Arun's Route Ticket

Parents take a number for a school van seat, wait their turn on the phone, and print a slip the child carries to the stop.

Who this is for

Arun Bhosale runs four vans out of a lane in Shahupuri, Kolhapur. Sixty-two children, two schools, one driver besides himself. Every June, the week before term opens, parents start arriving at his gate from seven in the morning to ask whether there is a seat. Last year he had eighty-one names for sixty-eight seats and settled it by remembering who had asked first.

How the job is done today

There is a long notebook with a rubber band around it. Names go in as parents call, but Arun drives the first shift himself, so half the calls are missed and the callbacks happen at nine at night. There is a WhatsApp group from last year with about eighty parents still in it, and every June the same question appears forty times, each one answered separately. On the first morning of term he stands at the Nagala Park stop calling out van numbers over the noise while children climb into whichever van opens its door first. Two of them went to the wrong school last year.

The screens, in order

1. Take a number — A parent enters the child's name, the school and the stop they need, and gets a number in line.
2. Where you stand — Shows the parent their number, how many are ahead of them, and nothing else, so they stop ringing to ask.
3. Your slip — Once Arun has said yes, this is the one page with the child's name, van number, stop and pickup time, made to print and be carried.
4. Arun's line — Arun works down the waiting list in order, sees which stop each child needs, and gives them a van or tells them there is no room on that route.
5. Van sheet — One page per van listing the children in the order the van reaches their stops, for the driver to keep on the dashboard.

What it keeps track of

• Seat request — child's name, which school, which stop, parent's phone number, the turn number they were given, whether they are still waiting or settled
• Van — van number, driver's name, how many seats it has, which stops it passes and roughly what time it reaches each one
• Slip — which child, which van, which stop, pickup time, the date it was given, whether it is still the current one
• The line — whether the line is open or closed, the last number given out, which route the line is for

The one decision that matters

The number can mean a seat, or it can mean a turn to be heard. If it means a seat, the app allots automatically the moment a parent joins, and the first sixty-eight names are in. That sounds fair and is wrong here. A seat on the van that runs Rajarampuri is no use to a child living in Nagala Park, and two brothers end up on different vans. Make the number a turn, not a seat. Arun goes down the list in order, matches the child to a van that actually passes their lane, and only then does the slip become printable. The parent sees their real position while they wait, and nobody is holding a seat they cannot use.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave fees out completely. No collection, no receipts, no pending amounts. Arun has taken money by UPI and cash for nine years and that has never been the part that breaks. Put fees in and you inherit part payments, refunds when a child shifts school in July, and a month of arguments over what was paid in cash. Leave out showing where the van is right now as well. In June the question is who sits where, not where van 3 is at 7.40.

How you would know it worked

On the first morning of term, nobody is standing at Arun's gate. At the Nagala Park stop four children are holding slips and all four slips say van 2, which is the van that stops there. The driver checks them against his sheet and finds no extra child and no missing one.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run four school vans in Kolhapur and every June parents crowd my gate asking for seats. I want an app where a parent enters the child's name, school and which stop they need, and gets a number in line. They should see their number and how many are ahead of them on their phone. I go down the list in order and decide which van suits their lane, and when I say yes they get a slip they can print on one page with the child's name, van number, stop and pickup time, so the child carries it and my driver can check it at the stop for the first week. Give me a sheet for each van listing the children in the order the van reaches their stops. Send the parent a message when their turn comes up. No fee collection, they pay me directly.