2025-08-12
Overly Complicated
Must use app. No web browser options. Could be easily simplified to only show bus location. Do not need ‘alert zones’ but are required by the app.
Updating
iPhone Screenshots
Description
See the real-time location of your child’s school bus based on your customized Alert Zone. Receive push notification alerts when the bus is approaching an Alert Zones and when bus arrives or departs from the school.
Through the BusZone application, districts / transportation operators can send messages to parents regarding substitutions, delays, closures, etc.
What's New in Version 2.0.4
References to the word ‘bus’ replaced with the word ‘route’ to better indicate that parents are picking routes and not the actual buses assigned to routes.
Option to sign-up for SMS ridership notifications is removed as this feature is no longer supported.
Information
Developer
Categories
Version
2.0.4
Size
53.8 MB
Game Center
No
VPP Device Licensing
Yes
Rating
Rated: 4+
Compatibility
iOS 14.0 or later
Devices
iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16e, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (10th generation), iPad (10th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)
Languages
English
App Store: Customer Ratings
Ratings & Reviews
4.0 of 5 (886 Ratings)
App Store: Customer Reviews
2025-08-08
App doesn’t load any bus stops
Installed and removed app a few times. When we try to search for bus stops none can be found and says unable to continue. Then it goes into a never ending cycle of unable to do anything on the app and it crashes. My phone is up to date on updates, iPhone 15, so is just a bad app.
2025-03-05
Blue Valley Durham and Bus Zone
I am uncertain whether the issue lies with the app itself or with how it is being implemented. The primary purpose I rely on this app for is change management in specific scenarios, such as when a bus driver is unavailable, there are weather-related delays, or a substitute driver is assigned. In all of these cases, the tracker is turned off, and we are left without any form of communication or tracking, which significantly hampers our ability to manage these situations effectively.
2025-03-05
Terrible
75% of the time this bus won’t even pick up my child’s bus we got this app so he wouldn’t half to stand out in the cold but apparently we got it for nothing. This app is one of the worst apps I have ever downloaded (Don’t buy)
2025-02-19
So many bugs
Can developers of this app please address the bugs. Is there any testing done whatsoever? Scroll would randomly stop working. When trying to add a bus it just throws me back to the home page. It erases my student and bus info after update or being logged out.
2025-02-03
Terrible useless app
I am sick of this app. It is useless for the purpose it serves. Inaccurate, undependable.
2025-01-13
Wish I could give negative stars
Absolutely the worst. Waste of time. Zero customer service. No one can fix it. No one answers any requests. Absolute waste of effort and completey frustrating.
2024-11-18
Works well when it wants to
I’m told the reason I can’t see the bus on route is sometimes it don’t work, my pins get adjusted and moved? But there is nothing the bus company can do because it’s the app I waited 4 months for someone to give me bus code my bus driver is erratic never on time thinks her backwards driving is safe I’m over it
2024-11-18
Disappointed
This app needs a lot of improvement. Disappointed that our school switched to this app.
2024-10-11
When it updates, it loses all my information.
As a parent, I want to use the app for bus tracking. When this app updates, it loses my bus numbers & student information, requiring me to start from scratch with student ID numbers and bus numbers. Parents don’t have time to redo this every few weeks…please improve this function.
2024-10-08
Does not work
App worked great last school year. Now it will not track my child’s bus. I have notifications turned on and it does not work. I have sent message after message to support and have had zero response.
2024-10-02
GREAT!, when it actually works
This app is used by my child’s school transportation company. It was easy to download, easy to start an account, easy to get connected to the bus route my kiddo is assigned to, easy to set up my zone to get alerts. That’s where the good stuff stops. Sometimes the app sends notifications of bus location, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it send a notification of the bus arriving/departing the school and sometimes it doesn’t. The whole purpose of this app is to assist in the location of a child, especially in the time of a crisis or emergency…… this app is a waste if it cannot work properly when their is no crisis or emergency. Please patch the failures of the current coding.
2024-09-18
Clunky
App is a bit clunky and periodically stops sending notifications altogether. It’s better than nothing, but just barely.
2024-09-05
Good idea with terrible execution
Getting timely notifications 60% of the time really doesn’t help.
Nothing like sitting down after loading the kids on the bus to have this app notify you that the bus now entered it’s zone
2024-09-05
Multiple issues
1. I cannot find my student.
2. I cannot see my bus.
3. I didn’t receive feedback from customer support in time.
2024-09-04
Not opening
I have downloaded and deleted this app a dozen times only to get stuck on the welcome screen!
2024-09-03
Not tracking
Bus has not refreshed since 8/26
2024-08-26
Won’t load
This app will not load past the welcome page.
2024-08-26
Not reliable
The app does not show the buses moving. I can’t add my other child and I have contacted them with no reply at least 3 times!
2024-08-14
Add multiple students
Why I can’t add another student it could nice if the apps allow parents to add multiple students.
2024-08-12
Needs a lot of improvement
My school district went from using the Peterman Bus tracking app (which worked great!) to bus zone. This app is awful and not user friendly at all. It doesn’t let you edit the pick up and drop off times. On my kids, it says they get picked up at 930….well after school has already started. This is just one of many issues with the app. Go back to Peterman!
2024-05-08
Terrible
App never works. Sometimes you can see the bus, most of the time you can’t.
2024-04-09
Absolutely gone backwards from original app
Unfortunately this app has gone backwards from original app. Difficult to set up. Doesn’t show where the buses are.
2024-02-13
horrid
horrible app froze immidiatly
2024-02-09
Does not open
When i download the screen opens and then nothing - I am stuck on the home screen - it does not allow me to view any options
I have deleted and reinstalled multiple times and no changes
2024-02-07
Nothing but problems
1st I get the app it’s not working after setting up my account I then clicked the button in settings that says disable account what ever you do don’t push it there is no solution to reenable your account you then have to create a new email just to be able to login and create a new account
Now new account new email still not working thanks for the pain in the *** app with little to no support.
2023-12-20
I don’t know why my school district switched to this app.
I rarely get the alerts I signed up for, and it doesn’t show where the bus is when it’s running late, so basically the app is just taking up space on my phone. I have literally sat with the app open watching it and the bus simply never appears on the map even after my child has been picked up.
2023-11-28
Great app
This app was great but the only thing I had a problem with was it being weird to figure out
2023-11-17
Accurate when it’s working
When it works, it’s fantastic
2023-11-16
Not good..
This app is just not good at all. I get so frustrated with it. Occasionally, I have to re-enter my passcode but then I ALSO have to re-enter my kid’s details all over again like I’m starting from scratch. Frequently the thing freezes so I have no idea where the bus is. Other times, the bus just isn’t anywhere on the map.
2023-10-31
Sometimes it doesn’t show where bus
Some times the bus doesn’t seem to move even when refreshing the app again and again and we are clueless where bus reached
2023-10-30
Bus
It helps us find our bus. If we missed it we could just tell Alma.
2023-10-26
Worse than nothing
I was able to select buses and set up alert zones. Never once has this app alerted me that the bus was coming. (Yes I have all notifications enabled for this app in iOS settings.) Every time I open the app it shows me a location marker for the bus. The marker doesn’t move until the moment I audibly hear the actual bus and see it coming down the street.
2023-09-29
Works well when it works
Slow to correct problems with bus routes not showing the bus. PM route problem took two weeks to be corrected on the back end. AM started out working until they switched the bus assigned and hasn’t worked in over a week since despite requests for help.
2023-09-29
No one at support to help
This app simply doesn’t work, no alerts, no busses. The school says reach out to the app via support but no one ever answers. It’s been a month since school opened and not a single person in our district has had a response from this company.
2023-09-19
Improving
Y’all seem to be listening to feedback. I can now see my bus when it isn’t in the alarm zones, thank you!
2023-09-15
Not updated
This app is different everyday. Sometimes it gives a notification and sometimes it doesn’t. I rely on this too so it’s kind of disappointing.
2023-09-15
Fairly easy to set up.
Setup was easy to do if you have the route information. Managing multiple buses is easier than the previous app we used.
2023-09-12
Horrible App
This app is terrible. We have the correct routes given to us from the district. The district says it’s working. Yet no bus shows up or notifications at all. I have no idea why they switched to such a crappy app. It’s clearly not just us that have this issue.
2023-09-11
Doesn’t Work at All
It’s been a week since the start of the school year and this trash app has never shown the bus location or any notifications at all. Not even once. Everything is set up correctly. App Admins (if they even exist) are non-responsive and do not answer any emails, feedback, or requests for help. The Durham Bus App may not have been the best, but at least it worked!
2023-09-11
Waste of storage
Absolutely useless no point whatsoever
2023-09-07
terrible app
it dosent even show the bus im mad at it never use i wanted to rate it 0 stars but thats not available
2023-09-07
Worst app ever?
Yes. Yes it is. Completely non-functional.
2023-09-07
Do-nothing app
As others pointed out, it does nothing.
- can’t see the bus location
- alert is clunky to set up and does not work
- alert zone is too small to be useful to react
Just bring back the old app (Durham) already. It worked 90 % of the time. No bells and whistles but more reliable and useful.
2023-09-06
Junk!!
Inable to add 2nd student. Keep getting an error indicating Student Not Found.
2023-09-06
Horrible
Horrible app. Does not show my children’s busses at all. I do get a random notification that their bus arrived at school but it’s definitely delayed. Reached out for support and didn’t hear a single thing back. Worst app I have downloaded
2023-09-06
Worthless
Neither our bus number nor route number come up on search. You can’t tell if notifications are turned on or off. Support does not respond to questions. Bus Teacker was much better!
2023-09-06
Not working
Not sure if it’s the implementation plan by our school district or the app but no one is getting it to work and we’re on day 2 of school.
2023-09-06
Waste of time!
This app is awful! The last app worked much better.
2023-09-06
Doesn’t work
Can’t see buses. Useless app
2023-09-06
Makes Me Question Everything
I don’t know which bus the alerts I’m getting are for and I can’t see where the buses are. I’m getting alerts for unknown buses going to places they shouldn’t be.
I know I’m doing this app wrong, but I swear I am a fairly competent human. I read the instructions. I used the last bus tracker app pretty successfully. This whole experience is surreal and makes me question everything I thought I knew.
2023-09-05
Doesn’t do what it says it does
The app looks clean and has a lot of potential. However, an app is only as good as the data it provides.
Waited at the bus stop with my daughter and pulled up the app. Her bud did not appear on it at all. Double checked the bus number was correct (it was), and still no bus.
Ended up having to take her to school.
To be clear. The bud not showing up on time is NOT the apps fault. However, not providing any information about the bus route IS on the app. If I had known the bus was late I could have dropped her off and not been late.
2023-09-04
Yikes…
There’s a reason this app has one star. I can’t add students, nor buses and the app overall seems like a scam. Wish there was something better for students and parents.
2023-09-04
Does not work
Does not list child’s buses to be added. Has not worked yet over the past year.
2023-08-21
Won’t let me see my child’s bus
My child’s school just announced that they were using this app, so I went and created an account. It won’t let me add students until I add buses to follow, but every time I go to add a bus nothing appears. The app won’t work and the help section offers nothing. Would not recommend.
2023-08-19
Horrible app
We used to have an app that allowed me to see where our bus was at all times. Now I can’t even figure out how to get alerts or see my kids bus at all. Not at all intuitive or user friendly. Very disappointed.
2023-08-17
Not an improvement
I’ve used this app for three days now after the bus service changed to this one from their own app, and it’s worse. It’s hard to set up alert zones and notifications are delayed. Today I just got notified my sons bus entered the alert zone to tell me it’s about 5 minutes away. His bus had already picked him up. It was also late by 10 minutes but I couldn’t even tell where the bus was and was scrambling to drive him on my way to work. It looked like it hadn’t even left the bus depot. At least the last app showed the bus. It would have been helpful to know where the bus was before I sent him out to stand in the rain. Might as well not have an app if the bus Isn’t going to be connected to it.