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District

Field Trip Request Information

   

  • Requesting Field Trips

 

A bus must be canceled no later than 24 hours prior to the time the trip departs in order to avoid cancellation charges. Please send this in writing via email to Transportation Email You are responsible to confirm that your trip Is canceled; otherwise your school will be charged.  

 

Trip Request versus Scheduled Trip

A request entered into the Trip Tracker Requests system isn’t a guarantee of a scheduled trip.  It is only the start of our process to determine if there are buses and drivers available at that date and time.    

Once your trip request has been entered into the TripTracker Requests system it will be reviewed and determined if a school bus is available. If one (or more) are, then the trip will be marked as "Approved" and forwarded for "Scheduling". If a bus is not available you will be contacted with options. These may be a request to modify the trip's times or a request for permission to send the trip out for a third party motor coach quote. Our school bus scheduler assigns vehicles and drivers to the Approved trips on Thursdays.

 

Requests will be taken on a first come first serve basis.  We have a very limited number of Prime Time vehicles, as a majority of our fleet is doing home to school trips.  

A request is not a guarantee of a field trip.  A trip is not guaranteed until we are able to confirm with our contractors that a bus and driver are scheduled.

 

Limited Prime-Time Bus Availability

 

A District’s bus fleet is financed and staffed to transport student trips from home-to-school and school-to-home.  There is no funding or a business model to dedicate extra buses and drivers for field trips.  Because of this limitation we have a very limited number of Prime Time vehicles as a majority of our fleet is doing home-to-school trips in the morning and afternoon. 

 

Please schedule your trips in the Non-Prime Times whenever possible to preserve the few Prime Time vehicles and drivers we have. 

 

Closed Days
Within the TripTracker system dates are closed when we receive more requests than vehicles or drivers are available.  If the date or time window (Prime Time or Non-Prime Time) you would like to request is highlighted pink in the TripTracker calendar, then that day or time slot is closed to new trips.   Please DO NOT continue to enter Prime Time trip requests on the closed dates.   

 

If you do request a bus on this date and your trip is not scheduled, the Transportation Department is not liable to help obtain a refund.

 

Pink Calendar Days

 

There are six field trip statuses that your field trip request will cycle through.  These will help you determine where your field trip is in its “life cycle:”

Please help us insure quality by double checking the details of your trips.  Let us know if a request is missing, the status is incorrect or if there are duplicate trips.  Times, pickup/drop-off addresses, bus capacity, wheelchair lift, dates.  Here is a link to the system.

 

Canceling the Bus

 

A bus must be canceled at least 24 hours prior to the time the trip departs in order to avoid cancellation charges. Please send this in writing via email to Transportation email  You are responsible to confirm that your trip is canceled; otherwise your school will be charged. 

 

Changes to Your Trip

 

Please submit any changes to your trip via email to Transportation Email at least 48 hours prior to your leave time. No changes will be accepted less than 48 hours prior to trip day.

Weather related issues – Call at least 2 hours before trip to avoid cancellation charges

  • Canceling the Bus 
  • Requested – Status that a trip defaults to when a trip is initially entered.

  • Approved – The trip request has been approved by transportation staff allowing the Contractors to review and schedule the trip request.

  • Scheduled – The trip has a driver and vehicle assigned to it by the contractor. The trip is guaranteed by the Contractor to run.

  • Closed – The trip has been completed. This status is part of the invoicing process and shows that the invoice has been sent to Accounts Receivable for final processing.

  • Canceled – This status occurs if a trip has been canceled for some reason. There is no option to delete trips.

 

Field Trip Request Google Form

At this time, May 21, 29, 30 & 31st  & June 5th, 7th. 10th – 13th  are closed/ closing for fieldtrips. Please do not submit a trip request for any of these dates, as we can not accommodate them. If you are considering contracting out for a bus on one of these dates, please contact Erin Sherry @ 503.762.3662 or erin_sherry@csd28j.org

VersaTrans Link

If you have a user name and password, use this link to sign into VersaTrans to request your field trip.