Ask The Driver (14)

A bumper crop of questions for me this week. Here I go with the answers.

 

Rachelcreative Where do bus drivers go on holiday? And how do they get there? ;o)

Well this is a question that I have been waiting for someone to ask. Most of the garages that I know of usually organize some sort of summer trip over the weekend. We take over a hotel. The best bit is that the preferred mode of transport is a bus. Sometimes it’s a rented one and I have heard of one garage just borrowing one for the weekend with the drivers rotating who drives.

 

Bounder do busses have speed-limiters? If so how fast, if not how fast do you think you could get up to?

Some of them do and they are set anywhere from 42mph to 55mph. During part of my training I had to drive a Lynx on the motorway and I managed to get it all the way up to 65mph and it felt like it was going to fly apart.

 

Peteashton Does a bus handle differently when it’s empty to when it’s full?

Oh yeah it sure does. The whole bus gets lower and the steering is a lot heavier. The ride does get a little softer but it takes a lot longer to pull away from the stop. It also takes a lot longer to stop. Once you are used to it though you hardly notice the difference.

What’s the official policy on pulling away b4 everyone seated?

The official word is to make sure that everyone is seated but it is accepted to pull away before everyone has their seats as if we were to wait for everyone to sit down the bus would always be late. If someone asks me to wait then I will wait. I always take great care when I pull away from a stop to make sure that no one loses their footing.

 

Podnosh is their a sick cleaning squad who will come and sluice out your bus half way round the inner circle?

I have never heard of one but that’s a great idea. The last time someone was sick on my bus I had to drive it all the way to the end of my run and then back to the garage. Ill have to mention that to someone.

Littlelaura If you could choose or add to your bus’s features for benefit of passengers – what would they be?

Now this is great. There are a lot of things that I would like to add to the bus to make life for the passenger easier and safer. How about seatbelts for a start. I bet you didn’t know that even the driver doesn’t have one! Next what about a heating/air-con system that is well maintained and actually works. Headphones for the music players that don’t have them. Ejector seats for those that still don’t use them. Comfortable seats for the passengers and driver. A trap door for those that won’t pay so they can just be deposited off the bus. A better gearbox would be wonderful as would smoother engines. Wipers that don’t squeak and heated windscreens. Those are just a few things that I would like. Oh and quicker doors.

 

Watfordgap would you swap driving in the urban west midlands for driving in a rural place?

I thought about this for a long while and actually I would like to swap for a rural area. Here in the city the pace of life always seems to be very fast and that makes for short tempers when things go wrong. My experience in the country is that it is a little easier going. It could also provide a great challenge to drive a bus down some of those little country lanes to get to some of the more remote places but I do love a challenge.

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