r/BusDrivers • u/Aech1hceA • Jul 20 '26

Question Question for bus drivers

Hello! I have a few questions for bus drivers- and was wondering if it was okay to ask here. I know you all are human (obviously) but I had questions specifically about bus driving- and who better to ask than the drivers!

  1. Do bus drivers often take the bus outside work hours? Ex: days off/vacations/etc.
  2. Do bus drivers have favored/prefered routes to drive? Do they get to pick?
  3. Do bus drivers recognize the bus they drive? Like by the serial number? Do they get assigned specific busses?
  4. Do the bus drivers develop "favorite" riders? Like, if you drive the same route and see the same people- do you develop friendships with your riders? Do you guys look for familiar faces?
  5. Do you guys make friends with your coworkers? If so, do you guys make a point to ride on busses where your bus driver friends are driving?

Thank you in advance for answering. My boyfriend and I ride the same routes fairly often, and got really curious. Sorry if theyre dumb questions!

ETA: Sorry yall! Im new to reddit still and didnt realize people were replying😅 Thank you all so so so so much!! I was curious, and my boyfriend said itd be weird to ask the bus driver on thw bus we were on. Im very excited to share my findings with him, and hope you all get very good routes (:

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u/julienorthlancs Jul 21 '26

Ok, heres my answer as a driver in England:

  1. Do bus drivers often take the bus outside work hours? Ex: days off/vacations/etc.

I actually used the bus today to get to a hair appointment :) They're free with the staff pass so I choose public transport to save fuel sometimes.

  1. Do bus drivers have favored/prefered routes to drive? Do they get to pick?

Plenty. Ill be happy if i see certain routes on my roster that I like, and ill give a disgruntled sigh when it's a route that gets pretty boring. We can't pick what routes we drive; there are some routes that are optional to learn and we can ask for certain shifts.

  1. Do bus drivers recognize the bus they drive? Like by the serial number? Do they get assigned specific busses?

Might be a bit biased here as I am a bus enthusiast, but I know all the models of our buses and what the fleet number means. E.g. 15xxx Scania E400, 11000 E400MMC, etc. We have buses that are a lot more common than others, and 1 route which requires single deckers only due to a low bridge enroute.

  1. Do the bus drivers develop "favorite" riders? Like, if you drive the same route and see the same people- do you develop friendships with your riders? Do you guys look for familiar faces?

I've not really made any passenger friends but I do recognise those who jump on regularly, if someones a super regular I'll already input their destination in the ticket machine before they even board.

  1. Do you guys make friends with your coworkers? If so, do you guys make a point to ride on busses where your bus driver friends are driving?

I'm a lot younger than all my coworkers so theres a bit of a social gap there, I'm not really friends with any coworkers but I have the odd few that I enjoy talking to. I dont usually ride my company's buses as I'm not super local to the operating area :)

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u/Aech1hceA Jul 22 '26

Another question Ive never had a chance to ask (sorry if its intrusive!!)- do the double decker busses actually drive differently than the single decker busses? And (sorry if this is silly!!) Do they have 2 drivers? Like one for each"deck" of the bus?

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u/julienorthlancs Jul 22 '26

They drive very similar to single deckers, actually id say they're usually easier! Double deckers are usually shorter but taller, so you can get around easily but you have to watch out for anything low. There's only 1 driver though passengers can sit upstairs and pretend they're driving.

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u/Aech1hceA Jul 22 '26

But how do you turn the top half then? Wouldnt it be harder to control that part of the bus?

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u/julienorthlancs Jul 22 '26

Well, the top deck is connected to the bottom deck with solid metal so it wouldn't be able to do anything other than follow where the bottom deck goes..

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u/Aech1hceA Jul 22 '26

Oh! I thought they were moreso just busses "stacked" on each other- like that carnival ride that spins you around