[Image-1]
Hey Mr. 34 Driver, you know, bus 998 driving Scotia Square on Wednesday at 5pm-ish. Why do you hate your job so much? I don’t care that you’re cranky and have been dick to everyone boarding the past 3 days I’ve been on your bus. I don’t care how you yelled at the nice woman trying to get out by waving her hand in front of the door even though it didn’t open (I watched).
I just need to know why you hate your job so much. I get there’s a lot of traffic, but that’s your fucking job…..to drive through traffic. But you have to drive angry and take it out on everybody on your bus with your constantly treating every single stop like it’s a panic stop when it’s not, to the point of that one older lady falling over on one of the side benches.
Driving is not for you, Dude. Find something else to do. —Never driven a bus in my life but could easily drive one better than you
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2015.
“Find something else to do.”
We’ve been telling Wheels to do this for years, OB. *sigh*
Panic stops….times when there’s an emergency text coming in that needs immediate response.
It should be mandated that to drive buses requires driving taxi for at least 5 years in this city to gain experience in having good customer skills in a myriad of situations and hopefully learn some driving skills.
Why does the driver hate their job so much? The person drives a BUS.
Moving the great unwashed from point A to point B in these streets would be a tad stressful. No excuse for rudeness but still, stressful.
A TIP FROM THE EXPERT
Did I ever mention that I drove an Acadian Lines bus while a student in Halifax? No? Well, here’s a tip from the expert.
I was heading back to Halifax with a load of nuns who were returning from their summer cottage somewhere around Prospect. Anyway, we were heading down this steep hill on the two-lane highway. The ocean was to our right and the base of a large hill to our left. There was no shoulder. The highway took a sharp turn to the left at the bottom of the hill obscuring the sight of any approaching cars. I touched the air-brake pedal. Nothing. Our speed increased. At the bottom of the hill there was a McCullough Lumber truck who was BACKING UP THE HIGHWAY ON OUR SIDE! I knew the only hope was to go around him but, just at that moment, a little car appeared from around the turn. THERE WERE TWO LANES OF TRAFFIC HEADING TOWARDS US AND MY BRAKES DIDN’T WORK!!
I pulled on the cord connected to the air horn to give the McCullough Lumber truck a blast. Nothing, He kept coming up my side of the road! The only thing was to run the bus off the ocean side and hope that the front wheels would dig into the soft shoulder and not carry us on into the water. OFF WE WENT! No noise from the nuns in the back, just dead silence. The bus went down and finally, just before it rolled, the front wheels dug in and it hung there, dangling over the waves.
I tried to open the door with the moveable lever by the driver’s seat but it wouldn’t open. I stood up and addressed the nuns. “I’ve never been in this situation before,” I explained, “but there’s an emergency door on the side of the bus you can open from the inside. I’ll be going out the driver’s window.” I did and they did. An Acadian Lines tow truck came along later and winched the bus back onto the road.
Back a headquarters on Dresden Row the boss told me that the nuns had written praising my coolness under pressure. I explained that the air brakes didn’t work going down the hill. He said, “Yeah, that happens sometimes.” Nice.
But what’s the tip from the expert? Right. Stay cool, keep calm and keep a tight asshole. Maybe Mr. 34 Driver should take the tip.
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!
It’s the only job I know of that makes people with a complete lack of marketable skills feel soooo entitled. It really is bizarre.
Of course there was no noise from the nuns, You bored then to death,
Dim Bro, come over here and let me sit on your face.
I suspect that the profession of bus driver will be one of the first to fall victim to the advent of driverless vehicles. The routes are very predictable and programmable. The driver will be replaced by an attendant (a security guard) to provide security and respond to emergencies.
haha I know that hill and turn MM, its brutal! esp in winter with those assholes driving pickups. nice walking trails behind the nun’s retreat.
So you think you could do better? I get it that with a company that has more than six hundred drivers you’re bound to get a few bad apples. But we’re driving a BUS, for heaven’s sake! No seriously, stop a minute and ask yourself why. Why are the bus drivers so cranky if it’s such a good and cushy job? Well I thought you’d never ask, I says. First of all, people believe we do it on purpose to be late or miss a stop. Then we are expected to be able to read minds, know where every bus is in this city and when they will arrive. All this and much more while being assaulted, spit on, yelled and sneered at, knifed, shot at, accused of just about everything under the sun, and you have the nerve to write this bitch? I’m with Wheels on this one. Get yourself hired Mr.Perfect, last at least seven years (if you can), and we shall see of what tune you now sing. Do I hear scratching, clucking, and pecking? Your fucking job is to get on, pay the fare and sit down. If you have a complaint against a driver then call it in, but don’t assume you can do a better job than the driver you’re talking about . You have to try it first. Better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re an idiot, than to open it and leave no doubt.
People love to tell us how to do our jobs and haven’t the foggiest of what they think they know, which is nothing. Most of you who love to bash us wouldn’t last a day without wanting to go crying home to your mommies and daddies. So put up or shut up. How can you possibly know what it’s like to drive transit if you have never done it? Better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are stupid, than to open it and leave no doubt.
^^^^Sade here mentioned getting shot at. Didn’t a bus get shot at last night? By a snow driver of all people.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/…
“Better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are stupid than to open it and leave no doubt.”
“An empty bus is a happy bus.”
You bus folk sure love your catch phrases and repetition. Not sure if it’s the result of driving in circles all day or the low level of education required to do the job.
McDonalds is always looking for help on the french fry machine, Smooth Operator.
I can empathize with anyone who serves the general public. You never know who is going to walk through your door. It takes a certain type of person to be able to deal with the full range of interactions.
That said, if you are finding yourself feeling contempt for your clients (the very people who pay your salary) then maybe you aren’t suited for the job and should look for something more suitable. Everyone will be happier!
Na, fuck making excuses for anyone who is a giant knob to everyone at work. If you work in the private sector, you know, that little thing that funds all of our public services and creates jobs, you would not last very long displaying that attitude at work. Fuck every entitled public sector worker. If you’re not happy, try making it on your own for a few months in this province and then come back and tell me how hard these public sector workers have it. They get all the job security, all the benefits, significantly higher wages and those of us who work our asses off to pay the taxes that provide them with all this get fuck all. I don’t care how hard your fucking job is, I didn’t fill out the application, you did, now SUCK IT UP.
You assholes act like other people don’t work just as hard as you do. Yes, driving a bus is the most difficult fucking job anyone can have and thus those that do it should have excuses made for them when they act treat their customers like shit. You know what? How bout putting your money where your mouth is. If driving a bus is sooooo hard then surely you’d have quit and pursued greener pastures by now. Oh, wait, you haven’t, because you know GOOD AND GODDAMN WELL that you don’t have the skills to make anywhere near as much as you do now doing ANYTHING else. People with degrees are making minimum wage in this city, dealing with the exact same general public that you do, that’s if they can even find a job that pays a respectable wage. Cry my a fucking river you fuckin fat entitled pricks.
TJ902 did you blow a gasket? Maybe you should sit down before you fall down with all that hate and wrath spewing out of that hole in your face. Calm down man. We have many drivers with degrees at transit, more than you know. We are well educated for the most part, same as most of you people who take the buses. So don’t give me that bullshit. You wouldn’t be able to handle the job and you know it, shut up or put up, yourself.
I’ve asked this question to Wheels and I’ll ask it to you, too, Sade (thanks, crispy):
if you hate your job so much, and if your job is sooooooooooooooooooo terrible, then why not quit and find another?
Anxiously awaiting your reply, Sade.
That’s not what’s up for debate. Anyone who can’t do a job without treating people like shit shouldn’t do that job.
So the fuck what if I could or couldn’t do the job? What I said was there’s no excuse for being rude and disrespectful at work and that private sector workers get fired for less.
You gonna counter any of my points or keep proving them with this “well you can’t do better.” bullshit. Lots of drivers do in fact do better and you give them a bad name by justifying the shitty behaviour of a few because oh boo hoo your job is hard. I swear to god I’ve never in my life heard any other person of any profession cop that excuse. Listen bud. It’s not a complicated thing to grasp:
EVERYONE’S. JOB. IS. HARD.
No one gives a shit if your job is hard. No one. And definitely don’t expect my sympathy if you’re a grumpy prick to me when I know how easy it is to be let go from most jobs in this city for saying the wrong thing once or being cranky with co workers or customers. Keep crying that river.
Boofuckinghoo, to you. You are just as ignorant as the rest of the population, no surprises there, you make me laugh.
More like Rough…Non-Operator.
Yes, operator, it’s the 300,000 other people in this city who are ignorant. It couldn’t possibly be you.
That’s right Hoist, you hit the nail right on the head! See, you at least aren’t that dumb.
http://www.pixable.com/article/send-a-bag-…
^^^ now we know what to get Hingg Frogg for his birthday!
Lol, bus driving is hard. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!! It’s like a vacation for those of us who actually work for a living. Anything where your uniform consists of short pants, knee socks, and sensible black shoes (for something considered to be manual labour) is a fucking joke. You just don’t have the skills and patience to do your job well. Yes, doing your job well includes keeping your cool under stressful situations and remaining professional at all times, not just when you feel like it. If you can’t do that, you’re just another dime-a-dozen assclown, not a “smooth operator”.
Yes, I have done it, but got fired because I couldn’t figure out the timing on the door button and kept closing it on people.
LOL, I could do your job in reverse.
Ya assclown!!!
a nice bus driver is like a nice wife, you want to ride all the time and only that one.
#freethecolonel were breaking you out buddy, here’s our getaway drive http://www.aaapartybus.com/wp-content/them…
Just to add to the endless strife here. There are many imagined grievances/complaints out there. You assert that your driver is being a dick OP…that’s your perception. There are many out there unable to follow the basic written direction of “wave hand here”. They insist on performing some bizarre Jazz Hands ritual in the hope of opening the infernal back door as the time ticks by on snow choked roads. I am beginning to wonder if the simplicity of push bars wasn’t avant garde enough for the Quebecois designers/assemblers of Novabus. Instead, we are subjected to the daily parade of Window Lickers, Mouth Breathers, Carbon Blobs, Slack Jawed Trochlodytes…unable to follow basic direction.
If the driver directed said patron from the front seat OP, tough shit. If you expected the driver to go to the back door to escort the person out, you’re expecting a lot for $2.50. If you’re expecting Julie the Cruise Director…book passage on the Love Boat. As for Mavis the Haddock flopping in her seat, 998 has suffered from a slipping transmission for a very long time. The rough starts/stops are beyond the control of the driver…he/she has no control over the bus assignments (dispatch). Maybe some of you self assured/smug bloggers should proceed to RLTC to offer your sage advice or observations.
As a parting narrative, I once had a woman approach my seat with self righteous indignation and scorn for me over my refusal to provide a transfer to some punk departing the bus. He was not entitled to one as he had boarded with a pass. This is a common Fare Evading trick to allow someone else to dodge fare. She cross examined me on how I performed my duties. I offered to answer on condition that she divulge where she worked so that I could pay an unannounced visit to offer a critique of my own. She offered that she didn’t like my attitude…I retorted that the feeling was mutual. I then requested that she depart my bus because her presence was delaying service and to offer her insipid observations to 311. Understand that every word was recorded on the bus…I was right and had nothing to hide. No one has the right to demean or passive/aggressive threaten someone in their work space. I am reading a lot here that amounts to nothing more than a lot of self affirmation at the expense of others. I am confident that Transit has a few bad apples. Name a work force of approx. 1000 that doesn’t. However, there are a good many who do the best they can…severe winters included. Too bad some of you are unwilling to accept this. Where’s the Tylenol?
So let’s stop making excuses for the ones who don’t do their best and stop enabling them. The private sector does this. They weed out their bad apples. It’s not just bus drivers, there are way too many government/municipal workers here and not enough private money. We are sick of people having excuses made for them, we are the lowest earning and highest taxes province in the country. We don’t wanna fuckin hear it anymore. If you suck at your job you should be let go. This is a democracy god dammit and the people have spoken. And thanks for deleting my post earlier mod, you can eat a big fat dick too.
I’m thinking bus drivers are the Gammas. I’m glad I’m not a Gamma.
You may not be a gamma Cranky, but you’re just as ignorant as most of the population.