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Post by VPL630 on Nov 27, 2022 19:05:45 GMT
I don't know exactly what it is, but I feel the passenger expectations are just unrealistic now, the public is against you, and some of the things that we have to deal with you almost wouldn't believe, cars will do everything to block you, get in front of you, not let you in and just make your job harder for you because they feel that entitled. People will call up and exaggerate any interaction they have had that they aren't happy about, they will lie about where they are going, how old they are (Child Tickets), the bus was early/late, the list goes on, but they just want to take it out on someone. I've sat in the office and been a driver, and at no point have I felt like the job is getting better, you have brand new buses breaking down for the silliest of faults, wires falling out of switches meaning the bus is completely disabled, buses that once they have a certain fault come up they have to be plugged in or they limit themselves to 5mph but it won't tell you or give you any clue of what the fault is until you plug it in which is great when the bus is over 100 miles away at 2am on a sunday morning. We had one the other day that was hit by a van which smashed one of the side marker lights, which caused the fuse for that circuit to blow which in turn disabled the charging system for the bus and shortly after the bus cut out on a bend blocking the road. A relative of mine who works in the railway industry said much the same thing about the public being against you and the strikes have just increased the levels of animosity and he said it's no wonder that many guards just stay in the back cab for much of the time rather than try and check tickets and risk more arguments and confrontations. I can understand what you mean about modern vehicles and their complexities and the joys of breaking down in the middle of nowhere. I completely understand why a guard or revenue would want to avoid confrontation, but I feel this is partly due to the poor way it has been handled for many years, in other countries, revenue is no joke, I've had revenue with armed police in Spain checking tickets (they were very friendly), you don't see that over here, I know of countless people that bunk train fares, there are people that post it all over social media of them doing such things, and then you have train company's with a no chase policy or instructions that you can only advise them to buy a ticket, in Barcelona, they show videos of people jumping barriers and then being taken out by police/staff as adverts on their information displays.
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 27, 2022 15:08:45 GMT
So, after 7 years (4 of which at Stagecoach), 4 months and a few days, yesterday Saturday 26th was my last duty at Ensignbus as a full-time driver/yard shunter/do anything person. I have gained employment elsewhere to do something non-bus related which I am very much looking forward to. The last few months at Ensingbus I've mainly worked in the yard as a shunter/do anything person and have really enjoyed it, going on film jobs at late notice, private hire trips, bus collections, E-rail etc and generally just moving buses about our 4 current yards. I chose to come off full-time service driving as it was really starting to get to me, the amount of aggro we were getting on a daily basis for just providing a service was getting ridiculous and it's something that a lot of drivers have commented on since covid and it's been a contributing factor to why so many drivers have been leaving, there is little the company can do, they pay pretty decently and they look after you but the job is just aggravating, it's not even Thurrock related, just in general the way bus drivers are treated by members of the public is on another level. I have enjoyed my time at Ensingbus and I have done lots of different things, I've taken buses all across the south coast from places such as Dover or as far down as Porthsmouth, and as far up as King's Lynn on rail replacement, I've learn how to drive a Crash gearbox, RT and RM buses, I've driven an American Coach, School Bus and recently a Rapid Transit Series bus, I've taken countless different types of buses for Road test including a Bendy Buses, Coaches, almost the entire Yellow Buses Streetlite fleet (purchased by EB) which will be the absolute death of me I'm so glad I never have to see another one of them again. Met people from all over the UK when they have come to collect their purchases or drop off buses for sale. I've seen E400's cut into sections for weight testing, various preserved buses come for MOT, met a guy who is rebuilding an RT using copies of the original blueprints from LT, found out that it's £190 to tow a bendy bus through the Dartford Tunnel but free to go over the bridge..., done various festival jobs which are always a laugh, driven a Metro and a Titan and in general I've had a wonderful time. I may still be doing the occasional job here and there but for now anyway, onto something bigger and better, literally. Good luck in your new career, sounds like you had an interesting time with Ensign. I can understand what you say, so many drivers leaving the industry for similar reasons. I don't know exactly what it is, but I feel the passenger expectations are just unrealistic now, the public is against you, and some of the things that we have to deal with you almost wouldn't believe, cars will do everything to block you, get in front of you, not let you in and just make your job harder for you because they feel that entitled. People will call up and exaggerate any interaction they have had that they aren't happy about, they will lie about where they are going, how old they are (Child Tickets), the bus was early/late, the list goes on, but they just want to take it out on someone. I've sat in the office and been a driver, and at no point have I felt like the job is getting better, you have brand new buses breaking down for the silliest of faults, wires falling out of switches meaning the bus is completely disabled, buses that once they have a certain fault come up they have to be plugged in or they limit themselves to 5mph but it won't tell you or give you any clue of what the fault is until you plug it in which is great when the bus is over 100 miles away at 2am on a sunday morning. We had one the other day that was hit by a van which smashed one of the side marker lights, which caused the fuse for that circuit to blow which in turn disabled the charging system for the bus and shortly after the bus cut out on a bend blocking the road.
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 27, 2022 14:44:29 GMT
So, after 7 years (4 of which at Stagecoach), 4 months and a few days, yesterday Saturday 26th was my last duty at Ensignbus as a full-time driver/yard shunter/do anything person. I have gained employment elsewhere to do something non-bus related which I am very much looking forward to. The last few months at Ensingbus I've mainly worked in the yard as a shunter/do anything person and have really enjoyed it, going on film jobs at late notice, private hire trips, bus collections, E-rail etc and generally just moving buses about our 4 current yards. I chose to come off full-time service driving as it was really starting to get to me, the amount of aggro we were getting on a daily basis for just providing a service was getting ridiculous and it's something that a lot of drivers have commented on since covid and it's been a contributing factor to why so many drivers have been leaving, there is little the company can do, they pay pretty decently and they look after you but the job is just aggravating, it's not even Thurrock related, just in general the way bus drivers are treated by members of the public is on another level. I have enjoyed my time at Ensingbus and I have done lots of different things, I've taken buses all across the south coast from places such as Dover or as far down as Porthsmouth, and as far up as King's Lynn on rail replacement, I've learn how to drive a Crash gearbox, RT and RM buses, I've driven an American Coach, School Bus and recently a Rapid Transit Series bus, I've taken countless different types of buses for Road test including a Bendy Buses, Coaches, almost the entire Yellow Buses Streetlite fleet (purchased by EB) which will be the absolute death of me I'm so glad I never have to see another one of them again. Met people from all over the UK when they have come to collect their purchases or drop off buses for sale. I've seen E400's cut into sections for weight testing, various preserved buses come for MOT, met a guy who is rebuilding an RT using copies of the original blueprints from LT, found out that it's £190 to tow a bendy bus through the Dartford Tunnel but free to go over the bridge..., done various festival jobs which are always a laugh, driven a Metro and a Titan and in general I've had a wonderful time. I may still be doing the occasional job here and there but for now anyway, onto something bigger and better, literally. Good luck in your new job / career and thanks for sharing your varied experiences with Ensignbus that's a really interesting insight to non industry bods like myself - I know it wasn't meant to be funny but I did chuckle at the "It's not even Thurrock related" line! Cheers, I'm well known for my views on the people of Thurrock
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 27, 2022 12:36:47 GMT
So, after 7 years (4 of which at Stagecoach), 4 months and a few days, yesterday Saturday 26th was my last duty at Ensignbus as a full-time driver/yard shunter/do anything person. I have gained employment elsewhere to do something non-bus related which I am very much looking forward to.
The last few months at Ensingbus I've mainly worked in the yard as a shunter/do anything person and have really enjoyed it, going on film jobs at late notice, private hire trips, bus collections, E-rail etc and generally just moving buses about our 4 current yards. I chose to come off full-time service driving as it was really starting to get to me, the amount of aggro we were getting on a daily basis for just providing a service was getting ridiculous and it's something that a lot of drivers have commented on since covid and it's been a contributing factor to why so many drivers have been leaving, there is little the company can do, they pay pretty decently and they look after you but the job is just aggravating, it's not even Thurrock related, just in general the way bus drivers are treated by members of the public is on another level.
I have enjoyed my time at Ensingbus and I have done lots of different things, I've taken buses all across the south coast from places such as Dover or as far down as Porthsmouth, and as far up as King's Lynn on rail replacement, I've learn how to drive a Crash gearbox, RT and RM buses, I've driven an American Coach, School Bus and recently a Rapid Transit Series bus, I've taken countless different types of buses for Road test including a Bendy Buses, Coaches, almost the entire Yellow Buses Streetlite fleet (purchased by EB) which will be the absolute death of me I'm so glad I never have to see another one of them again. Met people from all over the UK when they have come to collect their purchases or drop off buses for sale. I've seen E400's cut into sections for weight testing, various preserved buses come for MOT, met a guy who is rebuilding an RT using copies of the original blueprints from LT, found out that it's £190 to tow a bendy bus through the Dartford Tunnel but free to go over the bridge..., done various festival jobs which are always a laugh, driven a Metro and a Titan and in general I've had a wonderful time. I may still be doing the occasional job here and there but for now anyway, onto something bigger and better, literally.
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 21, 2022 12:09:35 GMT
If the height is already displayed in the cab, why would you need to put a specific warning for a specific bridge in each of the garages buses? Every garage has booklets for each route that detail each hazard including low bridges - I know that because I've seen said booklets at various garage running days and the booklets are pretty detailed in terms of showing pictures of location and explaining each hazard. Why would you not put an additional reminder in the cab about a nearby low bridge? Because buses move from garage to garage and it's just more information that drivers won't pay attention too. All a driver needs to know is the height of their vehicle and make sure they don't go under obstacles that are lower than that height, Route learning and the risk assessment of the route would cover Low bridges etc I'll put this scenario in your head, I drive for a company that covers pretty much the whole Southern/GTR network under Emergency Rail Replacement, do you think we should have stickers fitted listing every bridge we might go near in the entire south coast, because it would be so long it would be pointless, sometimes we are doing routes/workings that aren't on any maps, in vehicles that aren't exactly suitable for some roads/stations/villages, yet we manage it pretty well, The drivers that agree to it are competent and know what you can and can't do with their vehicles
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 21, 2022 11:52:12 GMT
I'm so glad I don't drive buses fitted with ISA, seems like a right pain but keeps some office bods happy
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 21, 2022 9:17:32 GMT
Go to a bus garage and interview drivers, I could put money on the majority not even knowing the normal height of a double decker, let alone checking that height in each bus they drive, or even some common bridges that they drive under almost daily… But the height should be displayed in the cab. It is a legal requirement for the Height to be displayed in the cab of any vehicle over a certain height (I think it's 3M but don't quote me) but I've been on buses where a panel has been replaced/damaged and the height marker is missing and no one has noticed for months But the height should be displayed in the cab. As well as this I have noticed that AC have also put stickers warning drivers to not use Old Oak Common Lane due to the low bridge. It would certainly help if similar stickers were installed for all buses. Stagecoach fitted a sticker to the entire fleet of Low Bridges near any of there routes/garages, this still didn't stop buses hitting said bridges, not to mention all London buses fitted with iBus have a low bridge warning system that audiblely tells you 'Warning, Low Bridge' but how many TfL buses have hit bridges??? I personally think there is no excuse for a driver to hit a low bridge regardless of what bus they are driving and whatever the circumstances are unless it's due to a medical episode and they are not in full control of the vehicle
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 20, 2022 16:00:21 GMT
The driver may be at the wheel when it happens. But, someone willingly authorised that person to be there without first assessing their ability to perceive hazards and bringing them up to the necessary standard. Legal requirements are merely a minimum standard. There wouldn’t be more than 2000 bridge strikes a year if a licence alone was sufficient to prevent it. As for type training, it should be a thing as it’s not good to be faced with a vehicle that’s genuinely unfamiliar. Not just the controls and starting procedure but warning lights, cab seat adjustment, location of fire extinguisher and emergency exits etc. Drivers using the concept to get out of driving a bus they don’t like is a separate issue. I can’t agree about bridge strikes, that's got to be totally down to the driver just like speeding and running red lights would be. I think the whole type training thing is a legacy of London Transport days, like the myth about not reversing with passengers on board, there was a story of a dispute at one garage over a driver refusing to drive an RML because they had only been type trained on an RM. Go to a bus garage and interview drivers, I could put money on the majority not even knowing the normal height of a double decker, let alone checking that height in each bus they drive, or even some common bridges that they drive under almost daily…
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 15, 2022 18:46:33 GMT
Re my last point, today a driver phoned up saying he didn’t know how to operate the destination equipment fitted to his vehicle, the same equipment that has been fitted since we had the vehicle, the same equipment that this driver has used for over a year as the driver is normally allocated the same specific bus, the same equipment that has been in other fleet vehicles for the last 8/9 years…
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 14, 2022 15:10:11 GMT
That I do not blame you for, but I’ve also heard of certain drivers refusing to drive TA’s because they aren’t type trained at TB, well when they had them anyway haha Were you aware of the drivers who refused to drive the 261 MMCs because they weren’t type trained even though the cab layout was identical to the single door MMCs they had been driving for months! Personally, it’s a bus, as long as I know how to start it, figuring out the rest is pretty basic I'm pretty sure the Stagecoach policy, at least when I worked there, didn't require any training if you had that Type at the garage, regardless if it was a decker or single. I totally agree, a lot of this type training is just ridiculous. While I agree that in some sense it's ridiculous, not every driver is the same and some I really question how they managed to get a licence in the first place... so it's not all a waste of time for some people. At Stagecoach I received training on how to type train others on a MMC (despite me driving them for months without being type trained...) but to see the way that for some people, simple things such as the start procedure confused them, proper training should be given to all regardless if they want it or not, I say that because I've also known of one accident resulting in a person under a bus and had the driver done nothing else, that person would still be alive, instead while under pressure to do something, the driver tried to operate the ferry lift function to raise the vehicle height, instead the driver operated that feature in the wrong way and the bus lowered... You should be trained correctly on bus types not cut corners, it's attitudes like this that's made the bus driving terms and conditions so bad. Id rather not have bus drivers "working out" how to drive the bus when they've got members of the public including babies on board. Type training has nothing to do with terms and conditions Your second point, I think you'd be surprised at how many people do this, and I'm not condoning it at all but, there are various situations that you end up in where you don't do something or don't drive a type for a very long time and then unexpectedly it turns up or happens, one that was very common was setting the power blinds on the new Mobitec ICU402's which was quite different to the Mobitec ICU400's give a google if you want, when they were new it caused no end of issues and complaints that the blinds aren't working, they you have the added bonus that they were configured different by batch, some you had to press the tick, some you didn't. Anyway to put your mind at ease, most buses actually drive pretty similar, there is normally a gear selector that is pretty much standard, the brakes and accelerator all work near enough the same, door buttons are normally obvious, it's normally little things like alarms for cab door open and heater controlls for the driver and battery guard that catch most people out, I will agree with Paul that the Citaro is very different to anything else in the fleet and without having some prior knowledge I could put money on any driver not having a clue how to start them. The more time you spend driving and playing with different things the more you just pick stuff up, generally anything from First group normally has some sort of anti theft button you need to press to get it to start and the entire fleet has Door interlocks... Something that does fascinate me now I work somewhere with a heritage fleet (sorry for going off topic) is that as very very few younger people drive them will it get to a point where there won't be anyone to pass on the information on how to, for example, I can drive a Crash Gearbox but only because I've read about it and then spent a good few hours driving it and finding out why it's called a crash gearbox and spoken to people that have driven them for years, they really are vehicle that you can't just jump in and drive
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 10, 2022 14:09:37 GMT
No type training is required as it’s basically an E400, there are no differences other than you have to tap the brake pedal like you would do on an MMC to remove the halt brake I did hear a bit of back and forth behind the counter about type training but as it was the end of my shift and the start of my holiday I was more interested in getting out of there! That I do not blame you for, but I’ve also heard of certain drivers refusing to drive TA’s because they aren’t type trained at TB, well when they had them anyway haha
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 9, 2022 12:58:53 GMT
Anyone from TB know why 12362 is mainly restricted on school routes and not mixed with the other E400s on 61 and 261? At a guess, and I stress guess, I would put it down to type training. Getting the school bus rota drivers type trained won’t have taken too long but adding the 61 and 261 drivers would take some planning. The bus may stray if a driver is type trained but I’d guess that it will remain on school bus duties for the foreseeable future No type training is required as it’s basically an E400, there are no differences other than you have to tap the brake pedal like you would do on an MMC to remove the halt brake
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Post by VPL630 on Oct 31, 2022 11:43:26 GMT
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Post by VPL630 on Oct 25, 2022 5:25:21 GMT
Having lived near the route and used it many many times as a child, it could certainly benefit from deckers, it’s busy enough to justify them It is not as busy as it used to be, especially since London Overground started. True but you might as well put deckers on it if it can take it, save all the agg of having more singles to keep it electric
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Post by VPL630 on Oct 24, 2022 19:35:10 GMT
The current route been route tested multiple times with deckers and has passed but never ran with them, it would also save a load of panel/tyre damage but either TfL don’t want to pay for it or residents don’t watch it, no idea if the extension will chage anything I don't think the 236 needs converting to d/d even with the extension. The Finsbury Park-Archway section never struck me as particularly busy and many of the trips are just short hops to the shops at Holloway or the stations at Finsbury Park and Archway. Having lived near the route and used it many many times as a child, it could certainly benefit from deckers, it’s busy enough to justify them
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