Wheels is a school transport operations platform built for India. We're on a mission to shift school transport from driver-dependent chaos to calm, resilient operations so that when a driver changes, nothing else does.
In thousands of Indian schools, transport operations run on one fragile thing: the driver's memory. He knows which lane to turn into, which blue gate is Aarav's house, and that Meera's grandmother picks her up on Wednesdays.
When that driver calls in sick, or quits, the entire system breaks. The admin scrambles to ride along with the substitute. Parents get no updates. Children wait at the wrong gates. The school's phone lines melt.
"It's 7 AM, my driver just called in sick, and I have to ride along with the substitute because he doesn't know the route."
We heard this story from school admin after school admin. The same pattern: deep operational knowledge locked inside one person's head, with no system to capture it. We started Wheels to fix exactly this.
Our approach is simple. Make the route a digital asset owned by the school, not tribal knowledge that walks out the door. Any driver can pick up the app and run any route from day one, with turn-by-turn guidance, student photos at every stop, and automated parent notifications throughout.
Amal Chandran, Founder
Every feature must pass one filter: does it reduce uncertainty for parents, or reduce dependency for admins?
Routes, stops, student details, and timing all live in the app. Swap drivers like interchangeable parts. Zero training needed.
Parents get smart, automatic notifications: ETA alerts, onboarding confirmations, safe-arrival messages. No calls needed.
Admins see every van in real-time on one dashboard. Trip logs, odometer records, and route analytics. All documented.
Curb wait time for parents
"Where's the van?" calls
Training for new drivers
Target parent satisfaction
Extensive interviews with school admins, parents, and drivers across India. Mapped Jobs-To-Be-Done for each persona.
Parent app live on iOS App Store. Parent and crew (driver/attendant) apps on Google Play Store. Admin dashboard live at admin.wheels.school.
Running live trials, iterating on feedback, and measuring impact on curb wait times, parent calls, and driver onboarding speed.
Onboard additional schools, refine the product for different school sizes, and build towards a repeatable go-to-market.
Three apps, one connected system. Each built for a specific user.
Real-time van tracking, smart ETA alerts, and safe-arrival confirmations.
Turn-by-turn co-pilot mode, student photos, stop checklists for drivers and attendants.
Real-time fleet view, route management, driver assignment, and trip documentation.
Modern cloud-native architecture designed for reliability and growth
Whether you're a school looking for a pilot, an investor, or just curious, we'd love to hear from you.
Based in India. Building for every school that runs a van.
