News Release: Rise Digital Media to boost its school transport team

Rise Digital Media, a leading provider of digital services and technical solutions to the bus and coach industry, is delighted to announce the appointment of Kate Holder to its new and dedicated school transport team. Kate, who joins as Client Support Manager (Schools’ Transport) on 9 January, will combine this new role with her existing one at Masons Minibus & Coach Hire (Tring) where she is responsible for managing all aspects of school bus administration.

Previously Kate has worked extensively in project management roles with Reuters, FTSE and ACCA, the largest global accountancy body.

Speaking on Kate’s appointment, Christopher Nice, Operations Director at Rise said:

“With many local authorities and home-to-school transport officers requiring greater visibility and understanding of school transport operations and passenger movements, we have invested heavily in our NextStop Mobility Platform and supporting Apps over the past 12 months to ensure that we continue to provide operators with a complete and comprehensive digital solution for the management of school transport services.

“Kate’s experience of administering school transport services as an operator, along with her knowledge and understanding of our NextStop platform, means she is ideally placed to support Rise and our customers as we continue to increase our presence and enhance our standing in this area. We very much look forward to Kate joining the team and introducing her to our school transport operator customers.”

Kate added: “I very much look forward to joining the team at Rise and being able to help new and existing customers build their knowledge of the NextStop system as somebody who learned it themselves from the ground up. 

“During my time with Masons we have moved from being fully paper based to fully digital, with the help of NextStop. I'm a self-confessed perfectionist who loves working with people and I’m fully committed to getting a job done right.”

Kate added: “I have seen the NextStop system improve immeasurably over the last few years and am a big advocate!”

Notes to Editors

• Rise Digital Media’s NextStop mobility platform - which includes supporting driver, ground staff, passenger and parent apps – also provides operators with the tools they need to create, manage and oversee the day-to-day running of school services, giving increased visibility of everything from passenger loadings (by stop), to service punctuality, online ticket sales and driver performance. NextStop is a cloud-based Mobility-as-a-Service platform currently used by over 60 bus and coach operators. It also provides:
• Easy to use service, route and timetable building tools
• Online and in-App student enrolment processes
• Real-time vehicle tracking for operators, passengers and parents (of student travellers)
• BODs integration for vehicle movement tracking
• Live bus tracker online and in-app
• Online, In-App and onBus ticket management and payment services
• Direct Debit and Card payment options
• Safe and secure QR code ticketing for travellers
• Bulk purchasing (for LAs/business/colleges/institutions)
• Instant messaging/push notifications to customers
• Parent alerts confirming children have boarded services
• Instant reports covering:
• Ticket sales and transactions
• Customer account registrations
• Service punctuality
• Driver/vehicle performance
• Passenger loadings by service, stop, date and time
• Ticket scans by user