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

With nine bus routes and hundreds of students, Pinehurst needed clarity. RollCall delivered.

Grounded in values and growing with purpose

Pinehurst School is a private co-educational school in Auckland, New Zealand, catering to around 1,000 students from Year 1 through to Year 13. Pinehurst prides itself on delivering a strong academic offering alongside a supportive, well-structured learning environment.

Managing transport with spreadsheets and hope

With an average of 200 students using school transport daily, Pinehurst operates nine bus routes, varying from 30 minutes to an hour. While transport is well managed, staffing can be unpredictable, with temporary drivers sometimes required to fill in – adding complexity to an already dynamic situation. Previously, managing this setup relied on manual processes: spreadsheets, scattered notes, and a lot of back-and-forth between the school and transport providers. Pinehurst had no real-time visibility over where buses were or which students were onboard, leaving staff in a reactive position when things didn’t go to plan.

Reactive systems and rising frustrations

Pinehurst’s transport operations were running blind. Without a centralised or real-time system, the school relied on manual workarounds and fragmented communication, putting pressure on staff and creating daily disruptions no one had time for.

• Bus live location was mostly invisible, making it difficult to respond quickly to concerned parents.
• Some students were using the bus service without paying, due to weak verification processes.
  Reception was overwhelmed during morning delays, as late-arriving students had to report before going to class.
• Temporary drivers were difficult to manage and support under the existing system.
• Communication between school staff, parents, and bus drivers was inconsistent and time-consuming.

“I used to get a lot of calls from parents,” says Jon Horne, Business Manager at Pinehurst School. “They’d always assume the bus had left without their child. The bus could have come early, it was usually running late, but the assumption was always, ‘They’ve missed it.’” With limited visibility over bus movements, staff were constantly fielding calls and chasing updates. The school needed a way to reduce the administrative load on reception, streamline communication between all stakeholders, and provide families with real-time information, without adding more work for staff.

When they discovered RollCall, it ticked all the boxes.

The power of an all-in-one system

RollCall was the first school-based system that brought all the elements together. It offered full visibility over every route and student, with a simple interface that made daily use intuitive for staff. Communication became seamless, with the ability to message the relevant families when delays or issues arose.

Importantly, RollCall removed the anxiety around student whereabouts. If a child wasn’t where they were meant to be, the system could immediately confirm whether they were on the bus or not, eliminating worst-case scenarios.

Unlike other solutions that focused solely on vehicle tracking, RollCall delivered an end-to-end bus management system that brought everything into one platform. There was no need for expensive hardware or complex installation. It was a flexible, mobile-first solution that worked from day one, moving with whoever was doing the run.

“It’s the first piece of software I’ve had that exceeds my expectations. It’s awesome. I love it.” – Jon Horne, Business Manager at Pinehurst School

A system the whole school can rely on

At Pinehurst, RollCall is ingrained in the school’s daily operations. Each morning, the system is launched on a large screen in Jon’s office for an immediate overview of all active bus routes. This quick snapshot confirms that services are running smoothly. In the event of a delay or disruption, Jon can notify reception and teaching staff. When a bus broke down before starting its route, parents were informed in advance, before their children even left home.

The impact has been significant:

• Reduced stress and improved staff confidence
• The easy-to-use platform led to quick adoption and increased productivity
• Increased revenue
• Eased daily administrative workload
• The team gained greater operational control with real-time transport information
• Reduced reception bottlenecks
• Enhanced safety – the school is now confident that every student using the service is properly accounted for

“My first response to any parent when they’re asking about the buses now is, ‘Have you downloaded the app?’” says Jon. “Because that tells you exactly where the buses are at any one point.” And the parents who have, love using it.

The onboarding experience was another highlight. The RollCall team supported Pinehurst throughout the roll-out, helping map routes, streamline implementation, and offering proactive, responsive support from day one.

Having been using RollCall for nearly two years, Jon can’t imagine life without it. For schools still relying on spreadsheets and manual processes, Jon’s advice is, “Just get RollCall and make your life a lot easier.”

Ready to make the switch?

Find out how RollCall can simplify your school’s transport operations. Book a demo today!

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