Becoming a bus driver?

My mum's work colleague's husband is a bus driver in London, especially good when they get paid around 10k more there than what Luton bus drivers get.
 
PH4NT0MBL4DE said:
Anyone done this or is currently a bus driver? How hard was the training? Any experience you could share with the training and how it all progresses would be very welcome. P.s do I need to wear a stab proof vest
Thanks all
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Depending on where you are. The training itself is quite intensive. Personally I was a bus driver for 15 years and I can say with some authority, The day I got my hgv licence and could quit buses was one of the best days of my life. I mean the pay is crap with the exception of London. The hours are long and if you do over time, you are paid a flat hourly rate. And then there's the rude ignorant miserable looking people who get on and off your bus, who treat you like their skive you and will complain about the tiniest little thing. And they will try and get you sacked by phoning customer service so you have to be on your guard. luckily this has never happened to me but I know drivers who have been spat at, verbally and physically assaulted. And one driver even had **** thrown at him... and the management wanted him to carry on with his shift. And the management that's a lottery what kindo of management you get. Bad management can make the job 10 times harder than it needs to be. If you really want a driving job get your heavy goods licence (c+e) Better pay and a lot less stressful personally I do 4 days over the weekend, on Saturday and Sunday alone I come out with more than I used get on the buses in a whole week.
 
Just stumbled across this . I am a bus driver south coast,and have been for many years . I agree with everything William Threads post says , bus drivers are the poor relations in the driving family. Not helped by little understanding from employers ,poor conditions , with little protection. If you see a bus companies always looking for new drivers, enticing you in with paid training ... There's a good reason for it , high staff driver turn over , ... . you have to remember your on show to everyone and scrutinised and judged that way. Often if it be a traffic incident or complaint from passengers your Guilty until proven otherwise . Very unsocial hours, and long hours .
You would think from when i started things would have improved but alas they haven't if i could i would give it up,. Not feeling well ?? tough **** drive, think your not safe enough to drive your reward....... discipline procedure on attendance . Where i am a few days off within a 6month period on final warning ....( oh that includes being late for work) ....... finally they call you in and dismiss you on grounds of " unfulfilling contract" or " capability to do job".

Often know of drivers out on road , knowing there unwell or injured but fearful of disciplinary procedures....... Also busses are out every day of the year , you have work bank holidays and festive period ( which is murder) you get holidays but you have them when your told to not when you request them. Not good for family balance at all.

Unless you need the money ,or need temp position i would avoid especially the big four transport companies/corporations.....if possible to them your just a commodity to earn money of the back off.....your welfare does not come into the equation.

The training, although usually thorough does tend to put a glossy outlook on bus driving, and the CPC classroom based modules ,,...ha what a joke. Does not really prepare you for the cold ,stressful reality and demands of the job now.

Drivers who have fallen into bus driving from other occupations ,often start with first few months with high expectations thinking it.ll be a breeze but gradually it wears them down and admit wholeheartedly that if they new it was going to be that tough they would not started.

I,m sorry to anyone thinking of starting .....DON,T....!
 
My old man was a bus driver for 30 odd years on PMT, with a few stints driving coaches for National Express, up until he retired 20 years ago. I could ask him how he went about it, but I doubt any advice he has would be pertinent these days.
 
Malevolence said:
My old man was a bus driver for 30 odd years on PMT, with a few stints driving coaches for National Express, up until he retired 20 years ago. I could ask him how he went about it, but I doubt any advice he has would be pertinent these days.
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My best mate got made redundant and signed up with PMT/First Choice.
He found the lessons/test easy but he was then under contract to stay for 2 years.
He's now with D&G and loves it.
 
I did an intensive driving course over 3 or 4 days with the test on the last day because I thought my current job was going to end and a mate could have got me a driving job. That was 2.5 years ago and I haven't driven one since :D
 
Did it for a few years over a decade ago, some time with a local company before and after it was bought over by a big national company. So it wasnt completely terrible... the driving bit is fine, love driving. Colleagues and friends you make are brilliant, how you get treated by passengers is a bit hit and miss some are great and truly appreciative some are complete *********, how you get treated by your employers is abysmal! It was an interesting experience but wouldnt do it again, too many hours, too much stress, not enough pay to make it worth it. Looking back at it though I dont regret doing it.

Got to echo much of what busman69 says though...
 
You have a choice, drive a large hgv derived vehicle with surly at best occupants giving you grief whilst you travel your set route day in, day out ,or, you obtain a class C then ideally your C+E license where you drive to invariably different destinations daily in a proper cab with anything from 300 to 750 bhp under your right foot and a load that doesn't answer back....

If you want to drive for a living, think long and hard before you choose to transport people....
 
I took my PCV test 22 years ago, paid for by myself. I began to look for PCV driving jobs back then and was offered a job on the spot by a Local bus firm. I spoke to other drivers during Route Learning & I quit after four days.
Reasons? You are treated as the lowest form of life by the some of the members of the public, the authorities & management was the general opinion of nearly all the drivers I spoke to back then.
I drive a smaller vehicle than a bus for a living for 16 years now (7.5 tonner) The local bus depot is advertising vacancies at a better rate of pay & less hours than I'm on now (works out about the same but I get pretty good bonuses on top) I'm staying put though, I deliver to two of their depots & the drivers attitude now is the same is it was back then.
My advice is to anyone on here thinking about it is you need a thick skin & it would be a good idea to join the drivers union.
 
A friend who was interested in the job told me that bus driving is just the apprenticeship for coach driving where the real money is made. Any of the bus and coach drivers here care to clue me in?
 
Quartz said:
A friend who was interested in the job told me that bus driving is just the apprenticeship for coach driving where the real money is made. Any of the bus and coach drivers here care to clue me in?
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If your willing to work a 70hr week break laws and ignore tachometer investigations you can make some very good money.

Up until a few months ago I was a career bus driver, but the last year or two I had grown to despise the job, the company and the public. No body respects you but everybody expects you to do everything for them, bend over backwards to make the company profitable whilst trying to maintain the time table and keep within the law!
 
I don't use the buses around here very often, tend to use the trams as they are more convenient for my usual journeys, but the times that I have they've been pretty good (and I can use my smart card pass on them as well).

When I used to live down in Hampshire the buses were awful ... the drivers used to drive like they had stolen the bus and had sevearl police cars and helicopter after them. They also seemed to not understand basic physics when it came to breaking distances and cornering speeds ...
 
BigBoy said:
If your willing to work a 70hr week break laws and ignore tachometer investigations you can make some very good money.
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Tachometers measure engine rpm.

Tachographs are what records duty, driving and rest time, the days of flouting these laws are over, you won’t make good money by doing so because any employer worth working for would have you out on your ear as soon as any wilful infringing of the rules was discovered, the reason for this is if your caught flouting the law the vehicle operator is at serious risk of losing their operators license and were you working for somebody willing to allow this then you’d seriously need to consider your choice of employer!
 
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