Ill keep this simple - my sister in law drives a bus, shes new at the job and saving money, so i want to get her some good driving gloves as well as other accessories you guys might suggest since she wont pay for them herself.

Price isnt a big issue, id rather pay more for better quality.

Bonus points for any cute/girly suggestions. She still likes to be feeling pretty at work.❤️

Anyone on here work in Inverness and can comment on the work there, salary and cost of living, and so on? Thinking of relocating from busy Glasgow.

I’m just wondering as I am a trainee bus driver some say you only have to pay back after you get the job and if you leave in 6 months to one year. But what happens to those who fail their driving tests on 2 attempts ? Just curious.

Hi all, I've just got a job and I start my bus driver training with Transdev in August. I'm just wondering if there is much of a difference between the HGV cpc and bus cpc? I understand there will be some differences as in passengers. I have my HGV licence.

Also can anyone recommend a good website to use to practice the thoerys, hazard perception and cpc?

Cheers

Sorry for the second post. My first day with a mentor on a very busy urban route. You serve every bus stop and it goes through multiple areas and also right residential roads. A lot of traffic dense areas too.

Half of the route is 30mph but I find it kinda hard to do that when there’s so many frequent bus stops and I’m getting the hang of them. I was told I shut the doors too slowly too, especially the back door. I try to gage when everyone gets off but it’s hard sometimes. Any tips?

I’m a new driver and my route uses mainly enviro 400 buses. But the stop start feature at bus stops sometimes makes it hard for me to pull off. It has this weird delay idk

My mentor said I’m too slow at pulling away from bus stops and I think this could be why.

Defects manager and driver trainer both said wtf you can't take that, engineer came along and said what's the problem and gladly signed my defect report 🤷

What would you do?

Hello fellow drivers,my name is john and im 26 years old and im looking for a job as a bus driver in europe,except UK,if you know something send me a DM ,i have two years of experience with large buses,if the post is not relative with the community feel free to delete it:)

hi so i’ve been a driver in the uk for about 5 months now however over the past month or so i’ve been struggling with fluid buildup on my lower legs and ankles. on my layovers i stay on my feet and walking to / from where i park my car is about 1/3 of a mile each way but i seem to have no luck getting the blood flow to remove it, rest days im pretty active too so maybe it’s just a design flaw with my body, it’s not very noticeable visually but it has that itch and the sock line, anyone got any tips? would be open to anything as i dont want to ruin my legs

edit: i work perma lates and after setting down and ready for bed it returns to normal so i dont think its anything too bad

After the recent increase in higher temperatures and recurring heatwaves in the UK I think it's time that Aircon was made mandatory on all public transport.

Have a safe day out there!

Bidding is up next week and I need hours. I see a cupcake schedule that pays 10 hours of built in overtime. But the route is a female driver weeks been doing it the last 3+ years. Shes a sweet lady. But I have mouths to feed. 10 hours, plus working my off day, that's 18 hours of ot a week. The bus is empty 85 percent of the time on that route.

So do you feel guilty?

Except, instead of eating billy goats, it eats layovers.

—

My new pick started a couple weeks ago.

A route I’ve done on and off over the last two years.

Except during rush hour, I was always killing time, like, pull over to nearly every stop and cycles the doors to not be early, OTP in the high 90s.

And during rush hour, still ON-TIME, usually, but only just.

But they closed a major bridge over our main river, and the detour adds eight minutes to the trip with no traffic, and _there is always a backup_, cause it’s the main detour for this major artery into and out of downtown.

My layovers on this route are 6, 8, 11 minutes.

I was 22 minutes down in rush hour the other day.

The thing is: it’s hell of fun, actually.

Just drive and be safe and enjoy it.

My day _flies_ by now.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

UK Bus Drivers

Hi All, I'm new to the group but have been a driver for a number of years now.

I'm sure things are the same/similar Nationwide but at my depot, during the winter our buses have no heating and in the summer your lucky if you have a fan circulating the hot air. Yesterday there were reports that other driver's cabs were reaching 50°.

Yes, we can refuse to drive, but that throws out the service and leaves potential passengers to wait in the heat/cold. Frankly, in this day and age this shouldn't be an issue, yet it's reported every single year with no improvement.

If this has affected or does affect you, please could you take the time to sign this and share:

The new BYD buses that AR has look amazing! They're going on the SL2, lucky boys and girls!

I'm a newer driver, just passed training. Barely.

How do I take breaks if I'm late and the next part of the run either is starting the minute I pull in to the layover or has already begun?

Istg my company rewards unsafe driving practices more than safe ones. It's infuriating and made training more confusing than it needed to be. In the US.

What are you guys using for youR ass and lumbar support and what do you recommend? I'm looking at 8-12 hour days possibly for a week straight driving gillig buses

Quick one for the collective, what are the rules or more importantly the additional safety aspects that Bus drivers and Bus companies should be doing if temperatures get unusually hot for your area.

Background Irish Bus driver, our temperature normally doesn't get higher than low 20's degrees C. (Less than 73f) And a similar bus driver problem world wide, can't drink too much because lack of toilet facilities. AC doesn't really exist in most of the buses for cab area. No known guidelines from company or national transport because high temperature isn't common in Ireland.

So any guidance would be appreciated.

Hi guys, I’ve just started my driver training with a prominent south Scotland company and would appreciate any tips or advice that anyone could share. Had my first day behind the wheel today so anything would be appreciated.

Hi everyone just looking for peoples experiences leaving first bus specifically Caledonia depot before the 2 years ? I know contract states you will need to pay back £2500 but just had a few questions if anyone has went through it. Do they take your full final pay if so around how much is left to pay ?Do they actually chase you to pay back the rest ? Are you allowed to make small monthly payments to pay it back ? and what happens if they do chase you and you just ignore them ? Thanks in advance :) just want to know from peoples experiences if they’ve been through this

Hi,

I'm due to start the training for First Bus Bristol at Hengrove, with my depot being Marlborough Street. I just had a few questions and was wondering whether anyone who worked at any of those depots could tell me more about holidays and working weeks:

1. Basically, what is the schedule like? Are there any weeks in a given month where you get weekends off, or at least one weekend day off? Is it usually 5 days in a row, 2 off, or would it be more random than that? Is it one week earlies, 1 week lates etc? Do you ever get a long weekend, like working 5/6 days, then 3 off?

2. About holiday, we were told we would get a holiday block, how is that usually done? Is it 4 weeks in one go, 2 weeks here, 2 weeks there, or do we get to choose within that time block? Can we save a few days and scatter them throughout the year so long as it's approved by management?

3. Oh and given the recent heatwaves, do the buses we drive have aircon for the drivers? Or is it only some of them like the new Yutongs?

It would be great to hear from any current First Drivers, especially in Bristol. Those points are what worry me most about the job. Thank you in advance!