School Bus Location Tracking POC

I need a compact proof-of-concept that shows, in real time, where each school bus is on its route. The core objective is simple: accurate bus location tracking. I want to merge data coming from a small GPS tracker installed on the vehicle with fallback location updates from a driver-side mobile app, then surface that single, reliable feed to parents on a lightweight web or mobile view.

Here is the flow I have in mind. A GPS unit on the bus sends latitude-longitude to a cloud back-end every few seconds. If the unit loses signal, the driver app (Android or iOS) immediately takes over and continues transmitting coordinates. The server reconciles whichever source is freshest, stores it, and pushes an update to any parent currently watching the map for their child’s route. No administrator or driver dashboards are required for this POC; only parents need to see the data, and they should see nothing beyond their own bus.

Because this is an experiment, the visual layer can be very lean—Google Maps, Mapbox, or similar works—so long as the bus icon moves smoothly and the location refresh rate feels live. Security must include basic authentication for parents and straightforward mapping between a parent login and a single bus feed.

Deliverables:
• Firmware or configuration for the GPS device and sample data packets
• Driver mobile app (or background service) that streams location when GPS hardware is offline
• Back-end code/API that fuses the two signals, stores history, and serves a WebSocket or REST endpoint
• Parent-facing web/mobile view that displays the bus on a map in real time
• Setup guide so I can run the complete stack on my own AWS or Firebase test environment

Acceptance criteria: a parent logging in sees only their assigned bus, the map refreshes at least every five seconds, and if I physically power down the GPS unit the mobile fallback continues tracking without noticeable delay.

If you have solid experience with GPS hardware integration, mobile location services, and real-time map displays, this should be a quick, rewarding build.