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Peter (member story)
Mar 10, 08 - 5:01 PM |
Peter's new job.
As planned I started on 2 January. To be fair I was not thrown in at the deep end, but spent a day on induction training which was helpful. The second day I was out on the road on a training bus, and this helped me to remember some of the things I had forgotten over the years. The third day was back in the classroom covering many aspects of health and safety and daily vehicle checks. This took me into the second week at which point I was attached to a "mentor" and was out on regular service. For the first day I was "shadowing" him, but from then on I took over more and more of the driving, until I was driving the complete shift after a few days. I quickly found that life has got much faster in the years I have been away. My old pace which I used back in WMPTE days simply would not do, and I found myself running late on several occasions, which led to complaints about people missing connections and appointments. I needed to speed up though my basic driving was OK. It took some time to get used to issuing tickets and giving change (we had a farebox system at WMPTE), and of course we now issue a wide range of multi journey and weekly tickets which we never had in those days. I spent 8 days with a mentor, and then I was let loose on my own. At this point all the things that never went wrong when I was with a mentor all happened one day after another. On the first day the Wayfarer froze just as I was about to leave the bus station on our fastest and most difficult road. I had no choice but to resort to emergency tickets which we have to write out manually! By the time I got back to the bus station I was so late that I had to miss a complete trip. The next day on the very same service I took over a bus which would not stop in straight line no matter what I tried but I managed to get that changed but lost another trip. After that things started to settle down a bit more. I have had more Wayfarer problems but I am faster on the emergency tickets now, and the problems have occurred not on fast roads but on some of our more rural routes where there is a bit more time. As they say, however, pride comes before a fall and yesterday, just as I was feeling totally in control, I was challeneged by a passenger about the route I was taking through an estate. The challenge was, unfortuantely, a sarcastic remark of which I didn't realise the significance until she was off the bus. I had only done that route in that direction at night previously and there had been no-one on the bus at this point, and it seems I had missed a right turn to go through a different part of the estate. At least I know now! I am really enjoying the job in spite of all the minor problems, which I am sure will get less as I get more experience. I am compiling a list of things to raise at my end of probation interview, if that ever happens. These will not be moans, but rather genuine concerns, which if resolved would make the job not only easier but would also improve the service by making it more reliable. One thing which has struck me is how the level of business has gone down in the passage of years. When I was a conductor at Blackpool in the 1960s I can remember regularly working shifts where you issued 700 to 800 tickets in a day, and at times you might issue over 1000! Nowadays, even on very busy days, we rarely carry more than 300 people in a shift. It may be a lot busier in the cities of course, where the job is very different. On the subject of vehicles, I can't say that the standard of bus has greatly improved from a driving point of view. The older Dennis Darts are not too bad, but we have some Volvo B6 types which are quite poor. The SLF Darts I find very flimsy, and they bounce around on our poorly maintained roads in an alarming way. It feels as if there is nothing underneath the bus at all. We now have several VDL SB200 full-size single decks which are a different proposition altogether. They feel solid and dependable, and really there is only one way to drive them which is the correct way. They give a very smooth ride to the customers and several have already made comments to me about this. PETER WILL UPDATE US FURTHER AS THE WEEKS PASS....PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT!! |
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