Here Comes the Bus Reviews

by Treacy4

I’ve deleted HereComestheBus and reinstalled. I’ve re registered my kids for the new school year. The map is always blank. It goes to a random location 15-20 minutes from our school/home. There’s no yellow arrow or school icon on the map. When it did work (randomly) last year, it would notify me that the bus had arrived after it left the bus stop. It was only useful for the notification that the bus arrived at school. Because I have 4 kids, I received 4 text messages and 4 emails every time it decided to work and let me know the bus had arrived. I never saw a place to get only 1 notification per family/school/bus route. Today it was 23 degrees and our normal wait time of 10-15 minutes was 45 minutes by the time all parents (who’s apps didn’t work) were able to contact the transportation department of our county to find out our bus was having mechanical problems. No notice from HereComestheBus at all. Yes, we started investigating the delay after about 20-30 minutes. For those who care, the bus finally arrived at our bus stop 1 hour and 35 minutes late after the parents decided to drive kids themselves.

by Bamboobear21

This is my first school year using HereComestheBus. At the beginning, it seemed to work fine. Then slowly things started breaking down. First there were no sounds with the notifications. This caused us to miss the bus several times. Then the pop-up notifications for HereComestheBus on my cell phone stopped working. Now the icons showing the bus stop and school aren’t changing from red to green to let me know the kids have arrived. I can still see the movements of the bus if I keep HereComestheBus open. I am using an iPhone 8. I have reset HereComestheBus as well as my phone. Nothing seems to work. I have checked the notifications settings in HereComestheBus as well as in my phone. All are set correctly. I have 3 children who ride 3 different busses to 3 different schools so the problem can’t be the drivers since it worked fine for the first few days of school. I have attempted to contact the developer and the website has no clickable links to allow me to fill out their “form” for support. I was excited when I had heard about HereComestheBus. It is a terrific idea, however the actual app is not as user friendly as it could be and is extremely unreliable.

by Always-a-fan

HereComestheBus let’s me know when the bus arrives in the morning for one child but not my other child. Because the driver does not come at the same time every day it’s easy to miss the bus unless they’re at the stop very early. I’ve tried changing the radius to be alerted earlier- I can’t change it for one child because his bus stop isn’t listed on his account and neither the website or app allows me to change this. I can change the radius for my other child but I still am never alerted for his bus in the morning.

For the afternoons I have the same issue except vice versa: the kid that does not receive an alert in the morning gets an alert in the afternoon. The kid who does get an alert in the morning does not get one in the afternoon. Again, neither the website or HereComestheBus allows me list a bus stop for one of my children or change the radius notifications. And the child who does have a bus stop listed does not receive the alert at adequate times even though I have changed the bus radius.

by Big Fish Killer

Last year HereComestheBus worked most of the time. This school year however most days it does not work! Almost every morning when I open HereComestheBus I get the message bus information not available. Then on some mornings about 20 or 30 min after the bus has arrived I’ll get a message that has updated bus info on it, but the bus icon still does not appear on map. HereComestheBus is most important to me for use in the AM so I know when to send my kids to the bus stop on cold rainy days. But when HereComestheBus is not working they either end up waiting in bad weather for unnecessary amounts of time, or I have to get my baby dressed and put all my kids in the car so I can drive my bus riders to the stop and wait with them so there not being snowed on or drenched with cold rain. HereComestheBus is suppose to make bus riding easier, but even after weekly, sometimes daily reports to customer service there has been no improvement to this apps ability to accurately display bus location for the AM route. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fix this problem!!!!!!

by Mbblsb

I was very excited when I learned that an app like this existed! My kids pickup/drop off is about a 3 minute walk from our house. I was really hoping HereComestheBus would give me a 5 minute heads up so I could send the kids out the door at an appropriate time so they didn't have to stand in the freezing cold for so long. Unfortunately the max distance you can set the notifications for is 1 mile. By the time my phone dings with the notification, the bus is there within less than a minute. I want to know when the bus is almost here when my kids get off the bus as well. Again, the notifications don't give a good enough heads up. I wish the radius could be set at 2 miles. Also, often times I will get the notification on my phone once the bus has already dropped them off. I would love of HereComestheBus allowed for a greater radius and was more accurate with notifications.

by Wamylay

I have three kids im school. One im kindergarten amd two im middle school. For my elementary school it work good till today. Waited at the bus stop watch the bus move around on the gps.
Did not come to our stop. We took our child to the school. Then my middle school student are waiting at the stop because I noticed that same bus didn’t even come in our neighborhood to
Pick students up is already at the middle school. I called transportation to ask what’s going on. I said my kindergartener never got picked up.
We saw the bus on the gps while at the stop but never came. After she checked her end of the GPS it said it come to our stop. While going back and fourth with the people on transportation they said their GPS was correct. I asked so your GPS with HereComestheBus aren’t the same ?!!. She said it was, that it depends if the driver checked off when they came to the stop. I honestly don’t understand how HereComestheBus works. Since we were actually out there on time. I need the developers to contact our district transportation to make sure they Updating the info correctly!!!

by Blue708

I’ve been using HereComestheBus for over two years. For the past years it’s been working good. But now I’m just done. At the beginning of the year it worked like it should. But then no bus icon showed up. So I went outside at 7:30am. The bus didn’t show up till 8:40. An hour late. And it was a substitute which I was unaware of. It has just been a rotation of my original bus and the substitute bus. Then one day the bus app actually showed a bus. I watched the bus app and it never picked me up. So my mom called transportation. They said they split the route and they accidentally assigned my area the wrong one and they weren’t able to change it. Great. So I was an hour late to school that day. Yesterday I had to wait for an hour outside again in 26 degrees. I’m just frustrated. I never know what bus it is going to be and neither do the bus drivers. Let’s not forget that sometimes my bus stop icon and radius don’t show up. Before HereComestheBus was made I at least knew when my bus would show up. But now I never know.

by Paul Bartko

It “works” but it’s not entirely helpful at this point. If I sit and stare at the map for 40 minutes and watch the bus icon all the way to the house....it’s great, but I don’t really need an app for that. When the bus hits my notification radius, I receive a SILENT notification that is a great little reminder the bus is here but again, if I’m stuck starring at my phone to catch the notification then I can just as easily be standing in the driveway. Why no sound with the notification?

Also, my son is in kindergarten and at that age the bus won’t drop the kids if they can’t verify for sure that someone is home. Yesterday I was home but missed the drop notification (due to no sound of course) and the driver didn’t drop my son. Once the bus passes the drop point, it simply vanishes from the map all together. So now I have no kid and a missing bus!

by Misy Joens

Pros: The concept is great! UI is simple and easy. Nice getting notifications of when bus is in the area. It provides me a general idea of where the bus is located. Fortunately our driver is typically on schedule so we’ve learned to use this as a tool to help us.

Cons: Using an iPhone 13 OS 15, I can no longer use the icons at the top of the Map view or the Menu icon. The actual arrival times do not display. The stop icons no longer change/update color when the bus has arrived. The push notifications seem to work best in the morning vs afternoon I’m not notified until bus is at the stop.

I’ve found if I’m having major issues with things not working (beginning of school year, using a new device, etc) best to uninstall and reinstall HereComestheBus . However this does not resolve all issues.

by Aishazia

HereComestheBus was working well - I would get real time alerts and could see where the bus was so my son could get out to the bus stop on time. There have been times over the last year and a half that our district has used HereComestheBus that it would freeze up and the bus location would be stuck in one place for an extended period of time, but that usually fixed itself. Sometimes I had to delete HereComestheBus and reinstall and sign in. Recently HereComestheBus is basically garbage for me. I no longer receive notifications when the bus is in the 2 mile radius. I open HereComestheBus and the bus location is at the transportation center for an hour, or it’s at another location stuck. Last week I contacted help/support and someone responded a day later. I replied and sent a screenshot of my map and what problems I was experiencing but I haven’t heard back - not even “we’re working on it.” I just deleted my account and HereComestheBus .

by Alka.mae

As a highschooler HereComestheBus saves a ton of time waiting around at the stop and lets me see if I’ve missed the bus or not so I don’t waste more time at the stop instead of walking to school.
I’m just not sure how I feel about the radius notifications. If my neighborhood was bigger and the stops were further apart it would work smoothly but I have at least 5 stops less then 1/2 a mile away. My only option is to make the bubble smaller and that means I have less time to get out the door so, kinda defeats the purpose. I’d love to see an option to set a point the bus has to cross before I get a notification, or a set road to get notifications for when the bus arrives on that street.

Definitely good for elementary students and parents who walk to the bus with them and keep them company, but I don’t personally like staying there for 5 extra minutes because the notification radius is kind of impractical for suburban areas

by Pkhan12858

The concept of HereComestheBus is groundbreaking and very 21st-century. Using the GPS technology on board buses, one is able to see the exact location of the bus relative to your children at their bus stop. This is very helpful, and a great use of technology.

However, technology needs all facets to work; if any part of the chain is unable to function, it will not help you or be very informative. What I have noticed about HereComestheBus is that the real time GPS tracker is excellent. However, the email and app notifications that are sent that your child has been picked up or dropped off or are seriously delayed. This needs serious tweaking if you rely on the emails or notifications and are unable to be there with them live. Consider the working parent who is at the office and waiting to hear if their child was picked up or drop off- they would be waiting for up to an hour before receiving that notification or email. If the company can tweak this, HereComestheBus will be perfect.

All in all, a great partnership between school districts/parishes and software development companies. Good work guys- and please tweak it!

by AndreaKessler77

This is something I always wished we had and it’s like a dream come true. Busses come early or late and you never have an idea if you’ve missed it or it’s running behind. HereComestheBus works for me most of the time and when it does it’s amazing. It definitely helps to know the location of my child’s bus however I keep running into a problem where it appears the bus isn’t moving. I’m assuming it’s broken down then I wonder if it’s my phone so I close HereComestheBus completely and reopen it to see the bus is still in the same location. Then it jumps from what looked like two miles away to into our radius! So we scramble to get to the stop ASAP. Living in. Cold climate we appreciate having an app that helps us reduce being out in the elements. Hopefully all the bugs can get fixed so it runs a bit smoother.

by Upset Mom1

The location of the bus is not updated in real time. I set up HereComestheBus to notify me when the bus is 2 miles away. I walked outside as soon as I received the alert but not 1 minute later, I got another alert saying the bus had arrived before I even reached the stop. I continued to walk to the stop anyway because I thought there’s no way the bus drove two miles in less than a minute. I reached the stop and I wait another 7 or 8 mins. I then come to the conclusion that maybe the time was a few minutes off and I missed the bus. I started to panic. I started to run back to my apartment to call the school and in the distance, I hear the school bus pulling up. I started running back to the bus stop as fast as I good but the bus pulled off with my 5 year old still inside. They took her back to the school. I will never depend on HereComestheBus again.

by Jenylu72

This is a good app for what it is intended for, to give a general idea on where the bus is. It shouldn't be used to determine when you should meet the bus (I wouldn't even think of doing that). Helpful to us to know when her bus is coming since several others pick up at the same location around the same time (express stop). Very cool knowing when the bus is near her express drop off at home, gives me an idea on when to expect her to let me know she is home since she has a mile walk to the house.

Would LOVE notifications sent via text instead of email... overall this is a cool app!!

*** updated: you do get a direct bus update if you have the actual app and don't just use through PWCS. Love HereComestheBus!***

by Hotrodder007

This is app is Great! Before I heard about it I was sending the kids down to the end of driveway 10-15 early in the summer and 5 min early in winter so they wouldn't freeze to death but the 5 min window wasn't enough sometimes they would miss it and then I would have to drop them. Then I heard about this bus app and boy was I excited!! Now I have it timed perfect to where I let them walk down the drive(I have a 900 ft drive, cause we live in a farm in the country) and by time they get to the end the bus is pulling up- perfect! Now don't have to worry about someone snatching them(not that I worry about that where I live) but never know? Better safe than sorry and they don't freeze waiting on it! Excellent app, there's only 1 day to where it didn't work but I believe it was a setting in my phone so gets 5 stars in my book the alerts don't work or are off sometimes but I don't worry about those anyway as ling as I can see the bus in motion and know where it's at is good enough for me!
If you have kids that get on a bus YOU NEED HereComestheBus!

by EmilKg

Before I found out about HereComestheBus my child was having to wait outside for about 30 minutes because his bus was never on time. He either had a different bus driver all the time, or a different bus number all together. This has been happening since he started High School. It became so frustrating. But with HereComestheBus, it has changed EVERYTHING. The notifications are off a little when it comes to letting me know when the bus is in his radius. But I never look at that anyway. As long as I see his bus physically moving on the map, that’s all that matters. I rarely have issues with bugs on HereComestheBus , thank goodness. Now my son doesn’t have to wait in the heat, cold or rain for a long periods of time. He can be outside 1-2 minutes before the bus pulls up. Such a great app!!!!

by MAGIK P

That is the way I feel about HereComestheBus! It tells me/us when the bus will be at the bus stop which saves us time and lots of worrying!
My son is the only person at his bus stop so I cannot always tell if we have missed the bus or not. We drive him to the bus stop since there are no sidewalks in our development on our side of the street. With this apps it tells us what time the bus will be at the stop. With the traffic the way it is were we live it’s extremely helpful. A Godsend! Plus it was easy to install. You just need your child school district transportation number. Your child ‘s student id number and where do you want the information to be sent to your cell phone, tablet, or computer. It can even call you for a reminder. HereComestheBus is Great! It removes the guess work of if you missed the bus or not.

Monica P.
Cary, NC

by Danocamera

HereComestheBus has been a godsend this entire school year! Everything was working nicely until the most recent update; all of my info (bus, school and bus stop icons) disappeared and I got a message saying the map info “wasn’t available” when I tried to adjust the notification radius. Everything was fine on the website, it was just HereComestheBus that was screwy. I came here to see if anyone else was having this problem and just as I saw that it was mentioned in several other reviews, I got a Notification that my son’s bus was in the designated range. I checked HereComestheBus and there were still no icons so I deleted it and immediately re-downloaded it. After I signed in, everything is working as expected! I bet if I had just logged out and logged back in, everything would have been fine too. Hopefully this can help other users and save you from unwarranted negative reviews!

by Whoaitslena

HereComestheBus definitely has some bugs which I’m sure will be fixed soon! For example, for half of the last school year, my kids bus was in Jacksonville, Florida (spoiler: we don’t live in Florida). That aside, HereComestheBus is so incredibly helpful, especially if you work away from home. It’s also really helpful if the bus is running late or the weather is bad and you need to track the bus to meet your kid at their stop. I would imagine it’s also good for teachers to be able to see if a bus is late in the morning (they probably keep up with that other ways). I’m really glad our school system uses it and would encourage others to do the same!! I don’t want to helicopter parent, but having HereComestheBus definitely helps put my mind at ease just a little!

by DivaLeo75

It’s nice to be able to track your child’s bus. Things that interrupt cell service will cause lags in HereComestheBus , but that’s not really HereComestheBus ’s fault. Also, my child’s bus broke down on a different street in our neighborhood last school year and I could see the bus had stopped moving on the map, but I never received a notification about what was happening. I’m sure our bus driver was preoccupied with making arrangements to get the kids to school so she’s not going to be on an app giving updates, but the notifications feature is only going to work if you actually put them in/update it when something happens. So maybe it’s not as user friendly on the bus end. Overall, I’m glad our school system started using this, it definitely is helpful.

by Voodoobunny1

HCTB feels like living in the future.

It is now a crucial part of our morning - how much I hurry my kids is directly related to how close the bus is. Being able to see when the bus leaves its depot and when it is getting close to the house is a godsend for getting the kids out on time, and we have only missed the bus maybe twice in the 2 years we have been using HereComestheBus ! (And if you have kids who are not morning people you’ll understand how remarkable that is).

There have been a few issues where the drivers’ devices have stopped transmitting so the bus position does not get updated accurately, but that has only occurred a handful of times in 2 years.

by AnneM1989

No more having to wait and wonder where the bus is when the bus is late or delayed. HereComestheBus even updated to tell me that my son had a substitute driver with a different bus, and that the bus was running an hour late due to the change. So I was able to quickly change my plans to drop him off at the school so that I could get to work on time. HereComestheBus has a radius that you can set up to be notified when the bus gets within a certain distance of your house, which is incredibly helpful, I have ours set up to notify me when the bus enters the neighborhood, which gives me about a minute window to make sure that he has his book bag and is waiting for the bus by the front door.