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Every bus on the right board, in one press
Depot allocation for bus companies. Draw the yard once. Each morning put the buses where they are
parked, mark anything off the road, and press Auto assign. Every running board gets a bus that suits
it and can actually get out of its lane in time. It runs in a web browser on a phone, a PC or the depot
TV, with nothing to install.
How a depot morning goes
The same steps every day, done in minutes, with a reason given for anything the plan can't cover.
- ParkTap a bus, tap a space. Or copy yesterday's parking and move only what changed.
- Mark what's offMark a bus VOR until it is cleared, or report a defect with a reason for the day.
- Auto assignEach board, earliest first, gets a bus of the right deck, make or fleet number that isn't boxed in by a later bus.
- Put it on the screenThe plan shows on phones, desktops and a full-screen depot TV page that refreshes itself every 30 seconds.
It tells you why
Nothing is left unexplained. Every bus and every board gets a status and a reason in plain English, like these.
ShortageVehicle shortage: the only double deck buses are VOR.
BlockedBlocked in: 33903 (C4) is behind 33902, not out until 07:15 on board 12.
VOROff the road until someone clears it, with the time it started.
SpareParked and fit to go, kept back for the pickier boards later in the day.
Auto assign follows fixed rules, so the same yard and boards always give the same answer. It is not guesswork, and allocations made by hand are kept.
Safety checks the server enforces
These hold even if someone has an old page open or tries to go around the screen.
No defective or VOR bus goes out
They are skipped, refused if picked by hand, and re-checked at the moment the plan is saved.
A defect pulls the bus straight off its board
The board shows as uncovered at once, and the defect records who reported it and who cleared it.
Only parked buses get a board
So the plan matches what is really in the yard.
No double booking
The database itself allows one bus per board and one board per bus each day.
Blocked-in check
A bus stuck behind one that leaves later is not put on an early board.
Who did what
Allocations, defects and setup changes are recorded with who made them and when, and the change log is kept for two years.
Built for how depots really run
Yards as they are
Up to 12 yards a depot, 60 lanes a yard, each lane exiting at the front or at both ends.
Running boards from a spreadsheet
Paste or upload a CSV. Common column names are recognised, and any line that is wrong says why.
Bus groups
Park and ride or school work with its own buses and spares, every day or on chosen dates.
One-off work
Custom boards for a single date, for private hire, rail replacement or events.
Fleet details filled in
Buses are found by fleet number or registration from national tracking data, usually with deck, make and fuel type already known.
Every depot you run
As many depots as you need, each with its own yards, buses and boards.
Your own company account
Your company gets its own account on The Local Bus. Your depots are seen only by your own people, and each person only in the regions they are given.
- Your managers make accounts for their staff and choose who works at which depot. Staff run the day; managers change yards, buses and boards. Area managers can cover several regions.
- Sign-in is by an emailed one-time link or a password. Passwords are never stored readably, and people are told when a new device signs in.
- Your data stays yours. It holds buses, lanes, boards and staff email addresses. It holds no driver names, rosters or HR data.
- Hosted in the EU, with nightly backups copied off the server. A restore is tested automatically every week.
Also for your operation
- Diversion editor to draw a diversion so it shows on the public map, with the stops it misses.
- Driver notices with closures, no-entry signs and detour arrows marked on a map.
- Pace Notes Generator to draw a route and see low bridges and width or weight limits as you go.
- Reliability to see how punctual each route has been on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Straight answers
- It sits alongside your walkround checks and defect sign-off. It stops a flagged bus being planned out, but it doesn't replace your own process.
- It allocates buses to boards. It does not allocate drivers.
- It does not link directly to scheduling systems. If yours can export a CSV of running boards, that can be loaded.
- Support hours and response times are agreed before you start. So you know exactly what to expect.
Start with one depot
The best way to judge it is a short pilot at one depot. We set up the yard, buses and boards with you,
agree beforehand what success looks like, and you decide from there.
What is kept from this form, and why: the privacy page.
The Local Bus™