A route is not a list of names
Most schools start with a route written on paper: a column of colony names in the order the driver picked up last year. It works right up until the driver changes, a family moves, or a parent asks what time the bus will actually reach them.
In the Bharat Tracker dashboard a route is a line on a map with numbered stops on it — and everything else, from parent ETAs to the driver's navigation and the attendance day, is worked out from that line.
Drop the stops where the bus really stops
Stops are placed by clicking the map, not by typing an address. That matters in small towns and villages, where the landmark everyone uses is a shop, a temple or a colony gate that no postal address describes. The admin map carries India-specific labels for exactly this reason, so you can find the name you would say out loud and put the pin on it.
Name each stop the way parents name it. “Mundera Bazar, near the petrol pump” beats “Stop 3” on both the driver's screen and the parent's.
The line follows roads, not straight lines
Joining stops with straight lines makes a route look shorter than it is and gives every ETA an error nobody can explain. The builder draws the actual road path between consecutive stops, so the distances and timings you see are the ones the bus will drive.
The leg from the school to the first stop is drawn in its own colour. It is the run-up to the route, not a pickup, and colouring it differently stops it being read as a stop where children are waiting.
Stop numbers stay 1 to n
Serial numbers are the language everyone uses — the driver, the office and the parent all say “stop 4”. So the builder keeps them contiguous: a stop dropped on top of the school itself is taken out and the rest renumber, rather than leaving a route that starts at 2.
The times you type drive everything else
Each stop carries a time, and those times are not decoration. They produce the parent's ETA, they decide when a bus counts as delayed, and they close the window in which a parent can still say a child is not riding today.
Type them from a real run, not from the timetable you wish you kept. A route whose times are ten minutes optimistic sends a delay alert every single morning, and parents quickly learn to ignore all of them.
Students, stops and the walk between
When you add or edit a student, the map shows their home and their assigned stop with a dotted line between the two. It takes a second to see that a six-year-old has been given a stop across a highway — and a second is all you get to catch it.
Assign the bus, then run it
Finally, assign a bus, a driver and a conductor to the route's morning and evening trips. The assigned bus appears on the route map itself — moving where it really is when a trip is running, parked near the school when it is idle — so the first thing you see on opening a route is whether it is out.
Frequently asked questions
How many stops can one route have?
As many as the run needs. Keep the times honest as the list grows — a long route with optimistic timings generates delay alerts every day.
Can one bus run two routes?
Yes. Routes and trips are separate, so the same bus, driver and conductor can be assigned to a morning run on one route and an evening run on another.
What if two routes share a stop?
That is fine. Each route keeps its own stop with its own time, and a student is attached to the stop on the route they actually ride.
Do parents see the whole route?
Parents see their child's bus live and their own stop's timing. They never see other children, other stops' students, or other routes.
