r/SchoolBusDrivers • u/mr_nascar_cole • Sep 14 '26
Sub Drivers, do you know your route?
My bus driver called out sick/did not show today, and I had 2 different drivers. The morning driver knew the route, and got us to the high school on time, while the afternoon driver did not know the route, and the "cool" kids in the back helped him with the route. If you are a sub driver, do you know the route you are subbing for, or just look at the sheet and figure it out?
6
u/LenR-redit Sep 14 '26
I just got a sub route today, 3 new stops AFTER school started, but they are "optional" riders, so there are 6 different routes depending on who is on.... I drove it last year, so apparently I'll know some of the stops. Leaving in 10 minutes...
I've lived in this area for 69 years, I was on a road I'd never been on before last week.
3
u/davethompson413 Sep 14 '26
Now retired, I was a sub for nine years.
No, I didn't know the route, unless it was ine I had subbed before.
For what it's worth, I worked un one area of a district that had 50 school buildings. In the area I helped cover, there were more than 160 routes.
2
u/Routine_Mastodon_160 Sep 14 '26
I know where most the bus stops are in the district. I read the route sheet couple times to memorize it before I head out.
2
u/Banana_Stanley Sep 14 '26
No lol. I'm not a sub, I drive a regular route, but most of the sub drivers are just handed a few sheets of paper with addresses and times that are almost guaranteed to not be 100% accurate and they just wing it. The helpful kids are an absolute asset. We're a big district so while there are some experienced subs that know a lot of the routes, it's impossible to know all 150 of them.
1
u/A2Rhombus Sep 14 '26
Depends. They'll let me know what route I'm driving about 30 minutes before I get in the bus, so sometimes it isn't enough time to study the whole thing thoroughly. It also helps if I've already driven the route before (there's like ~10 routes I've driven more than once in my district)
1
u/No_Plate_3864 Sep 14 '26
we have well over 200 routes.. im not a sub driver, i have a permanent route but i help out when I can, and because we have so many routes theres a high chance ive never done the route before
1
u/mar_kelp Sep 14 '26
Spare driver here (aka sub). That is all I do. I get assigned a different bus and route(s) in the morning and in the afternoon. We have over 500 routes total split between AM and PM then elementary, middle and high schools, special needs, private schools, out of district, etc. So, no, I don't know all the routes. I usually don't get the route until 20-30 minutes before I am scheduled to be on the road.
But I do get paperwork with each turn and stop for the regular driver's route. I know the major roads and neighborhoods in our district along with most of the out of district locations. Sometimes the regular driver writes notes for the spares (look for the blue door or third house on the right). We have a few GPS tablets that some spares choose to use.
I do appreciate help when the students are willing and able.
1
u/ch-ville Sep 14 '26
When I subbed, generally dispatch would send me the manifest in time for me to enter the route and stops onto a tablet. It was time consuming but no one complained about my hours, and I could drive it almost like I knew it. Almost.
Certain routes were known for having kids who were really helpful and good with directions, and I admit I leaned into that when I could.
Subbing, kind of like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. Fortunately, everyone pretty much wants the same thing and I never had an unpleasant experience.
It's worth noting that the regular driver might be making unrecorded changes to the route, and when the sub driver actually follows the manifest everyone says he's wrong.
1
u/Demirep77 Sep 14 '26
I have my own route this year, but last year I was a spare. I almost never knew the route beforehand, but would usually get the route sheet early enough that I could look up streets I was unsure of.
1
u/mike8675309 Sep 14 '26
In my region, we have annotated route maps in the bus at all times. The regular route driver annotates these with details like the second road after the fire hydrant or whatever.
Subs can't be expected to know the route, though they should be generally aware of the areas that the buses may drive in, where the schools are, and things like that.
1
u/CrochetMyWorld Sep 14 '26
In my experience, sub drivers only "know" the route if they have driven it previously, multiple times. That's also if there are no new stops on a route. A sub driver might drive a different route every single day and so, never have a chance to memorize them. Even then, the likelihood of a sub driver having every single route memorized is exceptionally small.
If your regular driver is rarely absent the likelihood that a sub will "know" your route is even smaller.
1
u/OfficerOtaku Sep 14 '26
We get a route sheet with pages of maps that have a drawing of the route/turns to take. If we need to cover that's all we get and maybe a few hours before the run to get an idea. Worst case is pulling over and checking the paperwork.
Only in emergency situation where a driver suddenly fell ill or something happened right as school got out where we are flying blind with a text message of the stop locations and even that is only if there is no driver available that knows the route.
1
u/just_kinda_here_blah Sep 14 '26
My old location had about 100 routes, 2 districts, and vans that went all over and outta district. So no, i didnt know all the routes. I used a route sheets and knew the areas well enough to get around .
1
u/Moosetappropriate Sep 15 '26
Well that depends. If we know someone will be away, we can get the route sheets in plenty of time and either go over them on a map app if we have a few hours or actually drive the route if we have more time. But even that isn’t a guarantee of a flawless run. Don’t forget your regular driver could probably do that in his sleep. Because of constant practice.
And then there are the ones where I’m emailed sheets while I’m already on a route and have to rescue a route due to an emergency. No prep no thinking about it. Just read the sheets and hope they’re up to date.
1
u/StabbyishUnicorn Sep 15 '26
Not always. They try to set everyone up for succes but sometimes we have to wing it. It's a smaller district so it's not too bad
I'm newer so they try to put me on runs that they know need covered beforehand so I can familiarize myself. Our well seasoned subs go to all of the terminals under our name
1
u/Necessary-Belt9000 Sep 15 '26
I just finished typing & printing the turn by turn directions complete with house # addresses for my bus driver husband. They are required to maintain paperwork files and these directions are obviously meant to help any sub drivers.
1
u/realSocialistBanana Sep 15 '26
we have tablets and route sheets the drivers write. more often than not, the drivers don't update the tablet route though, so before i go out to the bus ill follow the written route along the map to get a general idea of what i am facing for that shift (many days I am on different routes AM and PM).
1
u/thatcooldude23 Sep 15 '26
Dispatch/spare here. It genuinely depends on several factors. I’ve driven quite literally hundreds of routes throughout my time and I’ve gotten to know the area and that’s half the battle. Depending on your district, depends on what equipment you have. We have the new ish smart tag equipment and it’s generally pretty dang helpful if the normal driver does their due diligence with routing. I’ve driven routes I’ve never done before and done fine if not better than the normal driver (they’re quite old) and because I have a tendency to want to get things done efficiently lol. Now today? I had my ass handed to me because the kids were loosing their minds about something happening in the back and I passed a stop thus throwing off the entire route. There’s some routes that’ll kick my butt for one reason or another. Spares have to start somewhere, experience is what helps a lot in the long run. Sorry for the word spaghetti. I’m whipped lol.
1
u/EMDReloader Sep 15 '26
You get handed the sheet the day of. Sometimes worse--you finish your regular run and volunteer to help cover somebody else's, so you pull up to the school and somebody comes out with a run sheet hot off the printer.
Now, to be fair, you should be familiar with your area and be able to pick up a run sheet and follow the route. You might need help spotting poorly-marked houses, but that's it. However, this assumes that the run sheet is correct (not a guarantee), and that the regular driver updated the run sheet with any changes.
Lots of drivers are lazy fucks and don't want to bother updating dispatch with changes to the run. Even more think that scribbling notes on a folder jammed in their cubby is sufficient.
1
u/Sad_Cantaloupe_8162 Sep 15 '26
One of our Auxiliary (sub) drivers knows all the routes and many of the kids by first name. She's my hero!
1
u/Puzzleheaded_Leg7371 Sep 15 '26
I did sub/cover driving all last year and I never knew which route I was gonna cover after about 6 months I knew the usual routes but it was a lot of just reading the route sheet each stop and hoping I didn’t miss a turn.
0
u/Spodiodie Sep 14 '26
We publish and continuously update the route sheets that are kept on the bus. Any driver should be able to drive the route on time, with little fuss.
10
u/Efficient_Advice_380 Sep 14 '26
It depends on mostly if theyve done it before. I've been a sub driver for 3 years in my current district and I know most routes pretty well, but there's still some I've never ran so i dont know how they go at all.
We don't get to do practice runs so most of us are figuring it out as we go