With over 1,000 daily student trips and 24 bus routes across Victoria, Kardinia has become a blueprint for transport success in Australian schools. Their secret? A high level of adoption, clear leadership, and a partnership with RollCall that enabled full visibility, accountability, and safety.

Managing a transport network without the tools to see it

Kardinia International College is a private K-12 school in Geelong, Australia, with over 2,000 students. Half of its students rely on the school’s extensive bus network – 24 morning and afternoon services from western Melbourne to the Surf Coast and beyond.

For Kardinia, student safety and wellbeing have always been top priorities, and managing this transport footprint manually had become unsustainable.

“It was really challenging with a manual system. Without the visibility, we were constantly inundated with calls from parents when there was a delay. We had no visibility of who was catching our buses, how our bus services were tracking and where they were in their runs at any point in time,” says Andrew Lovick, Director of Business Operations at Kardinia International College.

The risks and limitations of paper-based transport management

By running a bus fleet on paper, Kardinia faced growing operational, safety, and service challenges. Without real-time insight, the school struggled to balance safety, compliance, and parent expectations.

• Parents calling reception daily to ask where buses were.
• Paper-based ticketing that was frequently not collected by the bus drivers – and sometimes reused.
• Unregistered or casual students boarding buses without paying.
• Complaints about seating unavailability.
• Overloaded buses, despite records showing available seats.

Kardinia wasn’t just looking for admin relief – they wanted to enhance student safety and lift parent confidence.

The road to success

Building the right foundation

Rather than just adopting RollCall as a tool, Kardinia built an ecosystem for success around it.

From the outset, senior executive sponsorship helped drive buy-in and the school established a dedicated team to oversee the system rollout. A five-person team managed the implementation, supporting drivers, students, and families over the first few weeks to embed new habits and expectations. This proactive effort ensured a high level of adoption and helped RollCall into the school’s transport culture from day one.

“We felt RollCall was the most suitable solution for us. The team were professional, and the platform offered excellent functionality while remaining user-friendly.”
– Andrew Lovick, Director of Business Operations

Seamless integration with everyday school life

At Kardinia, student cards were already used for the canteen, printing, and medical centre access. RollCall integrates this system seamlessly, linking bus boarding directly to student ID cards.

“Improved visibility was a priority for the school and the parents,” says Andrew. Knowing students had arrived safely – and being able to track the bus in real-time – gave parents peace of mind.

It also helped Kardinia track non-compliance when it came to tapping the card on and off the bus – and follow up with students. “Students are quite technology savvy and love an automated system,” says Andrew. Once they experienced the benefits of being able to tap on versus logging on manually, the adoption was a no-brainer.

Clear ownership

From the very beginning, Kardinia prioritised clear expectations and active management of the system.

A dedicated Bus Coordinator, Dean Hinton, was appointed to manage day-to-day operations, engage with families, and ensure the system was used to its full potential. For Dean, RollCall is much more than a logistics tool.

“In the afternoons, if a parent’s concerned, I can go in and look at the transport screen and see if that child’s tapped on. I can double check and chase up where that child is, or if for some reason they can’t log into RollCall,” says Dean.

It’s removed a huge amount of guesswork, and it keeps everyone safer

Consistent engagement with families and staff

What sets Kardinia apart is their ongoing commitment. They maintain strong engagement with parents and regularly support drivers and students to ensure continued success.

RollCall’s user-friendly platform was quickly embraced by staff, while parents appreciated the reassurance it provided. The easy-to-use app allowed them to check bus locations in real-time, removing uncertainty from the school run.

Measurable value

Since launching in Term 1, 2022, Kardinia has seen measurable outcomes:

• Improved safety and visibility: Parents can now see where buses are and confirm their child has arrived.
• Fewer calls to reception: Real-time tracking reduced daily disruptions.
• Better route planning: Dashboards show live seat counts and route efficiency.
• 5-10% revenue uplift: Unregistered and casual riders are now accurately recorded and billed.
• Increased utilisation: Improved data helps free up additional seats for casual travellers.
• Quick boarding: Up to 50 students can be boarded onto a bus in minutes.
• Improved funding opportunities: Accurate boarding data supports government conveyance claims and transport reporting.
• Increased accountability: Quarterly KPI reviews with Kardinia’s long-standing bus provider now use RollCall data to track punctuality & service reliability.

And at the centre of it all? A platform that supports the school every step of the way.

“It improved the visibility of all of our services, our planning, our efficiencies, and the expectations of getting our kids to and from school safely and on time,” says Andrew.

“I really like RollCall. It’s a great platform. It makes my job much easier.” – Dean Hinton, Bus Coordinator.

Want to follow Kardinia’s path to safer, smarter school transport? With the right leadership and the right tools, your school can get there too. Book a demo with RollCall today.

Or get in contact with the RollCall Team 1300 821 116 | sales@rollcall.com.au