Pre-release, version 0.1.0

From a list of stops to a duty sheet a driver can be handed.

DutyAllocator is rota and duty scheduling software for small UK bus and coach operators. One Windows program and one file on your own machine. No server to run, no account to sign in to, and nothing that stops working when somebody else's website does.

The DutyAllocator home screen, showing counts of stops, routes, duties and drivers The DutyAllocator home screen in dark mode

Every screen rests on the one below it

Worked through in order, each screen already has what it needs. Nothing asks you for something you have not had a chance to enter yet.

  • Stops
  • Routes
  • Running times
  • Journeys
  • Vehicle blocks
  • Duties
  • Rota
  • Staff
  • Driver licences
  • feed into the rota, so nobody is booked on a vehicle they cannot legally drive

Journeys work themselves out

A journey needs only a route, a day type and a departure time. Every intermediate time comes from the running times you have already banded by time of day.

Duties are checked as you build them

Cut a bus's day into drivers' days, with sign on, meal breaks, travelling as a passenger and sign off, and see the hours checks as you go.

The rota checks rest right around the cycle

Lay duties against a repeating cycle of weeks and have the rest between one day and the next checked, including where the cycle wraps.

Your work, backed up somewhere else

Everything you enter lives in a single file. DutyAllocator copies it to a folder you choose, which can be OneDrive, a network drive or a share on a server, so a copy is off the machine before anything goes wrong with it.

Copies are kept daily for a fortnight, then weekly for two months, then monthly for a year, so a route deleted in March can still be found in May. Older ones are tidied away on their own and the newest is never deleted. Putting one back is two clicks and a restart.

The Settings screen The Settings screen in dark mode
Settings, where the hours limits, day types and backups live.
The Duties screen The Duties screen in dark mode
Duties, where a bus's day becomes a driver's day.

Built for a depot, not a data centre

It runs on the PC you already have. Windows 10 or 11, nothing else to install, and it works with the internet down.

Light and dark to match Windows. Every screen printable where printing makes sense, including a duty sheet you can hand to a driver. Maps for placing stops when you want them, and no requirement to use them when you do not.

What it does not do yet

This is version 0.1.0 and it is not ready to roster real drivers. It is better that you read this here than find it out later.

The drivers' hours limits have not been verified

The limits are GB domestic rules for passenger vehicles, not EU or AETR, and they ship as editable starting points that have not been checked against DVSA guidance. The software says so on screen: a duty that passes its checks has not been shown to be legal. Until somebody qualified confirms the limits, treat the checking as an aid and not as compliance.

No printed installer trust yet

The installer is not yet signed with a certificate, so Windows will warn you the first time you run it and you will need to click through.

One machine at a time

There is no shared database, so two people cannot edit the same rota at once. The file can be moved between machines.

Early days

Being early means the things you ask for are the things that get built. It also means you are using software that is still finding its faults.

Try it against your own timetable

The honest test is your own routes and your own drivers, not a demo.

See pricing