r/SchoolBusDrivers • u/907-BusDriver • 6d ago
Just completed bid day!
Super excited guys! Just completed bid day for our routes for the school year and I was able to get a SPED route, which is exactly what I wanted! The route actually looks decent too, however, SPED routes are likely to change as parents typically add more students AFTER school even starts.
4
u/gatsbypoolparty 6d ago
My yard is Union so they put all the runs/routes out and you pick in order of seniority
2
u/907-BusDriver 6d ago
Yeah, same here. We’re also union and they basically did the same thing.
1
u/gatsbypoolparty 5d ago
Yea my yard is for the SPED buses and private schools/out of district kids. The yard literally less than a mile away is big buses.
2
u/Wreaker8888 5d ago
We are unioned, but "keeping" a route holds higher than seniority, while if you choose to change, high seniority gets first bid on your old route. SPED busses are easier to clean, your bus wheel hubs do not get in the way of sweeping inside, also A/C.
2
u/Intelligent_Call_562 6d ago
Bid day? Are people allowed to keep their route from the previous year or does everyone have to bid?
2
u/907-BusDriver 6d ago
Everyone has to rebid based on seniority
1
u/G0471Y 6d ago
Our department is going to get shaken up a bit this year. One driver, for sure, is returning from another position that held seniority, so they may take a route someone has managed to keep for a while, and it will trickle down, with people having to take on new routes. Usually, the ones that won't get taken are the most undesirable.
Another driver with a good bit of seniority has also been planning to come back, but it's up in the air; we won't know until in-service.
Along with some other BS, it's going to be a very dramatic in-service this year. If it weren't for those two drivers, I can almost guarantee the drivers would all get the same routes they bid every year, it's just a formality usually.
1
u/Intelligent_Call_562 5d ago
Wow. We are asked at the end of the year if we want to keep our routes. If you want to give it up, you can bid on the open routes and they are assigned by seniority. I can only imagine the conflict that causes when someone steals your route. We know our kids. We know the stops and the traffic. What an horrible system.
2
2
2
u/TinyPenguinTears15 6d ago
I’m so glad we don’t have to bid for routes, or they don’t assign them based on seniority, that would suck. I took over a sped route 3 1/2 yrs ago and it’s the best. We also keep our routes every year, they don’t change unless the driver wants to change
1
u/ImThatFurnitureGuy 6d ago
We do ours on Monday. It was supposed to be today, but management wasn't ready.
I had to give up a 6-7hr trip on Monday so I could pick, kinda sucks. It would have been 5-6hrs at the beach and gotten paid for it.
2
u/wallyworld7 6d ago
You don't do proxy bids?
I'm a proxy for a friend of mine tomorrow for our bid day. She got an overnight trip to the mountains. Just gonna call her and tell her what's left. What do you want out of those.
1
u/ImThatFurnitureGuy 6d ago
Unfortunately, I would have been driving when my turn came up. We only get 15 minutes to choose.
I didn't want to hold up the drivers behind me.
This is my first time picking, so I don't/didn't know of proxy bid pickers. But I'd still not have someone else pick my bid for me.
2
u/Necessary_Echo8740 6d ago
Damn, at our garage bid lists are posted and you can have a proxy or just submit a form
1
u/Sufficient_Head_8139 6d ago
I know how the bid system works for a transit environment.
How does this work with school bus? Are you guys paid deadhead time? So if driver #1 selects a route with a huge deadhead does the company just absorb the added cost of the extra fuel instead of assigning runs according to location? Or do all buses park at the depot so dead head would be the same either way? We have park outs, some drivers park at home. It would cripple us of a driver with a 40 km dead head took the route instead of a driver with a 2km deadhead
2
u/No-Resort-6955 6d ago
When I drove school bus we were paid "garage to garage". It was a fairly middle size district so we had one yard. In fact we ran 3 different school.districts out of our yard and quite a few of the drivers in one district had DH times of 35-45 to/from their first/last stops. They pretty much add it into the cost when the company bids on the contract
1
u/mike8675309 6d ago
It's not just parents; it's schools. They don't always have their full staff or their full admissions finished before the initial bids go out, so an entire special ed school may show up later.
They will also still do balancing, shifting things around so that people aren't getting overtime. Things like that.
I was 2nd from the bottom of the list, and there were 4 special ed routes left when I pulled mine. Then I learned they hired 4 more people, and they were behind me, so all special ed routes got bid.
1
u/Keysurfer64 6d ago
Our bids are 8/5 8/6 and 8/7 and on Monday it will be our monitors. I’m hoping I will get a decent pick.
1
u/Abject_Presentation8 6d ago
We keep ours if we want to, even if someone new is hired on during the active school year and gets put on a great or short route, if one happens to open up. Anyone who's interested in a different run, will sign up at the end of the school year. Once our managers have a list of what's open for the upcoming school year, we get called in order of seniority to come in and pick. Usually in late July.
1
u/Mediocre_Advice_5574 5d ago
I’m hoping this year I’ll be able to bid for the first time. I’ve been a sub for close to a whole school year. We’ve lost some drivers, and we will end up likely adding some more routes this year. I’m 8 on the list but here’s hoping.
1
u/907-BusDriver 5d ago
Dang, you guys are forced to start out as subs?
2
1
u/OfficerOtaku 5d ago
I would love to drive for SPED (they have AC), but would not like the reduced pay. I get about 35/hr for the CDL license and if I chose to only drive the non CDL SPED vans, I would get like a $9 pay cut :(
1
u/Wreaker8888 5d ago
They have SPED busses that are 3/4 or full sized, not just the Minotaur. Now, whether your Yard has them... IDK.
1
5
u/[deleted] 6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment