Back to the daylight

Finally i get back to the daylight shift. It was my last night and for once it was a great duty.. A little traffic but nothing to bad.

There was a little thing that annoyed me though.

In this trade there are 2 types of driver here those that do the job right and those that take the piss. I am one that does the job..the driver infront of me was one that took the piss. With no traffic about last night somehow he managed to run 20 mins late. Our service is every 30 so I was 10 behind him. He came out of the inner terminus running special (out of service). When I got to the outer terminus he had only just left it. This is the sort of thing that gives us a bad name. Why they cant just stick to the times on the running board is beyond me. I can, its not hard, the only problem is when you hit traffic and then its easy to sort the time out so you can run to time. Why they have to muck about and deliberatly run late is beyond me. All that happens is that the driver behind gets annoyed because he gets all the abuse from passengers.

What a waste of time.

So for some strange reason the management think that it is a good idea to run late night busses on a Sunday night.

 Bad idea. Waste of time.

 It is never busy and we just end up totally bored out there. I worked for 5 hours on Sunday night and carried probably 30 passengers… yes thats right 6 an hour… its totally worthless and yet the management still want us to work it.. Ah well at least it pays.

The shift didnt even start well, my bus arrived 25 mins late and i get the feeling that he didnt ask to run dead to me.. All was well though. I took over and did my totally worthless duty.

I did meet probably the most de-evolved “boys” ever. They were totally rude and turned the air blue on my bus and when they got off (finally) the first words they said was “Wheres all the gash”……..

I nearly slapped them. I have not heard anyone refer to Women as that since i was at school… it was low and demeaning then and it still is..

Last night tonight though YAY then i can return to the land of the daylight

Shift From Hell (2)

Well as a follow up, yet again I was running later and later. At least this time i know why. The highways agency have decided to close one of the main roads into and out of the city center. Naturally this means that I hit all the traffic.

So same deal as last time im running late, very very late and naturally people start to complain.

One man decided to really be offended that I was running late. He decided to take it personally out on me.. like I can do anything about it..

 Getting abusive to a bus driver is not the way forward.. needless to say he didnt get where he was going and my bus was a lot quieter.

The Shift From Hell

OMG what a hellish day yesterday was.

 All started fairly well, took over on time (for once) and started off well but then i hit the bus drivers nightmare. TRAFFIC. It took me 25 minutes to do a part of my trip that usually takes….2. Thats how bad it was. It then got worse. I ended up being 25 mins late so everyone was asking me where the bus infront was supposed to be. When I told them it was me they went insanly mad at me. Like I could do anything about it. So then they start swearing and yelling abuse at me. I just ended up getting later and later and being yelled at more and more. I eventually end up getting put back on time only to hit the last part of the traffic jam that I got stuck in 2 hours before!!

Finally managing to get free of that I end up going balls to the wall to keep on time and just to add more stress to this I catch problems at the worst time. I hit yet another traffic jam on my last run.

Out of a possible 40 mins break i get 10 in 7 hours of driving… 6 hours 50 mins behind the wheel. Is it any wonder my legs are aching this morning?

Hopefully today will bring better times

Hmmm How to annoy a bus driver

Well yesterday started off in a totally normal, for my garage anyways, way. I get my bus number and location and upon finding it I find out that I am parked behind 5 others with no way out. So I summon the engineer

 ”Cant get out mate” say I

“what the f***” he says upon spying where i was parked

“For F**** sake” they dont know what they are doing when they park these at night… And so begain a wonderful day

Is this the start?

or maybe can it be the end.

 I have tried several times to start a blog about my life driving a bus. Each time, though, i have hit a wall and can never think of things to write. Now with the wonder that is Twitter I can post little snippets on the road and then, I hope, expand on them at a later date.

But this first post is just going to be about who I am and what I do and perhaps why I do what I do…

I am a driver for the biggest public transport company in the west midlands. I drive 3 of the routes in the garage, 1 more that others. I DO enjoy what I do, but most of the time the day can be pritty crap. I try and find the funny things in the day, things to laugh at and have a smile. These usually are at the expense of the public but if it makes the day go quicker and makes me smile then I dont really care.

I will try and post up what happened during training. Every time I remember it i have to have a little chuckle so that will come later.

Till then