Do you think being a Bus driver is a skilled job?

[UrbanMan27]

Sorry about this random post.

But, what's your opinions on this? Also do you respect Bus drivers?

@Chesneyhawkes1 they are both driving jobs in the transport sector which require a high degree of concentration because if something goes wrong there could be a crash. Yes, they require different skills but so do many jobs that are benchmarked against each other.

Yes and yes.

Hats off from me. 👍🏼

@Stopsnowing I imagine it's down to route knowledge.

I drive a route that takes 2 hours 20 min each way. For that route I need to know:-

Every station
Every speed restriction (hundreds)
Every junction and the crossing speed
Every signal - what does it protect, if I get 2 yellows, I need to know exactly where the red signal is.
Every tunnel and the length of it
Where every signal can take me, you can be signalled incorrectly and if I accept a wrong route, the fault lies with me.
The names of all the lines - they change frequently and I need to know where they change
When I'm stopping at a station I need to know exactly where to start braking, even when it's so foggy you can see nothing around you and you are going 100mph
You have hundreds of tonnes of train behind you with up to 1,400 people on. And it's just you. If anything happens - you are the only one on board.

Plus so much more - the rule book is huge - you have to know and adhere to every rule in it with regards to safety equipment, brakes, doors being out of use etc etc etc.

Of course it's a skilled job, that's why you need a PCV licence to do it

Driving any large vehicle requires a lot of skill

Most people with a car licence can barely drive a car

@Lozzybear I don't like benchmarking jobs against each other. Not unless I've done both jobs and can make such a judgment.

As I said, I couldn't be a bus driver. I'd be terrible at it. So all kudos to them.

We don't have any ex bus drivers I know working for us. Lot of ex police and prison service. So I can't really ask anyone for an unbiased opinion.

No. I've had some totally unskilled jobs, when I was a student. I had one that was just stuffing envelopes, a monkey could have done it, no skills required. And selling office supplies over the phone, unless reading counts as skilled that was unskilled too. Lots of jobs are unskilled.

Bus driving is definitely skilled. It's not just driving, thats the easy part. Its dealing with all the people, and the traffic, and the routes, and the idiots who walk into the road, and cyclists, and keeping to the timetable, and the size of a double decker. It's bloody hard.

Bus drivers have to be good drivers and I am a rubbish driver so I vote "yes".

I don't know enough about it. How much more or less skilled are train drivers. And what's the difference in salary?

Train driving is piss easy in comparison. No traffic, no passengers, no pedestrians or cyclists. You're literally on rails and its not much more than pushing buttons at the right time. And it pays more.

@TheBigWangTheory yes that's why it takes 18 months training to become one 🙄🙄🤦‍♀️ how many trains have you driven out of interest? And no passengers??!! .....

And trespassers on the railway aren't that uncommon either. Drunk people, graffiti artists, children messing about and very sadly, people who wish to end their lives.

Do you not know how trains work? The train driver is in a locked compartment, they don't interact with passengers. So, as a job description, no passengers.
18 months? LOL. Try 8 weeks.

One of my brothers is a train driver, one is a bus driver, I know far more about both than you could ever know!

Yes and yes but from the stories my husband had from his time as a bus driver, he'd be verbally abused and physically threatened every day and it's why he left less than a year after fully completing his training.

It can't be done by just anyone that drives like a pp claimed, it's more than just driving, dh has had to stop attacks, give medical help, sit with an elderly man for hours who'd forgotten who he was and police took ages to get there, he's had a female colleague had her bus set of fire and the lads try to get into the cabin threatening sexual assault, and there's also people jumping in front of them to end their own lives, two of his colleagues had to go through that too, it's not just driving they have to do.

They are a lot less common than pedestrians and cyclists on roads!

@TheBigWangTheory 😂😂😂😂 I've been a train driver for 19 years, so I doubt that.

I drive DOO, so certainly do have interaction with passengers.

When the emergency alarm is activated - who do you think goes back?

But thanks for the laugh!

Yes, my dad was a bus driver all his life until he retired recently.

I know he found it really stressful trying to do a good job with increasingly shitty employers, shit pay, sometimes dangerous working conditions, kids on buses carrying knives (we don't live in a bad or scary area yet this is now commonplace), having to call the police to have people removed, having to pay out of his own pocket for people who can't/won't pay, dealing with aggression, crap working hours etc etc.

I know I couldn't do it. He is an incredibly safe driver and in 50yrs of driving he hasn't had so much as a single scrape.

Not sure why you asking with no input or opinion from yourself?

Why would you not respect someone based on what they do for a living? That's weird anyway. Are you the kind of person that speaks like shit to waiters because they think they are beneath you?

I have complete respect for bus drivers. I can drive fine but put me in an estate (car not housing) or van and I'd be a sweaty mess.
I couldn't drive a great big thing down the street, with lots of people on. Hats off to them.

You work for a company that sends the DRIVER down if the Emergency lever is pulled? That's nuts. Complete cowboys. Don't you have a union?

I'm guessing the question was asked in relation to a twitter post today about an advert for bus drivers (full training provided) with starting salary £27k and comparing to NHS doctors' starting salary of £27k. No reference to respect in the tweet so not sure why OP asked that.

@TheBigWangTheory if only ... really disturbs my button pushing when they do that too.

Luckily the trains drive themselves - so I can just wander off and see what they want. No issues.

No.

Brain surgery is a skilled job. If you put a brain surgeon in a bus and ask him to drive it, he’ll do ok.

Put a bus driver in an operating theatre and hand him a scapel, you got a problem.

Do I respect bus drivers? Well I’ve got a bit of a grudge against them actually. When I was a kid I had to catch a bus to and from school, but most of the bus drivers would take one look at the long queue of school kids waiting in the cold and simply drive their empty bus past the stop without stopping.

It may be 30 years ago but I have not forgotten or forgiven all the bus drivers who left me waiting in the cold while they drove an empty bus past.

Fuck the bus drivers.

I met a brain surgeon socially some time ago, he didn't drive and his wife had banned him from cycling as he had fallen off more than once.
Ability in one area does not mean ability in another. There's no reason a brain surgeon would be any good at controlling a double decker or a bendy. I have an extremely skilled and niche job, but I can't drive a bus (and yes I have tried it)