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?

I agree to an extent. Not all drivers could cut it. But then, regardless, bus drivers are essential as brain surgeons. As bin men (or women) as plumbers, or lawyers or waitresses. People deserve respect. Not for their job, role, intellect or upbringing, but because they are people and who they are not what they are makes them.

Funnily enough if the bus driver was good with his hands and was given instructions, they might actually be ok. Equally, the brain surgeon may accidentally run someone over, I don't think a huge bus would be that easy to drive

Well done for showing us you have zero clue in such a delightfully succinct way!

How do you know the surgeon knows how to drive to begin with? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Bus driving is skilled work.

Unskilled work is surely work where you could grab someone off the street and they could get on with the job with a bit of instruction.

Pot washing, shelf stacking for example

Bus driving doesn’t fall under that.

Unskilled doesn’t mean unimportant.
It just means easy to pick up and get on with.

I respect bus drivers it can be a hard job but I wouldn’t say it’s highly skilled. My thoughts on highly skilled are if only 5-10% of the working population could do your job then its highly skilled. I think a lot of jobs aren’t highly skilled just normal jobs

Well driving a car is a skill and driving a bus is up from that I suppose.

Do you mean in the sense of the now dated job classifications (unskilled, semi skilled, skilled, technical, managerial and professional?)

Or do you you mean peoples opinions?

I reckon for both it's semi skilled

Unskilled is factory work, pot wash, cleaner, shelf stacker.

Skilled is carpentry or plumber (the trades)

Semi Skilled is somewhere between the two.

I respect bus drivers

I respect bus drivers immensely but I haven't been a regular bus user for 20+ years.

I do think there has been a huge shift in society if those 20 years in terms of manners and respect.

I think the job is really tough having to keep a bus load of people safe. And negotiate increasing traffic and disrespectful people!

@TheBigWangTheory amazing - every job mentioned in this thread you know someone who is one.

Is your highly skilled job talking absolute bullshit - because you've already done that on this thread. Well total lies but same thing.

Yes I think it is a skilled job and hope by my behaviour when on a bus I am being respectful.

It is not however seen as a career, especially as you cannot start as a school leaver, and so will almost always be seen as a second choice, or a stop gap. Not the only job like this, but I am sure it contributes towards some being unsuitable in their temperament towards passengers.

I just answered the opinion question without googling!

Apologies for being Wrong On The Internet.

I would like to respect bus drivers but would say three quarters of the ones where I live are grumpy fuckers

Training to be a surgeon does not involve driving, or being in control of a large vehicle.
Would you trust a surgeon to cut your hair too?
It is hard enough to trust a surgeon to have legible writing 😂

No and yes

Respect to bus drivers and train drivers. Both skilled jobs on which most of us rely. I cannot quite understand the disparity between their earnings, though the train/tube driver might be hauling 1000 and the bus/coach driver 80. The real inequity surely is that a graduate can hit £100000 pa on joining a top law/banking firm and then cause financial disaster.

@crosstalk the interesting thing is that I recently saw a qualified solicitor job advertised for Transport for London and the salary scale was lower than for tube drivers and lawyers don’t get paid overtime like tube drivers!

So today whilst on the Bus I've noticed some people not thanking the Bus driver and road users being aggressive to them. Why are people like this to them? For when they're providing a service to the public!

I wouldn’t class it as a skilled job hence why the pay is poor, but lots of respect for those who do it

Try doing it for a bit and you will see why so many are grumpy.

As you might guess from my user name, I used to work as a bus driver.

It's not a skill like a surgeon or an electrician or anything that needs years of training, if you have a car licence you could do the PCV training and be on the road in a few weeks.

So I would say it's not a skill. Although being a good driver and good with the customers becomes a bit of a skill I guess?

But given the hassle, abuse, lone working, zero company support, insane unsafe UK driving hours laws( the HGV delivering your parcels is entitled to better breaks than the PCV driver delivering your children) , being bricked, it's needs to be better paid.

Bus companies are awful people to work for. I loved it but a quid an hour over minimum wage? I would be giving blow jobs to tramps at 50p a pop before I went back to that shite.

I think it takes a lot more skill to be a bus driver than a tube driver. The spaces I see them navigate would be a struggle for me in my Citigo. On top of that they have the hassle of dealing with the general public, unlike tube drivers. How often do we see threads on here arguing about priority for buggies, wheelchairs etc.

Funny I'd like to see you drive a Tri Axle Coach

There are some fit bus drivers, and they have a nice voice. Sometimes I imagine going out on a date with one of them, even though I would get scolded.

I respect bus drivers. Where I live they are young, fit, helpful and polite. They dress smart. They drive well. Even my snobby mum agrees

It clearly involves skills I don’t have, and wouldn’t be very good at. I should not be in charge of a very large vehicle. I wouldn’t even choose to put myself in charge of a large car tbh.

And is useful and valuable in society.

If people look down on it, that’s really a them problem.