🚍 Transportation companies

On this page: For bus companies · Your fleet · Schedule · For schools · What the company sees

Bus and charter companies use FieldTripPro free to receive bus requests from schools, confirm them, and tell the school which buses and drivers are coming.

🚍 Try the bus company demo

For bus companies

Sign up at fieldtrippro.app/transport/signup with your company's email address. FieldTripPro checks new companies and marks real ones ✓ Verified.
When a school sends a bus request, you get an email. It shows the date, pick-up time and address, where they're going, when they leave, how many students and adults, wheelchair users and buses wanted.
Approve, decline or suggest another date, with an optional message. A price quote is optional: leave it empty if you work under a set contract with the district.
On 📅 Bus requests, each request is one short row (date, school and trip, buses assigned of buses wanted, seats and status). Click a row to open it. The sub-tabs sort them: Waiting for your answer, Upcoming, Past and Declined.
An open request shows how many buses you have free that day (and warns when more are booked than you have). See the day opens that day's plan.
Once approved, choose each bus and driver under 🚌 Buses and drivers. The lists only show the buses and drivers free at that date and time: not on another trip at the same time, not out of service, not off that day. When you choose a bus, its seats available appear; when you choose a driver, their phone appears (both come from your Fleet). + Add another bus adds a row; choose "Choose a bus…" to take one off. Then press Save buses. The school sees them on its trip right away and puts students on each bus.
Seats: the request counts riders (students + adults) against the seats available on the buses you chose, and shows ✓ extra seats or ⚠️ seats short (add a bus or choose a bigger one). The same check shows on each row and on the day page.
No buses in your Fleet yet? You can still type the bus number, seats available, driver and phone.
💬 Chat with the school (switch Online/Offline at the top; messages wait while you're offline and you get an email).
Optional: add an FAQ (loading times, wheelchair lifts, cancellations) and documents such as an insurance certificate. Many companies handle insurance with the district instead; that's fine.

🚍 Your fleet

The 🚍 Fleet tab shows your totals at the top, then sub-tabs: Buses, Drivers, Time off, Busy days and ⚙️ Settings. Click a bus or driver to edit it.
Time between trips (⚙️ Settings): the least time a driver and a bus need between one trip's return and the next pick-up (30 minutes each to start; 0 to 480). A driver or bus with a trip at the same time, or closer than that, isn't offered on a request, and FieldTripPro refuses it if it's chosen anyway. Trips already booked too close together (for example after you raise the time) are flagged ⚠️ Reassign.
Buses: add each bus with its number, seats available (how many people the bus carries), type and whether it has a wheelchair lift. Retire a bus that's gone for good. Don't want to list them? Just type how many buses you have.
♿ Wheelchair riders: when a request has wheelchair users, the bus list puts buses with a lift first (marked ♿ lift), picks one for the first bus, and warns you if none of the buses you chose has a lift. Mark which buses have a lift in Fleet.
Out of service: open a bus and press 🔧 Mark out of service (add a reason if you like, such as "engine repair"). It's no longer offered on trips and isn't counted as available. Any upcoming trip that already uses it is flagged ⚠️ Reassign: a red box at the top of Bus requests lists those trips, and Reassign opens each one so you can choose another bus. Press ✅ Back in service when it's fixed. Drivers who are inactive or off on a trip's day are flagged the same way.
Drivers: add each driver's name, phone and notes (for example "lift trained"). 📋 Schedule next to a driver shows their upcoming trips (date, times, school, addresses, bus and number of students), ready to print and hand over.
Time off: mark a bus in the shop or a driver away for certain dates. They aren't offered on trips those days, and trips already using them are flagged to reassign.
Busy days: on days when most buses run district routes or other charters, set the number free for field trips. It replaces your fleet count for that day.

🗓️ Schedule: buses by month and by day

The 🗓️ Schedule tab has two views: 📅 Month and 📋 Day; switch between them at the top. The month Each day with trips shows 🚌 buses in use of buses available (red when you're overbooked) and how many buses schools are still asking for.
Click a day on the month to open it in the Day view (or pick a date, use Day before / Day after, or Today): the totals (in use, available, free, still asked for), then every trip with how many buses it uses, each bus number, seats, driver, phone and how many students the school put on it. Anything to fix that day is listed together in one red box at the top: buses or drivers on two trips at the same time, buses out of service or drivers who are off, and trips still missing buses or drivers. Each trip also shows riders against seats available. It also lists free buses and free drivers. 🖨️ Print opens a printable page for dispatch, and you can set that day's available buses at the bottom.
Subscribe from Google, Apple or Outlook (bottom of the Schedule tab) to see every booking in your own calendar.

For schools

Open the trip's 🚌 Buses tab and press Book buses. Click the company box: the companies closest to your school are listed with the distance, and ones your school has used before are marked ★ at the top. Or type a name or city.
Check the date, times, pick-up address, where you're going (the venue's address when the trip has a venue), riders, wheelchair users and buses needed (worked out from the group size and your usual bus size), and press Send bus request.
If your school requires it, an admin first presses OK, send it (School Settings → Bus requests).
When the company approves, you see their quote (if any) and, soon after, their buses and drivers on the tab. Chat with them from the same place, and read their FAQ and documents.
Not on FieldTripPro? Add your buses yourself (company, bus number, seats, driver) and ask the company to sign up free.

What the company sees

Only what's in the bus request: the school, trip name, date, times, addresses, numbers of riders and wheelchair users, and messages. Never student names, forms, medical information or parent contacts. Bus lists with names stay with the school.

Need help?

Send us a message or email support@fieldtrippro.app.