Door-to-door bus routes stop "door-to-door" to pick up and drop off at each camper's address.
- The route for door-to-door buses is based on the addresses of every camper riding the bus.
- A Google Maps plugin will automatically determine the order in which campers are picked up/dropped off for the most efficient route. However, you can customize the camper order as needed.
- While Central Location and Define Stop bus stops are defined before campers sign up for those buses, door-to-door bus routes are established after campers have signed up for that bus - i.e. when registration is over (for the most part)
Creating a Door-to-Door Bus
First, add a bus and provide the overall bus details.
Click "+ Add bus..." from the Transportation Dashboard.
- Assign the bus name. Parents are presented the bus by name on your transportation form.
- Select Day or Residential mode
- Select Arriving or Departing direction
- Select Defined Stop as the route type
- Set the time when the bus will arrive or depart from the address
- Provide the origin or departure address*
- Origin address (for Arriving buses): where the bus will leave from to travel to the first camper's home.
- Destination address (for Departing buses): where the bus will park after the last camper's home.
- Provide a bus description. Parents are presented the description after selecting the bus.
After submitting, you'll be redirected to another page for managing the bus details. Once all the campers riding this bus are assigned to it, you can then create the route (i.e. the order in which campers are picked up/dropped off).
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Start/End Address * For arriving buses, the bus route begins at the "origin address" and ends at your camp's address. For departing buses, the bus route begins at your camp’s address and ends at the "destination address." Your camp address is the address on file for your CampSite database. If needed, you can enter a different camp address to the bus via the bus settings - read below to learn more. |
Manage the bus details
From the bus page, use the Bus Settings modal to change the bus name, time, origin/departure address; capacity; linked bus, and also delete the bus if needed.
Click "Manage bus settings..."
Edit the overall bus details as needed and save changes.
- Buffer time: When generating the pickup/dropoff times for each camper, add a specific amount of buffer time between stops (e.g. for delays, etc.)
- Allow parent to provide primary summer address as stop location? When set to No, CampSite will use the family's home address for pickup or dropoff. When set to Yes, the transportation form will ask parents to select between their home address and their "summer" address on their transportation form for pickup or dropoff. Note: Summer addresses can only be added by an admin user via the family's profile page.
- Allow parent to provide primary summer address as stop location? When set to No, CampSite will use the family's home address for pickup or dropoff. When set to Yes, the transportation form will ask parents to select between their home address or an "other" address for pickup or dropoff. If "other address" is selected, parents must provide the address. The address provided is stored in the camper's transportation tab.
- Arrival / Departure Time (for arriving vs. departing buses): The time the bus will arrive to camp / depart from camp.
- Arrival / Departure Location (for arriving vs. departing buses): By default, the bus will start / end at the "summer address" on file for your camp. To use a different address for this bus, enter it here.
Note: If you don't see the option to "Delete this bus", the bus can't be deleted because it's currently in use. You can still remove the bus from your transportation form(s), however - click here to learn more.
Use the vehicle wizard to assign campers to vehicles
Use the Vehicle Wizard to set up every vehicle that will pickup/drop off campers on this route.
- Use the vehicle wizard after campers are assigned to the bus and you don't expect changes to be made. You'll use a map tool to assign campers to a vehicle based on their location/the most efficient route.
- You can use the vehicle wizard again to create a new vehicle. Create as many vehicles as needed.
- You cannot use the vehicle wizard again for an existing vehicle (e.g. to edit the vehicle route). Vehicle routes must be edited manually. That said, you should wait to use the vehicle wizard once you no longer expect campers to add or remove the bus.
Click "Vehicle wizard" to begin.
For full details on how to use the vehicle wizard, click here to read our Vehicle Wizard (for door-to-door buses) article.
Manage an existing vehicle
After using the vehicle wizard you'll be automatically redirected to the vehicle's dashboard. To open the vehicle dashboard for an existing vehicle, click on the vehicle from the bus dashboard.
For full details on how to manage/edit a vehicle from the vehicle page, click here to read our Managing Door-to-Door Vehicles article.
Assign staff counselors to a door-to-door bus
If you've added our Staff module to your database, you can assign hired staff to each bus as counselors.
Click "+ Add bus counselor..."
Use a dropdown menu to select a hired staff member.
Link an arriving and departing bus together
Linking an arriving and departing bus together is optional. When buses are linked, you can configure your transportation form settings to require that campers ride both buses that are linked together.
When your settings are set as such, once campers select their arriving bus, their departure bus is automatically set to the linked bus and cannot be edited.
To link an arriving and departing bus, you can either create one bus and then create a "clone" or duplicate version for the opposite direction; or, you can manually link 2 separate buses you've created.
Create a clone of the current bus for the other direction
If you want to offer the same bus route for the opposite direction, you can "clone" the current bus to that direction instead of creating a new one from scratch. The cloned bus will then be "linked" to the current bus automatically.
From the Bus Summary, click the link to "Clone bus to other direction..." Use the modal to finalize the bus name and time, then submit. After submitting, you'll be automatically redirected to the page for the cloned bus.
Link the current bus to an existing bus for the opposite direction
Instead of creating a clone/copy of the current bus for the opposite direction, you can also link an existing bus that's already been created.
Click "Manage bus settings..."
Select a linked bus for the opposite direction and submit.
Once your buses are created, you can include them as options on your transportation form(s) by adding them to transportation session group(s). Click here to learn more.