more than just finding the shortest path for one vehicle through a group of stops.
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6. SOME ROUTING PRODUCTS CAN ONLY CREATE ONE ROUTE AT A TIME. CAN AND SHOULD MORE BE EXPECTED ?
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Absolutely!! More should be expected and more is available. Creating one route at a time where the user is required to list out the stops that need to go on a single route is not true automated software routing and is actually the same as the manual process of building routes with paper maps and pencils. True routing software should be able to do much more than find the shortest path connecting a set of stops on a single route.
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7. SOME VENDOR PRODUCTS REQUIRE THE DISTRICT ROUTING PERSON TO FIGURE OUT WHICH STOPS MAKE UP A ROUTE. SHOULDN’T THE ROUTING SOFTWARE DO THIS AUTOMATICALLY AND NOT THE ROUTING PERSON, MANUALLY ?
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A true routing software SHOULD NOT require the district user to point out what stops make up a single route
A true routing software should be able to take a fleet of multiple vehicles and then distribute the district’s stops among those vehicles efficiently, thus automatically creating multiple routes.
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8. SOME VENDOR PRODUCTS REQUIRE THE DISTRICT ROUTING PERSON TO SELECT THE CORRECT VEHICLE THAT WILL MEET THE EQUIPMENT NEEDS OF SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN ON THE ROUTE? SHOULDN’T THE ROUTING SOFTWARE DO THIS AUTOMATICALLY AND NOT THE ROUTING PERSON, MANUALLY ?
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A true routing program SHOULD NOT require the district user to have to select the bus having the correct equipment (e.g. Wheelchairs) based on what student needs are on a route. A true routing program should be automatically able to select the correct vehicle to use based on the special needs of any student that will be on a route.
Some vendor's product will simply warn you if you select a vehicle that does not have the correct equipment. This is a nice feature BUT a true routing program should not require you to select the vehicle. A true routing program will itself find the ideal vehicle (from your fleet) for a route, based on the number of riders and the special equipment needs of the riders.
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9. WHY IS WEB BASED ROUTING PREFERRED ?
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There are numerous reasons why Web Based routing is preferred over old desktop technology. Some of the important reasons are:
- There is no need to install special software on your desktop computer.
- If your computer has a problem and you need to replace it, there is no need to reload routing software on the new computer, since all you need is a Web browser to access it.
- If a new employee has to use the routing software you do not need to install it on their computer. They can simply access it through Web Browser.
- If there is a software upgrade, each individual computer does not need to be updated. Only the server is updated and everybody immediately sees the update through a Web Browser.
- You do not need a separate program for routing and a separate one for reports and bus route/stops look-ups by schools. The same web program does it all.
- With proper security access, you could access your routing system using a Web Browser from home or when on the road.
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10. SOME PEOPLE SAY THAT WEB ROUTING IS NOT MATURE ENOUGH AT THIS TIME. IS THAT TRUE ?
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Routing on the Web has existed in the consumer space for over a decade. Good examples of web based routing include the popular Google Maps, Map Quest and Yahoo Maps. None of these sites require a user to install special software on the computer and all routing is done in a standard Web Browser.
Unfortunately, vendors that have remained behind the technology curve will make claims that Web based routing is not mature enough since they are unable to supply Web based products. Interestingly enough, several of these vendors are now making “pre-announcements” about their “soon-to-be-released” web software. Some of these vendors are also expecting to charge current customers an “upgrade fee” instead of offering this as a part of their annual subscription/maintenance that the customer may already be paying.
Web based routing is well accepted, mature and robust technology and is the proper choice of technology for a variety of reasons.
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11. WE SAW A WEB DEMO FROM A VENDOR; DOES THAT MEAN THEIR PRODUCT IS WEB BASED ?
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Not necessarily. Using the Web to demonstrate a product using software such as WebEx or GotoMeeting does not make the product Web based. For example: You might see a demonstration of Microsoft Powerpoint or Microsoft Excel over WebEx or GotoMeeting, however Microsoft PowerPoint or Microsoft Excel are not Web based programs.
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12. WHAT QUESTIONS SHOULD I ASK A ROUTING VENDOR ?
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- Is your software truly web based?
- Do you need a separate program for actual routing and another for looking up by routes and stops by schools?
- In the same window on which your software does routing, can you bring up our district web site without having to change programs or open other windows?
- Why is your company just now advertising Web Based routing while Web Based routing has existed for years?
- If you already use your company’s old desktop program do we need to pay an additional “upgrade fee” to change to the your Web Based program? If so, then why? We have been an existing customer and why should we not get the Web based routing as a part of our annual updates at no additional charge.
- Does your company’s software require the user to specify the individual stops that go on a single route? We can build routes one bus at a time without software, so what value is your product adding besides mileage estimation and drawing one route at a time? This could be done using Freeware such as Google.
- Can your software take a large number of stops and our fleet and automatically create routes for each bus WITHOUT us having to divide the stops between the buses? If it does not do this, then explain why your software is a true routing program.
- How does your program tell us if we need to use all the buses in our fleet for routing or if we can service our stops with fewer buses?
- Show us how your software can automatically update routes if we change the bell times of our schools?
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