# DIDCOM Passenger ID: Recording Every Student or Employee Boarding With a Card Tap

'Did my child get on the bus' has one honest answer, and it is not the driver's recollection. DIDCOM Passenger ID gives each rider a card or fob, records every boarding and departure with the bus's GPS position, and puts the answer in the platform and, where the operator chooses, in the parent's app.

Source: https://www.highpointgps.com/resources/didcom-passenger-id-student-boarding
By Max Karnaukh, VP of Sales — published 2026-09-18, updated 2026-09-18

## Ridership Is a Record, Not a Memory

School bus operators, employee shuttle services and paratransit providers all get the same call: was the rider on the bus, and where did they get off. A driver with sixty children aboard cannot answer from memory, and a head count at the school is too late. DIDCOM Passenger ID puts a reader at the door; each rider taps a card or fob when boarding and again when leaving; the reader, connected to the GO device through the IOX port, records the rider, the time and the bus's position for each tap.

## What the Operator Sees

In MyGeotab, each bus carries a live manifest: who is aboard now, who boarded at which stop, who has not tapped off. Exceptions are rules like any other: a rider who boarded and has not tapped off when the bus reaches the yard, a rider who got off at a stop that is not theirs, a rider who did not board on a day they were expected. Reports by route and by day support the board's ridership planning and the contractor's billing where it is per rider.

## What the Parent Sees

Where the operator deploys a parent app, the tap is the notification: boarded at 7:42, off at 8:05 at the school. That is a different and better answer than 'the bus passed your stop', and it is the feature parents ask for once they know it exists. Access is scoped so a parent sees only their own child.

## Setup

A reader per bus door, connected to the GO device; cards or fobs issued to riders and registered in the platform; and the exception rules and, optionally, the parent-facing add-in. High Point GPS installs Passenger ID for school boards, contractors and shuttle operators in Quebec, Ontario and the northeastern US.

## FAQ

### What is DIDCOM Passenger ID?

A card or fob system with a reader at the bus door that records each rider's boarding and departure with the bus's GPS position, through the Geotab GO device.

### Does it work for employees as well as students?

Yes. Employee shuttles and paratransit use the same readers and cards.

### Can it alert when a child does not get off?

Yes. A rider still aboard when the bus reaches the yard, or off at the wrong stop, triggers an exception.

### Can parents see the taps?

Where the operator deploys a parent app, boarding and departure taps appear as notifications for that parent's child only.

### What if a rider forgets the card?

The driver can record the boarding manually in the app; the exception report shows manual entries for follow-up.

## Sources

- [Geotab Marketplace](https://marketplace.geotab.com/)
- [National Association for Pupil Transportation](https://www.napt.org/)