Does anyone think Bus Driving is a good Career?

[Benny91]

I’m thinking of becoming one, as I see it quite an easy job. What do you think of Bus driving as a Career?

I’ve actually heard people say its a job for thick people, for which I doubt is very untrue to what people say! 🤔

I don’t think it’s for thick people, I actually think it’s a big responsibility to carry passengers. You need to be concerned for others safety and lives. in that sense, I wouldn’t view it as an ‘easy’ job personally, I think that would always be at the back of my mind.

I don't know the specifics of bus driving but I think any job that involves dealing directly with the general public can be stressful. A significant minority of people are rude, antagonistic, unreasonable, aggressive, etc.

I worked in retail for a while and the horrible customers ruined the whole job for me as I didn't really have a thick enough skin for it.

I bet bus drivers have to put up with all kinds of abuse.

I think drivers probably have to put up with a lot of abuse from passengers and other road users.

I live near a bus station and often see people (men and women) learning to drive a bus and I am fascinated by it. I always think, Good on you!

I think it would be hard work and tiring. I find it tiring if I drive a lot in a day.

I also remember seeing a documentary which showed it was quite a lonely job. I do see a lot of camaraderie between the drivers as they travel to and from the bus station and use the buses themselves (assume it’s free so that’s a perk!)

I wouldn’t have thought someone ‘thick’ could do the job.

I need to pee too often. I can’t if on a bus fur a hour or more.

Sitting all day immobile isn’t good for us.

So although I like the thought of driving a bus it’s a no for me personally.

I was thinking about train driving the other day as they have a big outreach for women - good pay too. It's being surrounded by the men I am not sure about in either of these jobs as they are traditionally male spaces.

Well, there’s a huge bus driver recruitment problem where I live, to the point where bus services are being cancelled for lack of drivers and a recruitment fee being paid to new drivers when they sign up — so something about the job is insufficiently attractive.

I know a couple of London bus drivers, one of which gave up his plumbing career to retrain as a driver, they have both being doing it years and years (ones almost at retirement age). Neither are 'thick' but they both LOVE driving (even in central London)

Personally I always thank drivers on the bus .It is a greatly needed service. I am retired now and would not be able to meet up with friends if there were no buses. Best wishes.

I think it's a hard job. Shift work. Antisocial behaviour and abuse. Traffic. Lack of toilet access. Lots of drivers have back issues from sitting for long periods.
I think transport sector has a lot of brilliant jobs but personally I'd rather be a train driver than a bus driver because you're not getting abuse from passengers (maybe this is just a London problem!).

I know several bus drivers, some current and others retired. I also used the bus for work for many years.

Dealing with the public at large is often not a lot of fun. Delays, diversions, cancellations, changes to the timetable, problems wth payments etc, you are on the receiving end of all complaints and that is before you have the downright nasty/entitled/drunk passengers.
It can be very boring driving the same route all shift and then there is the issue of toilet breaks (when/where/how).

Not something I would want to do but hats off to those that do.

If it’s anything like where I live it’s the shifts. You are expected to work somewhere between 6am and 2am and often have a mix of shifts throughout a week. You need a set break but can work till 2am then be back on 2pm then finish at 8pm then next day 8am finish at 4pm for a 5am start the next day and it changes every week.

If you have dc / commitments it’s really difficult.

I don't think its a career as such - as I doubt there is any real progression ( happy to be corrected if someone knows better).

I imagine most bus driving jobs are quite lonely - passengers don't even really see you anymore - especially now people don't even pay cash on buses. So I think you would need to be quite happy and content in yourself to spend all day around people yet invisible. All that sitting would not be for me - I find it painful.

When I was a kid there was more contact with bus drivers and passengers - local drivers would become 'known' and everyone would have some sort of spoken interaction as they got on and off the bus with the driver. I don't see that in the cities I live in anymore.

There may be other jobs such as a coach driver for specially hired trips that might be a bit more interesting or have more contact with the passengers, maybe.

O

More of a job than a career surely as there’s not much possibility of progression .
I know a London bus driver and he’s a highly intelligent man who finds the job suits his need for a reasonably paid shift working job that he enjoys.
There was a tv programme about an international job swap where a London driver swapped with one in (I think) the Philippines. He spoke a lot about how he loved the job.
It is ridiculous that bus drivers get paid so much less than tube and train drivers. I know which one I think is more complicated!

I'd say it could be monumentally stressful. And kind of lonely.

You have full responsibility for the lives of all your passengers, and not any control over how they choose to behave. If someone kicks off it could get really upsetting. I think they experience a lot of abuse off fare dodgers or just arseholes.

Then there's the traffic.

I guess I'm thinking of busy London bus routes. Maybe in other places it's a bit more chill. And you could kind of get to know your passengers and feel part of the community.

I think city driving would be a bit stressful for all of the reasons above and there is the general safety and responsibility for passengers. It’s a respectable job like being a postman, delivery driver etc. There are lots of opportunities for overtime and I think the pay is the living wage in London so above minimum wage. Once you’ve got experience you might be able to move on to heavy goods driving?

I would call bus driving a job rather than a career, but it’s well paid and if you like dealing with the public it’s probably a good job.
My main concerns would be
•opportunities to go to the toilet are limited
•it’s sitting down all day

BILl is a bus driver and loves it. He started as a local bus driver, but he now works for a tour company driving people on coach holidays across Europe.

He didn't enjoy getting grief from people locally for delays. He used to make my 12 year old laugh by saying "it would be a much better job without the passengers" until she realised he did know that without passengers there would be no bus driver needed 😂

Well first of all, whoever looks at any job and says 'its for thick people' is obviously pig ignorant themselves so I'd certainly discount their opinion.

I always think it's underpaid for what's expected of them. Driving a big old vehicle like that takes some skill and then you have to deal with the public on top of it. At least if you were driving a HGV you could just worry about the driving and if you worked in a shop you could just worry about the people!

Absolutely. I’m clever by any standards (Oxford DPhil etc) but certainly don’t have the spatial awareness to drive a big vehicle (especially through the narrow, steep city streets around here) or the ability to split my attention safely while dealing with the general public, too. I admire bus drivers.

Probably because you get to sit there doing nothing a lot of the time.

I was going to say this job requires you to be 'on' all the time. I imagine it to be draining.

In London sure, you can probably read a book for about half an hour at a time whilst sitting in traffic.

My DH is a coach driver. He won’t drive public buses on routes anymore as the abuse can be horrific. He regularly had to clean vomit, shit and piss of the floors. He was verbally abused, had bricks thrown at his bus around Halloween etc and it just wasn’t worth it. He now drives coaches, for school runs, airport trips, sports events, cruise excursions etc. He much prefers it but the pay isn’t great. He takes home about £475 -£600 a week. August is a very poorly paid month and school holidays are often less hours but he scrapes by.

Driving a bus might seem more complicated than driving a train, in that there's a steering wheel, traffic and the general public to contend with. However, trains have no means of avoiding obstacles except stopping. An InterCity 125, for example, takes around a mile to stop from maximum speed, and double that in wet weather. The busiest trains can carry over 1,000 passengers. That's a hell of a lot more responsibility than any bus.

It wouldn't be for me because I would hate to sit down all day without being able to get up and got for a quick walk or grab a coffee. However, I imagine it pays ok and I would certainly consider it a decent job.

It's a skilled and responsible job. Not for "thick" people at all.