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Post by john on Oct 6, 2017 8:56:57 GMT
The oldest I remember it was just after it got sent via Slewins Lane but still had the Atlanteans. Think I rode them once in my life lol. I, however, had my childhood in Harold Hill so had the delights of the 87, 174 and 296 in my very young days PLUS the 151. Obviously that all changed to 174, 374, 496 and 551/751 but still, got some good days lol. Also remember the 2, Southend to Walthamstow. Now that was one hell of a route!!! ] I remember the 151 351 551 and 751, Those Darts earned there living for sure It was a sad day when Harold Hill lost those. Bloody handy when the 174 goes up the spout!!! |
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 25, 2017 14:36:16 GMT
So Thursday I was loaned out to PD, more like begged and was given a 53 Duty, I learnt this route about a year ago but had never driven it, was a nice 2 rounder job as well
A quick look at the tfl website to make sure I know where I’m going and there aren’t any diversions on and off I set in 12376, The PD hybrids are much nicer to drive since they have been worn in more than out 257 batch and have much much quicker doors, anyway get to Woolwich and I can see my leader, iBus ring me and Say go round and don’t delay yourself any further, well you don’t have to tell me twice, I made it un eventfully down to Whitehall, now the journey back, just as I cleared bricklayers arms, iBus told me New Kent Road had been closed and I was the last 53 to make it through, got back to the Garage had my break, was just about to go back out and asked the regulator on the forecourt how much time we were losing and his reply was around 2 hours in total, checked my driving time which I had loads of and made a note of when I’d have to stop, iBus called me and asked me to show bricklayers arms but I thought about it, I’ve got no where else to be, I’m already finishing late enough so I might as well go through, you could almost hear the shock in the controllers voice as he said “are you sure?” To which i confirmed yes I’ll happily go through, it wasn’t that bad in the end, I lost 30 mins going up to Whitehall, departed Whitehall around 20 mins late, lost another 45/50 mins coming back and got back to the garage just over an hour late with full millage completed, my follower on the other hand ran out of drive time and had an absolute nightmare getting back to the garage
The diversion was Great Dover Street, Borough High Street and back LOR at elephant and castle, the delays were not helped by Walworth Road being closed
Certainly a fun day...
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Post by lwldriver on Nov 25, 2017 15:59:49 GMT
So Thursday I was loaned out to PD, more like begged and was given a 53 Duty, I learnt this route about a year ago but had never driven it, was a nice 2 rounder job as well A quick look at the tfl website to make sure I know where I’m going and there aren’t any diversions on and off I set in 12376, The PD hybrids are much nicer to drive since they have been worn in more than out 257 batch and have much much quicker doors, anyway get to Woolwich and I can see my leader, iBus ring me and Say go round and don’t delay yourself any further, well you don’t have to tell me twice, I made it un eventfully down to Whitehall, now the journey back, just as I cleared bricklayers arms, iBus told me New Kent Road had been closed and I was the last 53 to make it through, got back to the Garage had my break, was just about to go back out and asked the regulator on the forecourt how much time we were losing and his reply was around 2 hours in total, checked my driving time which I had loads of and made a note of when I’d have to stop, iBus called me and asked me to show bricklayers arms but I thought about it, I’ve got no where else to be, I’m already finishing late enough so I might as well go through, you could almost hear the shock in the controllers voice as he said “are you sure?” To which i confirmed yes I’ll happily go through, it wasn’t that bad in the end, I lost 30 mins going up to Whitehall, departed Whitehall around 20 mins late, lost another 45/50 mins coming back and got back to the garage just over an hour late with full millage completed, my follower on the other hand ran out of drive time and had an absolute nightmare getting back to the garage The diversion was Great Dover Street, Borough High Street and back LOR at elephant and castle, the delays were not helped by Walworth Road being closed Certainly a fun day... Indeed it was, I was on the 45, got up to Kings Cross fine, then they announced the closure, after 1 hour & 15 minutes on London Road I eventually got clear. |
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Post by VPL630 on Nov 26, 2017 8:50:05 GMT
So Thursday I was loaned out to PD, more like begged and was given a 53 Duty, I learnt this route about a year ago but had never driven it, was a nice 2 rounder job as well A quick look at the tfl website to make sure I know where I’m going and there aren’t any diversions on and off I set in 12376, The PD hybrids are much nicer to drive since they have been worn in more than out 257 batch and have much much quicker doors, anyway get to Woolwich and I can see my leader, iBus ring me and Say go round and don’t delay yourself any further, well you don’t have to tell me twice, I made it un eventfully down to Whitehall, now the journey back, just as I cleared bricklayers arms, iBus told me New Kent Road had been closed and I was the last 53 to make it through, got back to the Garage had my break, was just about to go back out and asked the regulator on the forecourt how much time we were losing and his reply was around 2 hours in total, checked my driving time which I had loads of and made a note of when I’d have to stop, iBus called me and asked me to show bricklayers arms but I thought about it, I’ve got no where else to be, I’m already finishing late enough so I might as well go through, you could almost hear the shock in the controllers voice as he said “are you sure?” To which i confirmed yes I’ll happily go through, it wasn’t that bad in the end, I lost 30 mins going up to Whitehall, departed Whitehall around 20 mins late, lost another 45/50 mins coming back and got back to the garage just over an hour late with full millage completed, my follower on the other hand ran out of drive time and had an absolute nightmare getting back to the garage The diversion was Great Dover Street, Borough High Street and back LOR at elephant and castle, the delays were not helped by Walworth Road being closed Certainly a fun day... Indeed it was, I was on the 45, got up to Kings Cross fine, then they announced the closure, after 1 hour & 15 minutes on London Road I eventually got clear. The traffic would have moved if the useless police officers at Elephant would have directed traffic and the traffic light timing had been adjusted at Borough Station Was on the 53’s again yesterday and it was lovely and clear, had a nice drive down the embankment when I was running light too |
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Post by lwldriver on Nov 27, 2017 12:10:59 GMT
Indeed it was, I was on the 45, got up to Kings Cross fine, then they announced the closure, after 1 hour & 15 minutes on London Road I eventually got clear. The traffic would have moved if the useless police officers at Elephant would have directed traffic and the traffic light timing had been adjusted at Borough Station Was on the 53’s again yesterday and it was lovely and clear, had a nice drive down the embankment when I was running light too Exactly what I was thinking, a few officers there and it wouldn't have been a problem for Camberwell bound buses stuck in London Road. |
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Post by VPL630 on Jun 4, 2018 21:03:43 GMT
It's been a while but I suppose an update is due, it's almost weird having free time... Following my long-term loan to Selkent (Bromley and Plumstead) over the summer of 2017, I came back to Leyton and decided to go onto the 257 rota, which wasn't too bad, there were a few odd loans here and there to Plumstead, Romford and Rainham but for the most part, I was doing my rota'd job which in some ways was nice but as you might have guessed from various post's on here, I don't tend to stick around for long. March 2018: I was placed back on long-term loan to Bromley (Shock Horror  ) at my request, I'm also pleased to say that I had no incidents with any of the Citaro's  Bromley has by far the most pleasant routes to drive and I would happily work there anytime, I was also able to add the 354 and B14 to my route knowledge which takes me to over 50 routes I've driven for the company! I've driven every type of bus we have in the fleet except Spirit of London (Soon to be added to the list ) and an RM which I've been offered but not had the chance to do so yet due to various reasons. April the 11th, It's all change again, last day at Bromley, as I've now been appointed as a driver for Megasightseeing.com, Training started the following day with a very in-depth customer service training course at St Pancras with East Midland Trains, EMT are part of the Stagecoach Group and as they already run specific training course for their staff it was decided that they would custom design a course for us, which was very good. Following this, we had a week of route learning which was made hell by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which meant various roads were closed including part of our route and the traffic, in general, was just terrible with various lane restrictions in the Hyde Park area, not to mention, when they all went for lunch/dinner, there were various cars associated with them parked outside various restaurants/hotel's causing even more traffic pain, I think on that first day it took just under 4 hours to do the route and that was with sections being missed out due to roads being closed... Throughout the week we had even more bad luck with accidents/more road closures and delays but at least we roughly had some idea of where we were going  We all at some point had a chance to drive, a chance to go over the various diversion that we might have to use and be shown how to use the comment system, megabus tickets etc etc, the staff day was the first day and that went pretty well and so far we've had a few hitches but for the most part it's been running great, there haven't been any massive issues as of yet, a few heavy delays due to security alerts, whitehall becoming a car park as usaul and Tower Bridge opening casuing tooley street to back up onto London bridge but there isn't really much we can do about that but anyway. There really are a great bunch of people that are operating this, the team of 14 Drivers are as good as gold and it’s been great working with them alongside the operations team at BW and WH June 2018, I'm always looking to do other things, Stagecoach does offer loads of opportunities to progress within the company even working at other places in the group and at many levels, for example, there is currently a programme open to staff currently employed as a supervisor, or those who can demonstrate previous supervisory or management experience to develop the skills needed to move into management which is very heavily applied for, it does mean moving around the company and working a few different roles but it would give a very good undersading of the way the copmnay operates and I think it's a great way to progress with the compnay, while I'm not looking particulaly to go into managment at the moment/anytime soon, I will be transferring to Rainham Garage from the 9th and will be taking up a role of Acting Garage Supervisor which I'm really looking forward too. The guys and girls at Rainham are by far some of the nicest you will meet and do a great job day in and day out, really looking forward to taking up this role  Friday will be my last proper day on the tour, I'm sure I'll be back doing some overtime but for now anyway I'm just looking forward to being at Rainham and any challenges that present themselves |
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Post by YY13VKP on Jun 4, 2018 21:35:34 GMT
It's been a while but I suppose an update is due, it's almost weird having free time... Following my long-term loan to Selkent (Bromley and Plumstead) over the summer of 2017, I came back to Leyton and decided to go onto the 257 rota, which wasn't too bad, there were a few odd loans here and there to Plumstead, Romford and Rainham but for the most part, I was doing my rota'd job which in some ways was nice but as you might have guessed from various post's on here, I don't tend to stick around for long. March 2018: I was placed back on long-term loan to Bromley (Shock Horror ) at my request, I'm also pleased to say that I had no incidents with any of the Citaro's Bromley has by far the most pleasant routes to drive and I would happily work there anytime, I was also able to add the 354 and B14 to my route knowledge which takes me to over 50 routes I've driven for the company! I've driven every type of bus we have in the fleet except Spirit of London (Soon to be added to the list ) and an RM which I've been offered but not had the chance to do so yet due to various reasons. April the 11th, It's all change again, last day at Bromley, as I've now been appointed as a driver for Megasightseeing.com, Training started the following day with a very in-depth customer service training course at St Pancras with East Midland Trains, EMT are part of the Stagecoach Group and as they already run specific training course for their staff it was decided that they would custom design a course for us, which was very good. Following this, we had a week of route learning which was made hell by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which meant various roads were closed including part of our route and the traffic, in general, was just terrible with various lane restrictions in the Hyde Park area, not to mention, when they all went for lunch/dinner, there were various cars associated with them parked outside various restaurants/hotel's causing even more traffic pain, I think on that first day it took just under 4 hours to do the route and that was with sections being missed out due to roads being closed... Throughout the week we had even more bad luck with accidents/more road closures and delays but at least we roughly had some idea of where we were going We all at some point had a chance to drive, a chance to go over the various diversion that we might have to use and be shown how to use the comment system, megabus tickets etc etc, the staff day was the first day and that went pretty well and so far we've had a few hitches but for the most part it's been running great, there haven't been any massive issues as of yet, a few heavy delays due to security alerts, whitehall becoming a car park as usaul and Tower Bridge opening casuing tooley street to back up onto London bridge but there isn't really much we can do about that but anyway. There really are a great bunch of people that are operating this, the team of 14 Drivers are as good as gold and it’s been great working with them alongside the operations team at BW and WH June 2018, I'm always looking to do other things, Stagecoach does offer loads of opportunities to progress within the company even working at other places in the group and at many levels, for example, there is currently a programme open to staff currently employed as a supervisor, or those who can demonstrate previous supervisory or management experience to develop the skills needed to move into management which is very heavily applied for, it does mean moving around the company and working a few different roles but it would give a very good undersading of the way the copmnay operates and I think it's a great way to progress with the compnay, while I'm not looking particulaly to go into managment at the moment/anytime soon, I will be transfering to Rainham Garage from the 9th and will be taking up a role of Acting Garage Supervisor which I'm really looking forward too. The guys and girls at Rainham are by far some of the nicest you will meet and do a great job day in and day out, really looking forward to taking up this role Friday will be my last proper day on the tour, I'm sure I'll be back doing some overtime but for now anyway I'm just looking forward to being at Rainham and any challenges that present themselves Great read, and well done for securing the job at Rainham! I assume the garage supervisor role is the equivalent of an SGA, and deals with drivers when signing on, sending them to the AOM/OM etc? |
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Post by snoggle on Jun 4, 2018 21:46:08 GMT
It's been a while but I suppose an update is due, it's almost weird having free time... I will be transfering to Rainham Garage from the 9th and will be taking up a role of Acting Garage Supervisor which I'm really looking forward too. The guys and girls at Rainham are by far some of the nicest you will meet and do a great job day in and day out, really looking forward to taking up this role Friday will be my last proper day on the tour, I'm sure I'll be back doing some overtime but for now anyway I'm just looking forward to being at Rainham and any challenges that present themselves Congratulations. I have been expecting something along these lines for a while but well done for taking up the opportunities that Stagecoach offer. Give it a few years and you'll be well up the management chain - if you decide you want to do that. You may need to remove those "ants from your pants" though as Stagecoach won't move you from company to company every few months. |
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Post by VPL630 on Jun 5, 2018 11:43:10 GMT
It's been a while but I suppose an update is due, it's almost weird having free time... Following my long-term loan to Selkent (Bromley and Plumstead) over the summer of 2017, I came back to Leyton and decided to go onto the 257 rota, which wasn't too bad, there were a few odd loans here and there to Plumstead, Romford and Rainham but for the most part, I was doing my rota'd job which in some ways was nice but as you might have guessed from various post's on here, I don't tend to stick around for long. March 2018: I was placed back on long-term loan to Bromley (Shock Horror ) at my request, I'm also pleased to say that I had no incidents with any of the Citaro's Bromley has by far the most pleasant routes to drive and I would happily work there anytime, I was also able to add the 354 and B14 to my route knowledge which takes me to over 50 routes I've driven for the company! I've driven every type of bus we have in the fleet except Spirit of London (Soon to be added to the list ) and an RM which I've been offered but not had the chance to do so yet due to various reasons. April the 11th, It's all change again, last day at Bromley, as I've now been appointed as a driver for Megasightseeing.com, Training started the following day with a very in-depth customer service training course at St Pancras with East Midland Trains, EMT are part of the Stagecoach Group and as they already run specific training course for their staff it was decided that they would custom design a course for us, which was very good. Following this, we had a week of route learning which was made hell by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which meant various roads were closed including part of our route and the traffic, in general, was just terrible with various lane restrictions in the Hyde Park area, not to mention, when they all went for lunch/dinner, there were various cars associated with them parked outside various restaurants/hotel's causing even more traffic pain, I think on that first day it took just under 4 hours to do the route and that was with sections being missed out due to roads being closed... Throughout the week we had even more bad luck with accidents/more road closures and delays but at least we roughly had some idea of where we were going We all at some point had a chance to drive, a chance to go over the various diversion that we might have to use and be shown how to use the comment system, megabus tickets etc etc, the staff day was the first day and that went pretty well and so far we've had a few hitches but for the most part it's been running great, there haven't been any massive issues as of yet, a few heavy delays due to security alerts, whitehall becoming a car park as usaul and Tower Bridge opening casuing tooley street to back up onto London bridge but there isn't really much we can do about that but anyway. There really are a great bunch of people that are operating this, the team of 14 Drivers are as good as gold and it’s been great working with them alongside the operations team at BW and WH June 2018, I'm always looking to do other things, Stagecoach does offer loads of opportunities to progress within the company even working at other places in the group and at many levels, for example, there is currently a programme open to staff currently employed as a supervisor, or those who can demonstrate previous supervisory or management experience to develop the skills needed to move into management which is very heavily applied for, it does mean moving around the company and working a few different roles but it would give a very good undersading of the way the copmnay operates and I think it's a great way to progress with the compnay, while I'm not looking particulaly to go into managment at the moment/anytime soon, I will be transfering to Rainham Garage from the 9th and will be taking up a role of Acting Garage Supervisor which I'm really looking forward too. The guys and girls at Rainham are by far some of the nicest you will meet and do a great job day in and day out, really looking forward to taking up this role Friday will be my last proper day on the tour, I'm sure I'll be back doing some overtime but for now anyway I'm just looking forward to being at Rainham and any challenges that present themselves Great read, and well done for securing the job at Rainham! I assume the garage supervisor role is the equivalent of an SGA, and deals with drivers when signing on, sending them to the AOM/OM etc? I guess so, at Rainham you do a bit of everything, like VAS and Counter staff, allocating jobs etc etc, literally anything and everything |
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Post by ThinLizzy on Jun 5, 2018 18:28:01 GMT
It's been a while but I suppose an update is due, it's almost weird having free time... Following my long-term loan to Selkent (Bromley and Plumstead) over the summer of 2017, I came back to Leyton and decided to go onto the 257 rota, which wasn't too bad, there were a few odd loans here and there to Plumstead, Romford and Rainham but for the most part, I was doing my rota'd job which in some ways was nice but as you might have guessed from various post's on here, I don't tend to stick around for long. March 2018: I was placed back on long-term loan to Bromley (Shock Horror ) at my request, I'm also pleased to say that I had no incidents with any of the Citaro's Bromley has by far the most pleasant routes to drive and I would happily work there anytime, I was also able to add the 354 and B14 to my route knowledge which takes me to over 50 routes I've driven for the company! I've driven every type of bus we have in the fleet except Spirit of London (Soon to be added to the list ) and an RM which I've been offered but not had the chance to do so yet due to various reasons. April the 11th, It's all change again, last day at Bromley, as I've now been appointed as a driver for Megasightseeing.com, Training started the following day with a very in-depth customer service training course at St Pancras with East Midland Trains, EMT are part of the Stagecoach Group and as they already run specific training course for their staff it was decided that they would custom design a course for us, which was very good. Following this, we had a week of route learning which was made hell by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which meant various roads were closed including part of our route and the traffic, in general, was just terrible with various lane restrictions in the Hyde Park area, not to mention, when they all went for lunch/dinner, there were various cars associated with them parked outside various restaurants/hotel's causing even more traffic pain, I think on that first day it took just under 4 hours to do the route and that was with sections being missed out due to roads being closed... Throughout the week we had even more bad luck with accidents/more road closures and delays but at least we roughly had some idea of where we were going We all at some point had a chance to drive, a chance to go over the various diversion that we might have to use and be shown how to use the comment system, megabus tickets etc etc, the staff day was the first day and that went pretty well and so far we've had a few hitches but for the most part it's been running great, there haven't been any massive issues as of yet, a few heavy delays due to security alerts, whitehall becoming a car park as usaul and Tower Bridge opening casuing tooley street to back up onto London bridge but there isn't really much we can do about that but anyway. There really are a great bunch of people that are operating this, the team of 14 Drivers are as good as gold and it’s been great working with them alongside the operations team at BW and WH June 2018, I'm always looking to do other things, Stagecoach does offer loads of opportunities to progress within the company even working at other places in the group and at many levels, for example, there is currently a programme open to staff currently employed as a supervisor, or those who can demonstrate previous supervisory or management experience to develop the skills needed to move into management which is very heavily applied for, it does mean moving around the company and working a few different roles but it would give a very good undersading of the way the copmnay operates and I think it's a great way to progress with the compnay, while I'm not looking particulaly to go into managment at the moment/anytime soon, I will be transfering to Rainham Garage from the 9th and will be taking up a role of Acting Garage Supervisor which I'm really looking forward too. The guys and girls at Rainham are by far some of the nicest you will meet and do a great job day in and day out, really looking forward to taking up this role Friday will be my last proper day on the tour, I'm sure I'll be back doing some overtime but for now anyway I'm just looking forward to being at Rainham and any challenges that present themselves Thats great to hear- good luck with the new role at Rainham, there's still a lot to ex First/Capital Citybus guys there so I know how much of a good bunch they are. It's great to see Stagecoach having a Development Scheme for its staff. As a trainer where I work, I get to meet a lot of new staff joining the business, spotting people who show something people who show something "a bit special" then putting them forward to their new line managers for future development. |
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Post by VPL630 on Jun 5, 2018 19:56:36 GMT
It's been a while but I suppose an update is due, it's almost weird having free time... Following my long-term loan to Selkent (Bromley and Plumstead) over the summer of 2017, I came back to Leyton and decided to go onto the 257 rota, which wasn't too bad, there were a few odd loans here and there to Plumstead, Romford and Rainham but for the most part, I was doing my rota'd job which in some ways was nice but as you might have guessed from various post's on here, I don't tend to stick around for long. March 2018: I was placed back on long-term loan to Bromley (Shock Horror ) at my request, I'm also pleased to say that I had no incidents with any of the Citaro's Bromley has by far the most pleasant routes to drive and I would happily work there anytime, I was also able to add the 354 and B14 to my route knowledge which takes me to over 50 routes I've driven for the company! I've driven every type of bus we have in the fleet except Spirit of London (Soon to be added to the list ) and an RM which I've been offered but not had the chance to do so yet due to various reasons. April the 11th, It's all change again, last day at Bromley, as I've now been appointed as a driver for Megasightseeing.com, Training started the following day with a very in-depth customer service training course at St Pancras with East Midland Trains, EMT are part of the Stagecoach Group and as they already run specific training course for their staff it was decided that they would custom design a course for us, which was very good. Following this, we had a week of route learning which was made hell by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which meant various roads were closed including part of our route and the traffic, in general, was just terrible with various lane restrictions in the Hyde Park area, not to mention, when they all went for lunch/dinner, there were various cars associated with them parked outside various restaurants/hotel's causing even more traffic pain, I think on that first day it took just under 4 hours to do the route and that was with sections being missed out due to roads being closed... Throughout the week we had even more bad luck with accidents/more road closures and delays but at least we roughly had some idea of where we were going We all at some point had a chance to drive, a chance to go over the various diversion that we might have to use and be shown how to use the comment system, megabus tickets etc etc, the staff day was the first day and that went pretty well and so far we've had a few hitches but for the most part it's been running great, there haven't been any massive issues as of yet, a few heavy delays due to security alerts, whitehall becoming a car park as usaul and Tower Bridge opening casuing tooley street to back up onto London bridge but there isn't really much we can do about that but anyway. There really are a great bunch of people that are operating this, the team of 14 Drivers are as good as gold and it’s been great working with them alongside the operations team at BW and WH June 2018, I'm always looking to do other things, Stagecoach does offer loads of opportunities to progress within the company even working at other places in the group and at many levels, for example, there is currently a programme open to staff currently employed as a supervisor, or those who can demonstrate previous supervisory or management experience to develop the skills needed to move into management which is very heavily applied for, it does mean moving around the company and working a few different roles but it would give a very good undersading of the way the copmnay operates and I think it's a great way to progress with the compnay, while I'm not looking particulaly to go into managment at the moment/anytime soon, I will be transfering to Rainham Garage from the 9th and will be taking up a role of Acting Garage Supervisor which I'm really looking forward too. The guys and girls at Rainham are by far some of the nicest you will meet and do a great job day in and day out, really looking forward to taking up this role Friday will be my last proper day on the tour, I'm sure I'll be back doing some overtime but for now anyway I'm just looking forward to being at Rainham and any challenges that present themselves Thats great to hear- good luck with the new role at Rainham, there's still a lot to ex First/Capital Citybus guys there so I know how much of a good bunch they are. It's great to see Stagecoach having a Development Scheme for its staff. As a trainer where I work, I get to meet a lot of new staff joining the business, spotting people who show something people who show something "a bit special" then putting them forward to their new line managers for future development. Thanks, also thanks to YY13VKP and snoggle, RM has quite a diverse range of drivers and it's always described as a big family, everyone gets on with each other for the most part, also a few people I know from various places are now working there as drivers There are many great people that work for this company and have great potential, it's a shame it isn't always recognised, There is a quite a high staff turnover rate in general when it comes to bus operators and I don't think that helps moral, furthermore I think staff deserve more priaise than they actually get, I suppose I'm lucky as I've been commeneded twice, firstly by a member of BSC and secondly by a member of the public, but I've known drivers to go well out of their way to help members of the public/other road users/emergency services and barley even get a thank you and when you see stuff like that happening you wonder why people even bother to try and help, for example, the vidoe of the bus driver flagging the motorbiker to stop as people are crossing the road, that literally happens mutiple times every day and we barley get aknowleged for it let alone a thank you from the rider which I think is a shame anyway, people in Lonodn are in too much of a rush. There are staff that have been here years and moan day in day out about the job and how they'd do things so differently but would never attempt to move up the ladder, to actually try and start the change to get things done, my old manager who's now at Bow, he comes from outside TfL land where things are much different, he is a person that wants to do things efficiently and try to help out as many people as possible ad it's nice to see that from someone thats only 25 (I think) |
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Post by ThinLizzy on Jun 5, 2018 20:10:39 GMT
Thats great to hear- good luck with the new role at Rainham, there's still a lot to ex First/Capital Citybus guys there so I know how much of a good bunch they are. It's great to see Stagecoach having a Development Scheme for its staff. As a trainer where I work, I get to meet a lot of new staff joining the business, spotting people who show something people who show something "a bit special" then putting them forward to their new line managers for future development. Thanks, also thanks to YY13VKP and snoggle, RM has quite a diverse range of drivers and it's always described as a big family, everyone gets on with each other for the most part, also a few people I know from various places are now working there as drivers There are many great people that work for this company and have great potential, it's a shame it isn't always recognised, There is a quite a high staff turnover rate in general when it comes to bus operators and I don't think that helps moral, furthermore I think staff deserve more priaise than they actually get, I suppose I'm lucky as I've been commeneded twice, firstly by a member of BSC and secondly by a member of the public, but I've known drivers to go well out of their way to help members of the public/other road users/emergency services and barley even get a thank you and when you see stuff like that happening you wonder why people even bother to try and help, for example, the vidoe of the bus driver flagging the motorbiker to stop as people are crossing the road, that literally happens mutiple times every day and we barley get aknowleged for it let alone a thank you from the rider which I think is a shame anyway, people in Lonodn are in too much of a rush. There are staff that have been here years and moan day in day out about the job and how they'd do things so differently but would never attempt to move up the ladder, to actually try and start the change to get things done, my old manager who's now at Bow, he comes from outside TfL land where things are much different, he is a person that wants to do things efficiently and try to help out as many people as possible ad it's nice to see that from someone thats only 25 (I think) That's so true, there's a pretty high turnover where I am at the moment and I think as businesses, more should be done to praise good work and work towards building pride in the business. We too, where I work, have a fair few moaners and groaners and it really is easy for new members of staff to get caught into that trap and listen to the moans. Anyway, good luck at RM, show them how good you can be and enjoy the new challenge |
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Post by VPL630 on Jun 5, 2018 20:29:52 GMT
It's been a while but I suppose an update is due, it's almost weird having free time... I will be transferring to Rainham Garage from the 9th and will be taking up a role of Acting Garage Supervisor which I'm really looking forward too. The guys and girls at Rainham are by far some of the nicest you will meet and do a great job day in and day out, really looking forward to taking up this role Friday will be my last proper day on the tour, I'm sure I'll be back doing some overtime but for now anyway I'm just looking forward to being at Rainham and any challenges that present themselves You may need to remove those "ants from your pants" though as Stagecoach won't move you from company to company every few months. There are only a few more things I'd want to do within the group, Drive an Oxford Tube, because I think the sheer length and size of those machines are just great, having sat in the cab of one, you sit low down and it's almost surreal when you get out and see how large it is, you also get a bit of everything, London, Motorway and then Oxford and finally a vehicle that certainly has some power, if I was living anywhere near oxford you know what I'd be doing Plus the current TDX's are going to be replaced soon, I'd love a drive of the current fleet and then a comparison drive of the new ones whatever they may be. So, management, if you are reading this as I know you do from time to time, I'm only a phone call away Drive for Megabus, technically I kinda do, Megasightseeing.com uses the Megabus ticketing system, we wear most of the Megabus uniform as well but a TA is no comparison to a Paxton Elite i. If only there was a way to be able to do Tfl work and then occasional Megabus work I'd be well up for that and I know for a fact many of my colleges would be too, we have quite a few ex megabus drivers at Leyton, and from driving the tour buses I've met a few coaches drivers who used to work for Megabus and used to be based at Leyton too, it's such a small world at times and they've all said if they could do both they would, unfortunately, it's not possibe at the moment. The wide variety of routes and vehicles Megabus operate would keep me interested I think, always wondered what it would be like driving coaches |
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Post by busaholic on Jun 5, 2018 21:57:17 GMT
Thats great to hear- good luck with the new role at Rainham, there's still a lot to ex First/Capital Citybus guys there so I know how much of a good bunch they are. It's great to see Stagecoach having a Development Scheme for its staff. As a trainer where I work, I get to meet a lot of new staff joining the business, spotting people who show something people who show something "a bit special" then putting them forward to their new line managers for future development. Thanks, also thanks to YY13VKP and snoggle , RM has quite a diverse range of drivers and it's always described as a big family, everyone gets on with each other for the most part, also a few people I know from various places are now working there as drivers There are many great people that work for this company and have great potential, it's a shame it isn't always recognised, There is a quite a high staff turnover rate in general when it comes to bus operators and I don't think that helps moral, furthermore I think staff deserve more priaise than they actually get, I suppose I'm lucky as I've been commeneded twice, firstly by a member of BSC and secondly by a member of the public, but I've known drivers to go well out of their way to help members of the public/other road users/emergency services and barley even get a thank you and when you see stuff like that happening you wonder why people even bother to try and help, for example, the vidoe of the bus driver flagging the motorbiker to stop as people are crossing the road, that literally happens mutiple times every day and we barley get aknowleged for it let alone a thank you from the rider which I think is a shame anyway, people in Lonodn are in too much of a rush. There are staff that have been here years and moan day in day out about the job and how they'd do things so differently but would never attempt to move up the ladder, to actually try and start the change to get things done, my old manager who's now at Bow, he comes from outside TfL land where things are much different, he is a person that wants to do things efficiently and try to help out as many people as possible ad it's nice to see that from someone thats only 25 (I think) I've never driven a bus in my life (disregarding a little trip around Chelsfield once on a 'borrowed' one) but enjoy your stories tremendously. I'm interested that you think Bromley has the pleasantest routes. You'd have loved being on the RFs (AEC Regals) on the 227 that I used to travel on in the late 1960s. The M-F rota was shared with the 47, and you had two entirely different types of crews on the route. You had the 'old boys', which included a couple of ex-Wing Commander from Biggin Hill types complete with handlebar moustaches) and the young tykes, throwing those RFs around as though there was no tomorrow. From Bromley to Beckenham, or the reverse, if you got the first bus that arrived, you might get passed by up to four others, so you never worried if you'd just missed one. The only element of control appeared to be up at Chislehurst Station, with its time clock, but so many buses never got there, with Widmore Green and Chislehurst Station turns (the latter avoiding the clock). Crystal Palace buses were a rarity, only 1 in 3, or even 4, working through from Penge during busy periods. London's tallest conductor, must have been about 6 ft 9 ins, was on the route on Sundays sometimes, and was unable to wear his cap, which distressed him! The 94 was another good route, shared with Catford. The crews used to wait at the Petts Wood terminus for a 'through' bus from Orpington and follow it: if it was a bus from the 'other' garage they'd never leapfrog it unless they absolutely had to, such as a TB bus changing crews at the Crown. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2018 19:05:18 GMT
"Yes do it"
At it 3 months so far and absolutely love it. My process was nothing like the op's though.
1, fill out application
2, Interview...very relaxed affair and job offer immediately.
3, Medical (company arranged and paid for)
4, DBS (again paid for)
5, Theory, Hazard perception, CPC case studies (again paid for)
6, Week 1..Start driver training and CPC Mod 4.
7, Week 2..Mod 4 test
8, Week 3..Practical driving test
9, Week 4.. Bus plus, learning to deal with customer scenarios and ticket machine price learning etc.
8, Week 5..on the job training and route learning with a mentor.
9, week 6..as above again.
10, week 7..Out solo and loving it.
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Friday will be my last proper day on the tour, I'm sure I'll be back doing some overtime but for now anyway I'm just looking forward to being at Rainham and any challenges that present themselves 
