Frequently
Asked
Questions

Here, you will find a list of questions parents usually ask us before they initiate transportation service for their students. If you cannot find the answer to your question, please contact us directly.

Q: Are you affiliated with the BASIS schools, or with Xavier & Brophy College Preparatory?

A: "A School Ride LLC" is a private company and is not affiliated with any of the BASIS schools, BASIS Ed, or any other legal entity under BASIS Educational Group, in any manner. We are also not affiliated with Xavier College Preparatory & Brophy College Preparatory.

Q: Do you provide student transportation from all areas?

A: "A School Ride LLC" provides transportation to BASIS schools and to Xavier & Brophy from select areas.

Q: What type of shuttles do you use to provide transportation?

A: We use 28- to 35- passenger shuttles depending on the number of students transported in each route, and the size of the parking lot of the school.

Q: Are you licensed and insured?

A: "A School Ride LLC" is licensed by the US Department of Transportation (US DOT) as a private "for hire" passenger motor carrier. We carry $5,000,000 commercial auto liability insurance per vehicle, per incident, as required by the US DOT.

Q: Are there credits for days that my student missed the van?

A: There are no credits for days that students miss the van for any reason. By signing up with us, you are reserving a seat for the remainder of the year.

Q: Do you accept students for transportation on a “day-to-day” basis?

A: We do not accept students for transportation on a "day-to-day" basis. Our service is based on a monthly fee that includes transportation to and from school every day, including days with extracurricular activities taking place at the school complex.

Q: Do you accept “one way” students for transportation?

A: While we have accommodated "one way" students for transportation in the past, beginning with Academic Year 2012-2013 we no longer accept new "one way" students, unless we are able to match them in order to form a "pair".

Q: How do you select your drivers?

A: Our drivers are either personal acquaintances, or hired retirees that live close to their designated routes. While being a retiree is not a requirement for hiring a driver, this is a part-time job. We entrust our drivers with the lives of our students every day: to avoid a high driver turnover, we compensate them better than they could otherwise be compensated for in the open market for a similar position.

Our drivers are required to have tons of commercial driving experience. So far, we have hired commercial drivers and retired post-office employees (mail carriers) - both professions involved with driving and routes. While driving a 14-passenger vehicle in the state of Arizona does not require a commercial driver's license, beginning with Academic Year 2011-2012, all our drivers will carry a Class B commercial driver's license with passenger endorsement. Driving a 25-passenger vehicle does require a commercial driver's license; this is a US DOT requirement.

Prior to hiring a driver – whether a personal acquaintance or otherwise – we submit them to full background checks. Due to the nature of our service and the high limits of our liability insurance, our insurance company submits our drivers to extensive driving record checks to ensure there are no prior driving or other offenses.

In addition, also as a US DOT requirement, all our drivers are enrolled into a Drug and Alcohol Testing Program where they are randomly and annually selected for drug and alcohol testing.

Our drivers are required to know the names and faces of the students in their route, as well as their respective pick-up/drop-off points. This ensures that no one is left behind.

Q: Do you pick-up/drop-off students at their homes?

A: We do not pick up or drop off students at their homes.

Q: How do the drivers know who to pick up/drop off and where?

A: Every driver carries a list of students he has to pick up in the morning and drop off in the afternoon, for each trip. The lists include who is getting picked up/dropped off, where, what time, and the phone number of the parents. By knowing the students in their route by name and by knowing their faces, we ensure that no one is left behind. If a parent is late and the driver needs to leave for the next stop, the driver will call the parent to make the necessary arrangements. If there are changes to a student's schedule for the day, the parent must call us or the cell phone number of the van to make sure that we are aware of the changes.

Q: How/when do we pay “A School Ride LLC”?

A: We collect the monthly fees in the form of checks by the 15th of every month, during the 10 months of the school year (August through May, inclusive). From AY 2016-2017, we will begin accepting Mastercard, Visa, and American Express. However we will not be able to accept online payments.

Our mailing address is:

A School Ride LLC
30013 N. 70th Street
Scottsdale, AZ 85266

Q: How do I sign up for the shuttle service?

A: For the current academic year, all that is needed is a phone call to (480) 515-0077. If there is space available in the route you are interested in, we will accommodate you. We will send you the appropriate forms and information.

For the next academic year, in order to reserve a seat for your student, you need to visit our website at www.aschoolride.com, find your school, download the Enrollment Package and Enrollment Instructions and follow the instructions. Once you complete the Enrollment Package, you need to e-mail, mail, or fax it to us at (480) 699-1368. In addition, you need to send us your deposit check. Once all your information has been received and processed, we will send you Confirmation of Enrollment.

We will place you on our e-mail distribution lists, and we will keep you updated throughout the remainder of the year via weekly e-mail updates.

Q: What happens once I sign up my student for the shuttle service?

A: We have limited space in the shuttles. Students already using the shuttle service from prior years as well as their siblings are given priority, while new students are serviced on a "first-come, first-served" basis.

For these reasons, we urge interested parents to contact us as soon as they know their student will be attending one of the BASIS schools or XAVIER/BROPHY in the fall.

It is very important for us and the drivers to know the students by name and by face and while this cannot be accomplished in a 15-minute conversation, it gives us a good head start. By the end of the first week of the academic year, the drivers will know the faces and names of all students in their route.

Q: What time do you arrive to school in the morning?

A: Please see specific school and specific route packages for arrival and departure times.

Q: How late are the shuttles bringing the students home in the afternoon?

A: In the afternoon, the parking lots of the schools are usually crowded. We try to depart on our scheduled departure times, but this is not always possible. We are frequently experiencing delays of between 5-10 minutes in our departure times from the schools. As a result, we advise parents that sometimes, the shuttles may be late to drop off students anywhere between 2 minutes (most frequent delay) and 10 minutes (most rare delay).

Q: How do you handle “early release” days?

A: Early release days are handled in the same manner as all other days. Students are picked up from school a few minutes after they are released in the early afternoon, and are dropped off at their designated points sooner than normal school days.

Q: How to you handle extracurricular activities and days when students have to stay in school late for “student hours” with their teachers or make up tests?

A: Extracurricular activities that take place at the BASIS schools' complexes start on September 1. Once the schedules for extracurricular activities are issued by the schools, we will determine the needs of the students and will be sending each shuttle to the schools a 3rd time in the afternoon, to pick up any students that have to stay for extracurricular activities, or for student hours with their teachers, or for make up tests.

Extracurricular activities that take place at XAVIER & BROPHY also start around September 1. From Monday -Thursday we send the shuttle to the schools a second time in the afternoon, to pick up any students that have to stay for extracurriculars, student hours, or make up tests.

Q: Is there an additional transportation fee for days with extracurricular activities or “student hours”?

A: There is no additional transportation fee for days with extracurricular activities or days when students have to stay in school for "student hours", or make up tests. This extra trip is provided as part of the monthly transportation fee. Our aim is to avoid sending the parent to school as much as humanly possible. However, parents need to be advised that there may be occasions when the shittles cannot pick up their student from the school because of time constraints (for instance, just before Winter Break and on certain days, some students participating in choir may have to stay later than the last shuttle departure, or may have to go in very early, prior to the first shuttle arrival). In these occasions, the parent will need to drop off or pick up their student.

Q: Do you pick up students participating in all extracurricular activities?

A: Certain extracurricular activities take place outside the school complexes. We cannot accommodate these extracurricular activities. However, we accommodate the majority of extracurricular activities taking place at the school complexes. The extracurricular afternoon shift leaves the school at 5:30 pm.

Q: My student wants to bring a friend home in the shuttle. Can this be done? Is there any additional cost for this?

A: Sometimes, students wish to bring a friend home with them in the shuttle. When this occurs, all you need to do is give us a call and we'll tell you whether we have space in the shuttle for that day. If we have space, your student's friend can return in the shuttle. There is no additional cost for this.

Q: What are the requirements for students using the shuttle service?

A: There are 7 Rules of Conduct for students using the shuttle service:

  1. Come out to the vans as soon as they are dismissed from school. This ensures a timely departure from the school, and as a result, a timely arrival to the drop-off points
  2. Always wear their seatbelts while being transported in the shuttles
  3. Are not particularly loud, because loudness distracts the drivers always adhere to the driver's instructions
  4. Not have fights in the shuttles. Hitting others in the shuttle is not allowed for any reason.
  5. Watch their language while being transported in the shuttle
  6. When exiting the shuttles, check and pick up any trash they may have left behind.
  7. Keep their hands to themselves and do not interfere with other students' possessions.

The drivers will make students wear their seatbelts and will remind them to watch their language and quiet down, if it is called for.

Q: What are the requirements for parents whose students are using the van service?

A: A signed annual Transportation Service Agreement is required to enroll to the shuttle service of any school.

A deposit of one months fee is required to enroll to the shuttle service of any school.

We ask that parents of students using our service be at their designated pick-up/drop-off points a couple of minutes earlier than their pre-determined times. This ensures that the parents of students of the next stops don't have to wait for the shuttles longer than necessary. We also ask that parents of students using our service discuss and remind their students of the 7 Rules of Conduct, listed above.

Q: Will “A School Ride LLC” initiate routes to service other areas in the future?

A: In the past, we have received requests to initiate service from other areas,or initiate routes to and from other schools. We evaluate each request to initiate service very carefully. Our desire is to service as many students as possible, at an affordable rate, without compromising safety, reliability and timeliness.

However, we need parents to understand that there is a fixed annual cost associated with every new route of service that we initiate, regardless of the distance travelled to and from the school. Distance from the school only affects gas/diesel consumption.

Other things being equal, we will keep evaluating all requests to initiate service, and will keep adding routes depending on parents' requests and students' needs.