009 - Training is over
I'm now sole charge and have been for weeks
Welcome aboard everyone.
Apologies for the gap in communications — my life is pretty busy and exhausting, and time-consuming. But, I’ve settled into a nice rhythm, and can honestly say, this bus driving malarky has a lot to offer.
Also, before I forget (how could I?) I now have over 250 subscribers — thanks to everyone who shared this substack with friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances. You guessed right — the next milestone is 300. Let’s see if we can get there.
Back to my story.
In the last post, you’ll remember that I had a week of route familiarisation, and then a few drives of a bus before getting paired up with a tutor driver. I drove with my tutor for four days — the first day observing, and only driving when ‘Not in Service’. For the next few days, I drove as if I was in sole control — until I fell behind schedule, in which case my tutor would jump behind the wheel and catch us up.
When you’re starting out, driving a bus at 30 kph feels like driving a bus at 50 kph +. So naturally, in these early days, it was inevitable that I’d be falling behind schedule.
But, as the week progressed, the powers-that-be decided I was ready to sit my Exit Assessment. This, only three days after driving with my tutor.
In this assessment a supervisor rides with me on the bus, to observe my technique around driving, at how I’m interacting with passengers, taking fares, hitting milestones. Eek! I need to get through this to be able to work alone.
The test was scheduled for first thing Friday morning, doing a 21 route from Karori to Scotts College. This is the route I had been driving all week (last three days) so I was somewhat comfortable about where I needed to be heading, where the stops were, what the timings were on interim stops, and how to navigate the bus through some challenging corners and streets.
The supervisor was waiting at the first stop as I pulled up, Not in Service. I was scheduled to depart at 7:20 am. I set the overhead sign to the designated trip, tripped on the Snapper system, and as he hopped on the bus, I gave him an employee ticket (winning some brownie points for doing so). He made himself comfortable near the rear of the bus.
As soon as 7:20 am rolled over, I shut the doors and pulled out into Beauchamp Street.
I wasn’t nervous, much, but, you’ll know from previous posts that anything can happen so I needed to be totally on point. I wanted to pass. Other drivers warned me not to run orange lights, and to over emphasise looking in my mirrors. Seems obvious, but I heeded their advice 110%.
21 is one of my favourite routes. It’s narrow, but manageable, even down through Duthie Street where it is pretty much one-way.
The hairpin bend at the top of Kelburn Parade by the university can be tricky but I managed to navigate it without incident. If you get your positioning wrong you can end up completely on the wrong side of the road.
A young chap hopped on at the University. He had a lot of bags with him and looked either homeless, or down-on-his-luck. He asked for a ticket into town which he clearly wanted to pay cash for. I told him how much. He put all his worldly belongings down on the floor, then dug under mutiple layers of clothing to find a tightly bound cloth purse. It was so tightly bound that he needed to use his teeth to undo the knot. Then he pulled out a $10 note.
All this took quite a while, but under the gaze of my supervisor, I remained calm and carried on.
From there, I headed down Salamanca Road and turned right onto the Terrace. Straight forward. No problems.
Down Ghuznee Street, turning left into Taranaki. Often there is a passenger waiting on the first stop in Taranaki Street, which means swinging around the corner and immediately pulling up to the stop 50 metres along the road. From this stop you then need to cross three lanes of traffic to get in the righthand lane to turn into Courtenay Place. Again, no problems.
Here’s where it can get tricky. The turn into Courtenay Place is technically challenging. For a start, the green arrow only lasts long enough to let three cars through. If I’m behind two cars there’s likely not going to be enough time to get around without driving through an orange, and then a red, light. So, I wait until I’m at the front of the queue.
The light turns green. I drive the bus forward, and then forward some more. The gap into Courtenay is tight and I can only start swinging right when I know I’ll be approaching the gap straight on. You know when you have it right, as pedestrians stopped on the corner will smile as the bus swings around perilously close to where they are standing.
I make it through the gap without running up on either kerb.
I collect 20 or so Scotts College students near the bus tunnel. We head through the tunnel, again without incident, then with no further interim times to hit after Hataitai, it’s straight through to Scotts College. Even though this is not a school run, the trip ends inside the school grounds. I jockey for position with other chartered school buses, and then depart, Trip Off, heading towards Kilbirnie for my next trip of the day.
At Kilbirnie, I pull over to the stop. The supervisor moves to the front of the bus and congratulates me on passing my Exit Assessment. He asks me to sign some documents, then congratulates me on the entry to Courtenay Place. “That was perfect! I still have trouble negotiating that entrance. Well done!”
Yes!! I was officially a bus operator. The supervisor exited the bus, and I was on my own. For the rest of the day, I worked completely on my own, with no tutor, no supervision — just me, my bus, and the passengers. I did a little ‘whoop’ for joy. I was officially a Bus Operator.
The next week, well, that’s another story. Stay tuned.
Postscript
Before I go, I want to say another big thankyou to each and every one of you for reading this blog. I appreciate the comments, and I really can’t believe how many of you have said to me that you too always dreamt of driving a bus. It’s a rewarding job, still chronically underpaid (we still haven’t received our $30 an hour pay increase) but I’m loving it. It’s the passengers that make this role so interesting.
If there’s anything you want to know, flick me a message and I’ll try and incorporate your wonderings in a future post.
Thanks, readers!
You should be on $50 an hour. I so admire bus drivers. As a cyclist I know how you dread one of us doing something reckless around your vehicle. I’ve worked with bus drivers as a cycling advocate and I’m in awe of their skills in managing their enormous vehicles and concern about other road users. Thank you Driver.
Mighty!