Steering the future of school buses

Yee: School transport is one of the most impactful yet, overlooked industries for technological innovation. — Photo: Bus Buddy Technologies

MODERN life affords us remarkable conveniences and benefits that are often taken for granted.

At the tap of a finger, we can trace the movement of a parcel from a warehouse abroad all the way to our doorstep, or receive minute-by-minute updates on the progress of our food delivery order.

For Samuel Yee, the availability of such technologies raised a puzzling question: why can we so easily track our lunch orders, but have little to no visibility when it comes to children when they are transported to school and back every day?

Millions rely on school buses daily, yet for the duration of the bus journey, parents are largely left in the dark about where their kids are, whether they have been picked up or dropped off, and potential changes to routes or schedules.

“This has been a problem for as long as most of us can remember,” Yee says.

“School transport is one of the most impactful yet, overlooked industries for technological innovation,” he adds.

“Coordination among schools, transporters, and parents is often messy, manual, and generally a massive headache.”

Few know this better than Yee, who has had a close-up view of the school bus sector for all his life.

His father founded a traditional school bus company about 40 years ago, eventually handing over the reins to him.

Today, the school bus operator manages a 40-bus fleet serving over 1,000 kids across the Klang Valley.

In 2019, after recognising a technology and data gap in the sector, the company created a web-based bus tracking system allowing parents to locate buses and make schedule changes, while providing drivers a digital register.

“As far as we know, we were the only Malaysian school bus company to build our own technology for this purpose.

“From there, the idea was to eventually develop this into a highly scalable technology that could connect parents and transporters,” Yee shared.

He found an optimal partner in Asia Mobiliti, a Malaysian urban mobility solutions company that shared similar goals.

By 2025, Bus Buddy Technologies, a joint venture between the two companies, was born.

With a strong emphasis on safety, efficiency, transparency, and accountability, the business serves transporters, parents, and schools through its digital platform.

For parents, the digital app offers real-time Global Positioning System tracking, attendance logs, notifications at each stage of their child’s trip, automatic delay updates, and the ability to schedule and make changes to planned journeys.

Transport partners, in turn, are able to build greater trust with parents and schools, while improving coordination and efficiency through digitalised schedule and route planning.

The platform also includes safety features, such as final checks, to ensure no child or belongings are left behind. Additionally, all drivers and vehicles on the platform are vetted to provide assurance that kids are in safe hands.

Currently, Bus Buddy Technologies operates on a software-as-a-service model, with transport companies and schools as its main customers.

However, Yee shares that the business will soon enter into the pivotal second phase of its growth roadmap.

“We plan to move from a largely business-to-business to a business-to-consumer focus, where we will become a marketplace aggregator,” says Yee, who serves as the company’s chief executive officer (CEO).

“The platform’s role will be to connect transporters with customers. Think of it as an e-hailing platform, but one that is built specifically for the school bus industry.”

This next stage will be driven by a revenue-sharing model, with data and technology leveraged to boost business for transporters.

“With the data that we have, we can help reconfigure and optimise their routes, enabling them to fill their seats with the best suited customers based on location, which then reduces operational costs and improves profit margins for them,” Yee says.

“Parents, on the other hand, get shorter travel times to school every day, while schools have greater visibility over transporters and their students, making it a win-win for everyone.”

Bus Buddy Technologies’ second phase is targeted to launch in late-2026. For now, the team’s immediate priority is on business growth and product development, he says.

Looking ahead, the CEO sees the company eventually scaling its technology and expanding its solutions across South-East Asia.

The company has already entered its first market abroad, partnering with a school in Timor-Leste.

“The school came to us because they had over 1,000 kids, with around 90% of them taking the school bus, but dealt with a lack of transparency and service consistency in bus journeys,” he shares.

“We’ve visited countries like Thailand and the Philippines, and the same school transport problems persist, presenting a significant opportunity for us.”

Backed by decades of real-world operational expertise and scalable, data-driven technology, the company has ambitions to be the leading child-centric mobility platform in the region, setting the benchmark for safety, efficiency, and trust.

Still, Yee is well-aware of the challenges in the road ahead, such as changing mindsets in a traditional industry that is largely resistant to transitioning past WhatsApp communication and paper registers.

The response from parents, however, has been highly encouraging, he says.

“They are very excited about what we are doing, as they previously had no centralised system and very few options for safe and reliable school transport.”

“Our mission isn’t to build an app with cool features, but rather to tackle these fundamental issues faced in transporting children every day.”