My First Overnight Trip

Being a motorcoach driver now as well as the school bus I get chance to do longer trips with the teams. These can include overnight stays and even all night drives.

I have already done a couple of trips on the coach but this was to be my first overnight. I was to drive with the guy that trained me (also a state trooper WIN) and it was a BIG trip.

We would leave our home base on Thursday evening and travel to Brookings SD, about 60 miles. Not that far I can hear you say… well wait a moment that is just the first leg.

From there we were to travel to South Bend, IN. Now that’s a heck of a trip. 740 Miles and 11 hours 53mins without stops. That’s why we needed two of us. We have to trade-off the driving. And we needed to.

The drive down was not as fun as it should have been. We had to deal with bad road conditions but we are both skilled drivers and nobody noticed it when we made mistakes. I didn’t cover as much as I should have done during my stint behind the wheel, but I got us to the changeover point in one piece.

Now you may be asking why we are going to South Bend. The more internet savvy of you will already have googled it and discovered that it is the home of Notre Dame.

That’s right this bus driver has gotten to go to Notre Dame.

This is one of the perks of being a driver. I am getting to visit placed that I would never normally get to see. Yeah i also have to go to places that I visit every day but you take the rough with the smooth and sometimes you get a really good deal on things. The company that I work for look after you while you are away and they look after their customers very well so that they come back.

I had been talking to other drivers about the trips and had heard all sorts of stories from the good to the bad and had decided that I would just ask questions and not really listen to any horror stories that they may use to try to scare me off and they had plenty of them. Usually during the snow the bus would end up in the ditch and this did not help me at all as the snow was really starting to come down. But the day we had to leave things seemed fine.

I had been given the day off by my boss and was very happy about this. We left for Brookings and the weather was not the best but better than it had been. By the time we had arrived it was snowing nicely and we had wind to deal with as well. While we loaded the passengers and their baggage I asked my co driver how we would run the trip down. He said the he would do as much driving as he could and then hand over to me and take a nap then when he was back awake he would take over as soon as I was ready. I decided to take a short nap and that way I would be fresh for the drive.

The change over happened at Albert Lea, MN. It was still snowing but the roads were good. Once I started into Iowa , though, that soon changed. I was constantly battling the wind and the roads went from bad to worse. I was always aware of my cargo and played it safe. Some points along the way I was only doing 30 instead of the 55 that you can do. That didn’t stop other car drivers from passing me at high-speed. I always stayed aware of the other drivers and drove at the speed that I thought was safe.
My stint at the wheel was very tiring and I was very happy to see the changeover point. I didn’t think that I would sleep at all on the coach but after that driver I was so tired it didn’t take me long to fall asleep.
My co-driver drove the rest of the way and we arrived safe and sound at the hotel. We both thought that we were done for the day and lay down on our beds for a well-earned nap. How wrong we were!
About 10 minutes later the was a knock at our door and the group leader informed us that we were moving hotels as they had found bed bugs in all the other rooms. YIKES. We both leapt off the beds and grabbed our bags and moved hotels. fortunately we found another hotel close by that was willing to accept the group and stayed there for the weekend.

During the days my co-driver and I were not needed that much so we were able to do a little bit of sightseeing and if the weather had been better than we would have done more. I was amazed at the place and took whatever chance I could get to look around. I was not able to get into the football stadium but was able to walk around the outside of it.

The basketball team that we brought down made it to the first round of playoffs and that took place in the main arena. It was quite a sight to walk in there and see it. Everything was laid out just so and you could tell that if something had been moved the caretaker would know straight away. Sadly the team did not win that game. But it could have been partly to do with the fact that they had only 15 minutes of rest but their opponents had not played anyone since 9am that day (it was now 6pm. We asked if they wanted to travel back that night as that was the plan if they went out that day. The group leader thought about it for a few moments and firmly said that he would prefer to travel the following morning. So we set a departure time and turned in for the night.

The trip back was a compete contrast to the ride down. The weather was good and the roads smooth. Everything went according to plan and we arrived back at the home base safe and sound.

I picked up a lot on that trip, little tricks for starting the coach in cold weather. How to park it in a confined hotel parking lot (they really need to think when they lay them out) and finally that my co-driver has a thing for Starbucks coffee.

Coach Driving

The company that I work for isn’t just a school bus company. It
also runs coach tours and, of course, that means that many of the drivers can double up and drive the motorcoaches as well. This had always been something that I wanted to do since I started with them. I talked to my boss about it and he told me that I would have to watch some videos about it and then take a written test on the rules. Following that I then have to take my boss out for a drive so he can make sure that I wasn’t going to run into anything and to make sure that my driving was smooth enough.

The videos were the usual safety things and repeated some points over and over again but I got a lot of useful information from them anyway. Having got through those I met up with my trainer for the coach and went out driving.

The coachs that they have are very similar in height, width and length to the busses I drove in England. The only major difference is that they have a twin rear axel. This can be lifted to reduce the turning circle. My trainer was very impressed with my driving and said so to my boss and that I was ready. So after a short lesson on the log book (more later on that) we scheduled the driving test and I was sent home with a test paper on the regulations.

Fortunatly the test paper was an open book so I was able to look up the regs I needed to answer the questuon and after a long night working on it I passed it in and went out with my boss to drive.

I was very nervious about this, as you can imagine, I wanted to impress him and make sure that there was nothing that he could find that would stop me from driving coach. While we drove he started to ask me about England and why I moved over. Slowly I started to losen up and my driving got more and more relaxewd to such a point that he leaned back in his seat and put his feet up on the one next to him.

After about an hour of driving we returned back to base and after putting the coach away and logging the miles he took me to one side and told me that he was very happy with my driving and would do the paperwork needed to make me a coach driver. Needless to say I was thrilled and very excited. I would now get to see more of the states and as an added bonus get paid for it.

Pre Trip

So the first thing that I have to do every day is to check my bus over. In the UK this was a simple thing to do and didn’t take very long and didn’t really mean much as the bus was always checked out when it came back anyway. Here with the school bus it is a very important part of the day and means a lot. You can loose your licence to drive bus if you don’t have that days pre trip inspection completed and on the bus. It’s that important.

It may seem to some drivers to be a pain in the backside to do but if you get the pattern down it should not take very long at all to do. Yes you have to check everything all the way round the bus from the washer fluid to the exit door at the back but everything that is on the list is very important and needs to be working. There are things that won’t get fixed right away, interior lights, but if you report that your headlight isn’t working then it needs to be fixed straight away. The company that I work for are very good at fixing the bus and have set up a very regular schedule for oil changes etc. On average my bus goes in for service about every two months and that is very frequent.

I have found my fair share of faults, everything from a minor light bulb being out right the way up to my stop arm not working. Both of those got fixed right away.

I always do my checks the same way. I check under the hood first. Then start the bus and listen to it. I know that sounds strange but sometimes on start-up you can hear problems. Once it is running I start checking all my switches. The lights, the heaters etc. Then I move to the inside. Every seat on my bus has a belt so those get checked as do the tie downs for the wheelchairs. The emergency exits are checked and secured. Then its time for the exterior. I check all the body work for damage and make sure that all the clearance lights are working. I run the wheelchair lift and check the duel wheels at the rear. Finally I check the stop arm and crossing arm.

There is a lot more to the check than what I have written there but those are the highlights. It is a very detailed check and covers all of the important areas. I enjoy the time that I spend doing them as it gives me time to get into the right frame of mind for the day ahead. I know that sounds a little silly but it works for me.

There are stories going around of drivers that fail to do the checks and they usually end up with the driver being fired so for the sake of a small part of my day I will always be doing the checks.

 

Its Back

Ok so I said that I would do this again so here it is

Ask The Driver has returned.

I am going to leave the questions open for two weeks this time so that ,hopefully, you will have time to read this and think of a question for me.

You can contact me via email, twitter and leaving a comment here. If you do use twitter please use the hashtag #askthedriver so I can find them.

I will look through them all and pick a few to answer on Jan 14th 2012.

Have fun.

My First Day

Well it had finally arrived.

I had waited out the summer and passed the written test and the practical. Now I stood at the door to my very own School bus with my route sheets in hand ready to go out on my first ever school run. Of course I was worried. I had so much to think about. Would I forget someone? What if they were not ready for me? Would my rider not like me?

Ok so that’s a lot to take in for me on the first day but it was everything that was going through my head at that time. I had not slept very well the night before because of all this but the bottom line was that I was a bus driver again and transporting people safely was something that I knew how to do and I did it very well. All that I had to do was adapt this to my new bus driving.

The day before my wife and I had visited the depot that i would be based at and talked to my dispatcher and gotten my route sheet. Mine was a little different to the others as I would be one of the special ed buses. This means that as well as running a door to door service, I pick the kids up from home and take them back home at the end of the day, I would have wheelchairs on as well. We decided that it would be a good idea to drive the route beforehand so that I at least had some idea of where I was going and where to stop. I was not allowed to let kids cross the street in front of me, they had to always be on the door side of the bus so this meant I had to think a little more about where I had to go and make sure that I always had the pickup on the left. It took a lot of teamwork but we eventually figured it out and I knew where I was going.

The night before I studied my maps and read through the route once more just be sure what I was doing and where I was going,  then after a very restless nights sleep it was time to be a driver again.

I got to the depot (hereafter known as the barn) in plenty of time and found my bus. What a sight it was. All gleaming and yellow and ready to go. After a very thorough pre-trip inspection, after all it hadn’t been used all summer, I got myself comfortable in the seat and turned the key. It thundered to life with the rumble that I hadn’t even realised that I missed. With a smile and a quiet “Geronimo” I was off on my first ever American School Bus Run.

My run starts with picking up an aide from the High School in town and this was easy. She was a very nice lady and we seemed to hit it off right away. She was waiting for me and even knew my name. She had already met most of the kids from previous years riding and was very happy to have a new driver for a change. Once she was onboard we started to go and collect kids. As it was the very first day of school a lot of my younger kids were not in yet and this made life a little easier for me. I only had a couple to collect and this helped the nerves a lot.

At the end of the run I had my first ever wheelchair to load and this was the main cause of my nerves. Not only did I have to find the house I had to make sure that I had enough room for the lift to work and finally I had to strap it down. Finding the house was easy and room for the lift was not a problem. Strapping the chair down, however, was not. The tie downs did not want to work for me at all and it took a lot longer than expected to get both them and the chair secure. After a few skinned knuckles later they finally cooperated. With that we set off for the schools. I had two to drop at and it all went very smoothly and everyone arrived safely.

My aide got off and thanked me for a very nice journey and I thanked her for all her help with the kids, not that they needed anything they were so quiet, and set off back for the barn.

I had a few hours to kill before I had to do the return trip but I was so looking forward to it.

It was a little different I only had to wait at one school to collect all my students. I had more than the morning due to a little different route but it wasnt going to be a problem. I had looked around the route again and knew where I was going very well. As the kids got on I made sure to smile and say hello. A couple of them said hi back and that made me feel a little better about it. After several drops and some laughs with the kids it was all done and I had to make my way back to the barn and put my bus away.

Once back my boss took me to one side and asked how I was doing. “Loved it” was my reply. I had just had a great day at work and I was once again doing something that I loved and getting paid for it.

It had been a great day and as I was soon to learn no day was going to be the same and the one before it.

A Testing Time

I was shaking like a leaf. Today was test day. I had already passed the written tests and undergone all the trainingi could pack in. Now I had to prove myself worthy of the licence.

It was a lot more detailed that the test I underwent in England. They take the transport of children very seriously. It started out with the full pre trip inspection with questions thrown at me all the way round. My examiner was a very nice lady. Smiling and attempting to make me relax but still all business. Once I had completed that, if you fail you don’t drive, it was out onto the road.
I was expecting some driving to help me settle down but all I glt was a short stint and then onto the exercises.
These were a little un-nearving as I had to do them without the examiner being on the bus. She was standing by the road watching my everymove. They went fairly smoothly I just went a little too far back (6 inches) on the ally dock but she was ok with that. When I was asked to pull over and do my hill parking she picked a really bad spot but used the phrase “when its safe and legal to do so…”
Finally after about 30 mins of those it was off out onto the road for driving and pickups. I had to talk my way through the pickup and it was a good thing too. The examiner really liked it.
The driving portion was shorter than I expected and there was no in town driving. I asked my instructor about that and he said that if they are happy then they don’t bother with it. We made it back to the test center and she sat for a moment and looked at her sheet and then said “I am pleased to say you passed and I would be happy to let my kids ride with you”

Thus begins my school bus driving.

Ask The Driver

Now that I am writing again I will restart the Ask The Driver feature that ran on this blog. Start thinking of questions you can ask me and watch here and twitter for the date to send them in.