The HCTB Activities feature enables you to track special bus trips set up by your school, such as field trips, competitions, and food drops. To add such an activity using the app, follow these steps:

Note: Before you can add an activity, you'll need to have your student added to your account. See Adding a Student for details.

  1. Log in to HCTB. (See Logging In to Here Comes the Bus for details, if needed.)
     
    The Here Comes the Bus Home screen will appear.
      
  2. Tap Students.

    The Students screen will appear and display the names of the students in your account.
      
  3. Tap  to the right of the name of the student for whom you want to add a HCTB activity.

    The Activities screen for the student will appear.
       
  4. Tap Add Activity.
     
    The Add Activity screen for the student will appear.
      

  5. Type part of the activity name provided by your school in the search box.
      

  6. Tap .
     
    Matching activities will be displayed in a list.
     
     

  7. Tap the activity you want to add.
      

  8. Tap Add Selected Activity.
     
    A success message will appear, plus a prompt to set up notifications for the activity.
      

  9. Tap .
     
    The Notification screen for the activity will appear.
      

  10. Tap Add New Notification.
     
    The following screen will prompt you to choose the notifying event and time frame you want to monitor.
      

  11. If you want to be alerted when the bus first crosses the threshold of the circular area around the activity zone you will add, you can leave the first option at its default setting of Enter Zone. If you want to be notified when the vehicle exits the circle, tap Leave Zone instead. To use the beginning of the activity as your trigger, tap Activity Start.
     
    By default, the activity is set to be monitored (and the notification sent out) only Monday through Friday.
     
  12. If the activity will occur on the weekend, tap Saturday and/or Sunday to select it as well. Or tap any selected day of the week you don't want to monitor (to deselect it).
     
    By default, the activity is set to be monitored from 6:00 in the morning to 6:00 in the evening.
     
  13. If the activity will occur earlier than this time frame, tap the From field.
      
  14. In the time picker, select a new hour and minute setting prior to the activity's time and then tap OK.
     
  15. If the activity will occur after the default of 6:00 p.m., repeat steps 13 and 14 for the To field, setting a time after you expect the activity will have finished.
     
  16. Tap Next.
     
    A list of all the users tied to your account will appear.
      
  17. If you want all your users to receive an alert for this activity both by email and push notification on a mobile device, you can leave the default setting of everyone selected. If a user on the list doesn't need to be notified by email or via the app, tap  to the right of their email address or mobile device name to deselect them.
     
  18. Tap Next.
     
    You will prompted to add a zone for the notification.
    Note: If you have previously added an activity notification zone, it will appear on this screen for you to select.
     
  19. Tap Add New Address to add a new zone (or select your previously added zone and skip down to step 24).
      
  20. Type the address you want to use for your notification in the Enter Address box and then tap ; for example, if you are adding a notification for an orchestra trip, and the bus is returning your student to the school afterward, you might want to use the address of the school — so that you'll be notified when the vehicle enters the circular area you specify around the school.
     
    The map will place a pin at that location and zoom to it.
      
  21. On the slider bar below the address field (with 250 ft on the left in the example in the preceding figure), tap and drag  to the right to make your notification circle larger (or to the left to make it smaller).
     
  22. When the circle is the size you want, tap Next.
     
    You'll be prompted to name the zone.
      
  23. In the Enter Name field, type a name that will easily identify it for you, such as Sam's School.
     
  24. Tap Next (or Save, if you skipped down to this step from step 19).
     
    The Notification Summary screen will appear.
      
    You will now be alerted when the activity occurs according to your settings. You can also track the activity on the map. (See Tracking Your Student's Bus for details.)
    Note: You can edit the zone by tapping  to the right of the zone name, repeating steps 20 through 23, and selecting Save. You can edit the time frame to monitor, plus the recipients, by tapping  to the right of the days of the week, repeating steps 12 through 17, and selecting Save Changes. Also, you can delete the notification by tapping  and then Delete in the warning dialog box.