A simple swipe of the thumb is all it takes to get information on school bus delays and cancellations.
The organization responsible for student transportation for the St. Clair Catholic and Lambton Kent district school boards has launched a new app available for download now on Google Play or the App Store.
Kent Orr, general manager of the Chatham-Kent Lambton Administrative School Services (CLASS), says from a drop down menu, subscribers can select the morning and afternoon buses from which they want to receive alerts, and voilà, real-time updates at the palm of your hand.
"Our service providers will go into the app on the back-end and load up any details for delays," says Orr, adding whenever buses are delayed by ten minutes or more, you'll get a notification directly to your phone.
Any cancellations caused by weather are posted on the Bus Status app between 6am and 6:20am daily.
While information is always posted on the CLASS website, Orr says it's about making information more accessible. To boot, the app is free.
"One of the challenges we've experienced is that people don't always have the website up, and they don't know when to go and look if the bus is delayed," he says. "So this tool bridges the gap... and makes sure stakeholders are fully aware of what's going on with their bus."