Wanna be a bus driver?

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

From here: expressandstar.com/news/2012 … s-drivers/

Thousands of people who applied to be bus drivers in the West Midlands have been turned down, with many rejected for penalty points on their driving licences, it has emerged.

Scores of vacancies for bus drivers remain unfilled. National Express West Midlands took on 420 bus drivers over the last year out of 4,500 applicants. A spate of older drivers retiring created 170 more spaces.

But, despite the high number of people looking for jobs, bosses are still seeking more because of the number that failed to make the grade.

They blamed the failure rate on applicants having points on their driving licences.

The bus industry standard is to accept drivers with three points — the equivalent of one minor speeding offence.

But National Express does not allow anyone to pass the interview if they have any points at all.

The company also runs literacy and numeracy tests and some applicants failed those as well.

Trainees who make the grade are put through their paces at the firm’s training centre in Walsall.

The base in Carl Street is where trainees are tested on theory and their driving is assessed as they take on a purpose-built obstacle course, navigating their way through cones.

Braking, manoeuvring, speed and control is all tested on the course before they can head out onto routes with a mentor.

Mark Simcox, head of training and driving recruitment at the firm, said: “It is about training them up for a professional role. It isn’t about just being a bus driver, we want them to see it as a career.”

London based bus company Abellio recently flew to Poland to find 50 drivers because it could not find suitable applicants among britain’s 2.5 million unemployed.

National Express West Midlands spokesman Jack Kelly said: “We are committed to developing opportunities for people in the West Midlands through Jobcentre Plus.

“As well as having a rigorous test people have to have a clean driving licence.”

2

brados:
From here: expressandstar.com/news/2012 … s-drivers/

Thousands of people who applied to be bus drivers in the West Midlands have been turned down, with many rejected for penalty points on their driving licences, it has emerged.

Scores of vacancies for bus drivers remain unfilled. National Express West Midlands took on 420 bus drivers over the last year out of 4,500 applicants. A spate of older drivers retiring created 170 more spaces.

But, despite the high number of people looking for jobs, bosses are still seeking more because of the number that failed to make the grade.

They blamed the failure rate on applicants having points on their driving licences.

The bus industry standard is to accept drivers with three points — the equivalent of one minor speeding offence.

But National Express does not allow anyone to pass the interview if they have any points at all.

The company also runs literacy and numeracy tests and some applicants failed those as well.

Trainees who make the grade are put through their paces at the firm’s training centre in Walsall.

The base in Carl Street is where trainees are tested on theory and their driving is assessed as they take on a purpose-built obstacle course, navigating their way through cones.

Braking, manoeuvring, speed and control is all tested on the course before they can head out onto routes with a mentor.

Mark Simcox, head of training and driving recruitment at the firm, said: “It is about training them up for a professional role. It isn’t about just being a bus driver, we want them to see it as a career.”

London based bus company Abellio recently flew to Poland to find 50 drivers because it could not find suitable applicants among britain’s 2.5 million unemployed.

National Express West Midlands spokesman Jack Kelly said: “We are committed to developing opportunities for people in the West Midlands through Jobcentre Plus.

“As well as having a rigorous test people have to have a clean driving licence.”

Surprise surprise it seems that the Polish are better in every way than British bus drivers. :unamused:

I’m surprised that the Jamaicans haven’t kicked off about discrimination considering that they were all considered as the best in the 1950’s and 1960’s. :smiling_imp: :laughing:

3

… That’s a lot of hoops to jump through - And for what pay exactly? :question: :open_mouth: :confused:

4

So you think that being able to drive properly and be proficient in English language as well as numeracy is a lot of hoops to jump through. I don’t agree at all.

If I was looking for a driver for buses, I’d be wanting something a lot better than some of the people I’ve worked with on the buses here in Brisbane !

You must have noticed the standard of driving nowadays, I certainly have on my trips back to England. I asked a question of a bus driver in Hatfield, and he could hardly speak a [zb] word of English !!

Rather than a lot of hoops to jump through, I think it’s more to do with not dumbing everything down because of political correctness.

5

Winseer:
… That’s a lot of hoops to jump through - And for what pay exactly? :question: :open_mouth: :confused:

£8.57 per hour.

I guess that’s the basic rate after a probationary period and the chances are you will have to give them two years employment or repay the cost of training.

6

I have a clean PCV licence (0 pts :sunglasses: somehow) and I didn’t apply for it.

a) the job’s a load of crap, but I am re-considering after 4.5yrs on the trucks tbh…

b) it’s too far away - and I’m nowhere near as far away as Poland.

c) the wages are quite poor for what you have to do / deal with. At least in trucks, if you need a crap, you just stop at the next services, try that with 40 passengers on. Or sneezing, or singing along to the radio, or answering pop master etc.

£8.57 might be a touch more than your average C+E wages per hour, but you work for them and probably only get paid for the hours you work too, 2hrs in a services waiting for your changeover could be 2hrs unpaid.

7

waynedl:
I have a clean PCV licence (0 pts :sunglasses: somehow) and I didn’t apply for it.

a) the job’s a load of crap, but I am re-considering after 4.5yrs on the trucks tbh…

b) it’s too far away - and I’m nowhere near as far away as Poland.

c) the wages are quite poor for what you have to do / deal with.

At least in trucks, if you need a crap, you just stop at the next services, try that with 40 passengers on. Or sneezing, or singing along to the radio, or answering pop master etc.

£8.57 might be a touch more than your average C+E wages per hour, but you work for them and probably only get paid for the hours you work too, 2hrs in a services waiting for your changeover could be 2hrs unpaid.

You forgot knuckle shuffle! You could get into trouble if the bus was full I suppose :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

8

After the driver toppled the coach around 2005 national express uped the standards for drivers most of the coaches now have cctv pointing at the driver on board tracking and breathalyser machines connected to the ignition system so if you have alcohol on your breath the coach wont start .
must admit i have seen an improvment over the years in driving standards of nat ex drivers

all the services from scotland going south are now double manned and you get paid right through your shift so if you do a 21 hr double man shift then both drivers get paid 21 hrs

they also have random drug testing too

9

ND888 BIGJ:
After the driver toppled the coach around 2005 national express uped the standards for drivers most of the coaches now have cctv pointing at the driver on board tracking and breathalyser machines connected to the ignition system so if you have alcohol on your breath the coach wont start .
must admit i have seen an improvment over the years in driving standards of nat ex drivers

all the services from scotland going south are now double manned and you get paid right through your shift so if you do a 21 hr double man shift then both drivers get paid 21 hrs

they also have random drug testing too

That’s on the coaches, the advert is for bus drivers.

10

Didn’t know National Express ran busses, only coaches and trains as far as I know. :question:

11

Travel West Midlands is owned by National Express, in the same way that Central Trains used to be owned by National Express as did Scotrail etc etc

I am desperately trying to get on the Nat Ex services at my place (coach company)…thanks to a change in manager that has rendered the proper coach side of things a great big love in for 5 drivers while the rest of us have to hoover up the ■■■■ that they don’t want!

Worst thing about Nat Ex is their “Traffilog” system…a system of coloured lights that “monitors” your driving! The camera don’t really bother me as they can get out of the ■■■■ as well as drop you in it!

12

DonutUK:
Travel West Midlands is owned by National Express, in the same way that Central Trains used to be owned by National Express as did Scotrail etc etc

I am desperately trying to get on the Nat Ex services at my place (coach company)…thanks to a change in manager that has rendered the proper coach side of things a great big love in for 5 drivers while the rest of us have to hoover up the [zb] that they don’t want!

Worst thing about Nat Ex is their “Traffilog” system…a system of coloured lights that “monitors” your driving! The camera don’t really bother me as they can get out of the [zb] as well as drop you in it!

The easiest way to get around the Traffibog is to use someone else’s number, i’ll sell you my old one if you like. :laughing:

13

Ive seen the ads on the back of the buses here in brum and the 8.75 is in small print as it mentions the words after probation , I rang up the other week after seeing them advertising jobs and they were only interested in non psv holders ,seemingly i’m over qualified with D+E :open_mouth:

14

mucker85:

DonutUK:
Travel West Midlands is owned by National Express, in the same way that Central Trains used to be owned by National Express as did Scotrail etc etc

I am desperately trying to get on the Nat Ex services at my place (coach company)…thanks to a change in manager that has rendered the proper coach side of things a great big love in for 5 drivers while the rest of us have to hoover up the [zb] that they don’t want!

Worst thing about Nat Ex is their “Traffilog” system…a system of coloured lights that “monitors” your driving! The camera don’t really bother me as they can get out of the [zb] as well as drop you in it!

The easiest way to get around the Traffibog is to use someone else’s number, i’ll sell you my old one if you like. :laughing:

Don’t think they use numbers now, just a key fob type thing…could be wrong though!

15

brados:

Winseer:
… That’s a lot of hoops to jump through - And for what pay exactly? :question: :open_mouth: :confused:

£8.57 per hour.

I guess that’s the basic rate after a probationary period and the chances are you will have to give them two years employment or repay the cost of training.

Pfffftt! :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp:

16

DonutUK:

mucker85:

DonutUK:
Travel West Midlands is owned by National Express, in the same way that Central Trains used to be owned by National Express as did Scotrail etc etc

I am desperately trying to get on the Nat Ex services at my place (coach company)…thanks to a change in manager that has rendered the proper coach side of things a great big love in for 5 drivers while the rest of us have to hoover up the [zb] that they don’t want!

Worst thing about Nat Ex is their “Traffilog” system…a system of coloured lights that “monitors” your driving! The camera don’t really bother me as they can get out of the [zb] as well as drop you in it!

The easiest way to get around the Traffibog is to use someone else’s number, i’ll sell you my old one if you like. :laughing:

Don’t think they use numbers now, just a key fob type thing…could be wrong though!

I can get you one of those if you want, who do you want to be?

17

Traffilog is tied into when you log into the ticket machine, and if you don’t log into the ticket machine with your own ID you don’t get paid, simple as.

Whilst the buses all have CCTV they have 9 different systems for recording, from VHS cassette to hard drives and solid state drives. Some over-write, some have cassette changes and others download at night time too.

Assuming the cameras worked. A lot of the time they either didn’t, didn’t get enough information or the chavs upstairs would have covered over the lenses so they couldn’t see who had set the bus alight.

If you’re on a regular shift it’s 7.5hrs, with a 45-60 minute unpaid lunch break. If you run over your time because you’re running late most times they’ll ask you to work it as overtime to save delaying your next bus.

There is a radio and tracking system so they say they can see where the buses are but often ignore you on the radio. Because the radio is trunked (in the 200Mhz bus allocation range) and it is internet linked across the fleet, if you press the emergency button and the local controller doesn’t answer it will go through to the next available office. ie Dundee!

On some buses you can’t bypass the doors and keep them closed due to the controls, so if someone uses the emergency doors to jump out of the bus and gets run over, it’s automatically the drivers fault.

The buses are automatics that use the viscous coupling method meaning not a chunky change like trucks. If you’ve got your C then the main difference you will find will be sitting forward of the front driving wheels and that when you are trained you are actively encouraged to use the swing over the pavements assuming no street furniture.

They self insure with a bond, so if you do have an incident you don’t need to tell your insurance company because they won’t.

The wikipedia page for National Express has enough information and their vehicles about them. If you don’t like bus spotters then take care, because if you flip them the bird that’s gross misconduct and sacking.

If they train you up then you leave by whatever method inside 2 years you pay the training back. After the 2 years you got a pay rise, this has now been cancelled. It would have been £8ph start, then £9.60 (2 years) and £10.60 after 5 years.

Most passengers that get on won’t have valid tickets or passes. If you get in their face and refused to drive you will get a bollocking as you are there to drive and it is the inspectors or revenue department that deal with tickets. Pensioners can’t travel before 9.30 in most cases but still get on and refuse to get off. If they are caught or seen on your bus before 9.30 it’s pulled up in front of the boss to explain, and in most cases it will be a written warning… the idea is to stop and wait for them to get off, but most don’t have much to do so if you sit there for 20 minutes and delay all the other services, you’ll still be bought up in front of the boss. Can’t win either way.

Plenty of threads on here from ex-service bus drivers. If you’re on the coaches they expect you to be at full speed as much as possible. The only fill in I did for NXC meant that they had timed it so that I was doing 62mph between bus stations, so as soon as I had left the bus station I was up to 62 and stayed there, even if I had 10 miles of city roads to get to the motorway. Tough.

One of the reasons why they are short on drivers locally was a new manager wanted to get the complaints and incident levels down so most minor incidents went straight up to a final written warning, and the got rid of over 100 drivers in a 3 month period, another 80 in the next 6 months. This resulted in them being 50 drivers down on most routes and are now using agency drivers locally plus most drivers are on more OT.

Overtime. There is always OT available. Always. Some pre-planned but a lot on the fly. Your pay will be the same, same rate. No time and a bit. Whatever the day/time it is always the same rate.

18

I just applied to Stagecoach in Exeter…Needs must! :open_mouth:

19

Some threads for you to read on :wink:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=74803

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=72394

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=67519

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65298

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=47573

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=79424

20

I’m a london bus driver.
My basic minimum rate is £11.44 per hour.