This page describes how our network operates and provides some basic facts and figures.
Our Network
Our Network comprises eleven schools:
- Otumoetai College
- Otumoetai Intermediate
- Tauranga Boys’ College
- Tauranga Girls’ College
- Tauranga Intermediate
- Welcome Bay School
- Maungatapu School
- Omokoroa Point School
- Omokoroa #1 School
- St Mary’s School
- Tauriko School
Collectively, this group is known as the Tauranga Transport Network Group.
The principal from each school attends Committee meetings. Board members are welcome to attend a Committee any time.
Funding and route designs
The Ministry of Education provides the funding for our school bus network. This funding is calculated according to how the Ministry would design and deliver bus services. Funding is provided in accordance with the Funding Agreement. This agreement describes the conditions for ongoing receipt of funding. The current agreement can be found here
route designs
Having received the funding, the Committee then makes its own decisions on where the buses will run. Whilst it is possible for the Group to pay allowances to a family where we can’t offer a handy bus service, this does not occur at present.
service delivery
The day to day monitoring and administration of our school network is carried out by School Admin.
Our bus services are delivered by Uzabus who was selected as our bus operator following a competitive tender process carried out in 2014. This tender process was open to all bus operators throughout New Zealand and was advertised on the Government Electronic Tender Service, The current contract expires in 2023, with options to extend.
Health and Safety system
Our Group maintains a documented health and safety system comprising policies, procedures, forms and registers. At present, this system is described in a series of PDF documents. These documents are gradually being phased out and replaced by electronic versions that can be found here.
Our bus operator submits monthly reports to School Admin describing the compliance activities that have been undertaken, incidents and complaints.
All incidents and events are recorded using a combination of paper forms and email. Reporting to School Admin happens in real-time as opposed to being captured in a monthly report. This system is being replaced by an electronic system that can be found here.
All serious incidents and near misses that have the potential to be serious are reported to the Ministry of Education.
Health and Safety monitoring
Health and safety monitoring is carried out on behalf of member schools by School Admin. This includes monitoring:
- bus operator processes
- vehicle and driver compliance with expectations
- district-wide risks
- route-specific risks
- bus stop safety.
For more information on the monitoring programme please click here.
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facts and figures
The Group delivers 24 bus routes each day, transporting 1140 students. Of these, 95 students are ineligible for Ministry funding as they live too close to the nearest school that they could attend. No students are provided with a transport allowance.