ROANOKE, VA – On the first day of school, most students are worried about finding their classes and who they’ll sit with at lunch.
But for Sara Dollman’s kids, they were worried about if and when the bus would take them home.
“They started texting me at 4:00. Schools release at 3:30. ‘Where’s the bus? Did the bus come? Did we miss the bus?’” Dollman said.
Dollman and her kids are no strangers to bus problems. But after her high school students had to find a ride home because the bus was so late, she’s worried the problems with Zum are just beginning.
“The app says they were picked up at 4:37 from the high school and dropped off at 4:38 which is impossible. I don’t know what time they actually would have gotten home if they rode the bus,” Dollman said.
10 News asked Roanoke City for an interview about bus problems, but they declined.
They couldn’t give us detailed numbers on how many students were late -- or just how late they were.
A spokesperson did say the last student was dropped off at home at 6:11 p.m., nearly two hours after school got out.
The Zum app is supposed to give you a live map, with real-time updates to tell you when your child arrives at school and is heading home.
But Dollman says she was left in the dark.
“How is your confidence in this app?” 10 News Reporter Abbie Coleman said.
“This app, honestly, I liked Durham better because you could track the bus all day. I knew where the bus was. This morning I wasn’t able to see where the bus was for their morning stop until she had already passed their stop,” Dollman said.
Dollman’s Zum app said her kids would be picked up at 3:30 on the second day and dropped off at her house by 3:39. But they’re not even the first stop, and when we put the route in our GPS, it says it’ll take at least 12 minutes to get to her house.
We reached out to Zum who says, “Our top priority is to provide safe and reliable student transportation. Student transportation is complex in nature and we truly appreciate the parent community’s patience as we work with our partners at Roanoke City Public Schools to address and resolve issues as quickly as possible.”
We asked them about the issues on the app, and they say families should be able to have better access now that children have received their routing information, and are working with drivers on how to use their driver tablets.
They say each driver successfully completed four dry runs of their routes, and any delays are related to those routing issues, and schools holding back buses to make sure all students got on the right bus - causing a cascade effect on the rest of the tiers.
Roanoke City Schools also told parents to have patience, as they work out problems in the first few weeks.
“What’s making those problems go away? They’re kind of like static issues. I’m not sure why being patient the first week of school is always the reasoning,” Dollman said.
Roanoke City Schools reached back out to us Wednesday evening saying routes were much improved from Tuesday, and they expect things to only get better in the coming days.
Zum’s full statement can be found below.
“Our top priority is to provide safe and reliable student transportation. Student transportation is complex in nature and we truly appreciate the parent community’s patience as we work with our partners at Roanoke City Public Schools to address and resolve issues as quickly as possible.
On the APP:
There were a number of kids who at the start of the school year had not yet received the required routing information by Roanoke City Public School District due to late enrollment. If a student has not been routed, the parent will not have access to the app. The District is working diligently to provide Zum with required routing information.
Additionally, some of our drivers were not using the driver tablets properly. For families on these routes, while they’ll be able to access the app, accurate tracking updates will not be available. Parents should be seeing improved results as Zum has been working swiftly to remedy this issue, conducting a series of daily tablet training workshops between morning and afternoon.
If you are experiencing an issue with the app, please contact Zum’s customer service team at 1-855-RIDEZUM. Our team stands by to assist you.
On the delays: Zum, unlike in years past, is operating with a surplus of drivers, ensuring that all routes are covered this 2024-2025 school year. Zum drivers spent the summer going through extensive training and each driver successfully completed 4 dry runs to ensure route preparedness. Any delays are the result of:
Roanoke City Public Schools works on a 4 tier bell system and, on day 1, schools held back buses to ensure students boarded the correct bus. This had a cascade effect on subsequent tiers as buses delayed by schools could not reach the next tier on time. Roanoke City Public Schools has been working closely with all schools to ensure this does not happen moving forward.
As noted above, there were a number of students that were not routed at the start of school due to late enrollment, yet school sites were trying to put these students – who did not appear on driver or route manifest – on the buses without temporary bus pass (which tells drivers drop off address of student not on manifest). This caused significant delays. Roanoke City Public Schools’ staff is working with schools to route these additional students to resolve the issue.
Inherently with the first week of school, there will be traffic management around school sites due to parents driving kids versus taking the bus. Roanoke City Public Schools is working with traffic management staff and we are already seeing improvement.
We are grateful to and appreciate our partners at Roanoke City Public Schools and look forward to delivering a great experience for the students and families that we serve.”
Zum Spokesperson