SCHOOL BUS TRACKING SYSTEM PARENTS ACTUALLY TRUST.
Parents see the school bus moving live on a map and get an alert when it is about 5 minutes from their stop. Drivers need nothing but their phone. Your office stops answering “Where is the bus?” calls every morning.
- check_circleNo GPS device to buy or install
- check_circleLive location every 10 seconds
- check_circle“Bus is 5 min away” alerts
- check_circleBoarded & dropped records
The driver's phone is the GPS
No tracker box per bus, no SIM card fees, no technician visits. Install the Ellifo app and start the trip.
No per-bus map charges
Built on OpenStreetMap, so you don't pay a map bill that grows every time a parent opens the app.
Made for patchy networks
If the signal drops, locations are saved on the phone and sent the moment the bus is back online.
Each parent sees only their bus
Live location is shown only to families whose child rides that route, and only while a trip is running.
One system for routes, buses, drivers and every child on board
Most bus trackers only put a dot on a map. Ellifo's transport module is part of your school software, so it already knows each student, their stop and their parents. That is why it can tell a mother that her child boarded at 7:21, not just that a bus moved.
EVERY MORNING, THE SAME QUESTION.
“Has the bus left? Is it late? Did my child get on?” Without live tracking, parents guess, drivers get calls while driving and the office becomes a call centre.
Waiting at the stop
Parents and small children stand at the roadside in heat or rain, not knowing if the bus is 2 minutes or 20 minutes away.
Calls to the driver
Drivers answer anxious calls with a full bus behind the wheel. That is a safety risk nobody signed up for.
“Did my child get on?”
With no boarding record, nobody can say for sure which children were on the bus and where each one got off.
The office phone never stops
The front desk spends the first hour of the day relaying bus updates instead of running the school.
EVERYTHING YOUR SCHOOL BUSES NEED.
From planning the route on a map to proving who got off at which stop, the whole school transport day in one place.
Route planner on the map
Click the map or search a place to add stops in pickup order. Ellifo draws the road path and shows the total distance and travel time as you build it. Set pickup and drop times per stop.
Live tracking with ETA
Parents watch the bus move on the map and see how many minutes it is from their child's stop, worked out from the bus's live position, speed and the road ahead.
Automatic stop detection
Every stop has a geofence. When the bus enters it, the stop is marked arrived; when it leaves, departed. The driver never has to tap anything, though they can if they need to.
Boarding attendance on the bus
At each stop the driver sees the children due there and marks them boarded, dropped or absent. Parents are told instantly, and the record is saved with the time.
Driver app with navigation
Drivers start the morning pickup or afternoon drop with one tap, see the next stop and open turn-by-turn navigation. Tracking keeps running with the screen off.
Fleet map & trip history
The office sees every running bus on one map, with a warning if a phone stops sending. Replay any past trip: the GPS trail, arrival time at each stop and who was on board.
Vehicle records: number, capacity, default driver and helper, with insurance and fitness expiry reminders.
Pickup, drop or both: each student is set per trip. Afternoon drops run the same stops in reverse.
Assign in bulk: search your existing students and put a whole group on a stop in one go.
See Ellifo Transport in action
These are actual screens from the Ellifo school office dashboard and the driver app. Click any screen to view it larger.
School office dashboard
Driver app
HOW SCHOOL BUS TRACKING WORKS.
Four steps, no hardware, no installation visit.
Plan the route
Add the bus and its driver, then drop the stops on the map in pickup order, ending at school.
Assign students
Pick students from your Ellifo records and place each one on their stop. Their parents are linked automatically.
Start the trip
The driver taps Start Pickup. The phone shares the bus location every few seconds until the trip ends.
Parents track & get alerts
Families follow the bus live and get a push when it is near, at the stop, and when their child boards or is dropped.
THE ALERTS PARENTS WAIT FOR.
Seven moments of the bus journey are sent to the parent's phone automatically, and only to the parents of the children concerned. No WhatsApp group, no driver typing messages.
Parents who want fewer pushes can mute the “School bus” category in their notification settings. Every alert still waits in their in-app inbox.
School bus has started
Route 4: the pickup trip for Aarav has started. Track the bus live in the app.
Bus is on the way
The bus is about 5 min away from Green Park. Please have Aarav ready.
Bus has arrived
The bus has reached Green Park to pick up Aarav.
Boarded the bus
Aarav boarded the bus at Green Park (Route 4).
Reached school
Aarav has reached school by bus (Route 4).
Dropped off
Aarav was dropped at Green Park (Route 4).
Not on the bus
Aarav was marked absent on the pickup trip (Route 4), so you know at once if something is wrong.
Built for parents, drivers and the school office
Everyone uses the same Ellifo app and sees only what their role needs.
- map
See the bus live
The route, the stops, your child's stop highlighted and the bus moving towards it.
- timer
Know exactly when to step out
“Bus is about 4 min away”, “Bus is at your stop” or “Bus has passed your stop”.
- family_restroom
Every child in one place
Parents with two children on different buses switch between them with one tap.
- call
Driver and vehicle details
Driver name and number and the bus registration, always at hand.
GPS BOX, WHATSAPP GROUP OR ELLIFO?
| GPS tracker device | Driver WhatsApp group | Ellifo Transport | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware per bus | Device, SIM and fitting | None | None, uses the driver's phone |
| Live map for parents | Often a separate app | Only if the driver shares | Yes, in the school app |
| “5 minutes away” alert per stop | Rarely | No | Automatic |
| Knows which child is on board | No | No | Boarded / dropped / absent |
| Linked to student records | No | No | Yes, same Ellifo database |
| Driver distraction | Low | High (typing updates) | Low, stops are detected automatically |
| Trip history | Varies by vendor | Chat messages | GPS trail + stop times + boarding list |
Related modules & guides
The Ellifo app for parents, teachers and staff
Bus tracking lives in the same app parents already use for attendance, homework and fees.
Student management system
Student and guardian records that transport assignments and parent alerts are built on.
Fixing parent communication without another WhatsApp group
Why structured app notifications beat busy chat groups for schools.
Put your first bus on the map this week.
Add one route, install the app on the driver's phone and let a few parents try it. Most schools know after the first morning.
