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Parenting

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Original poster

Why are busdrivers such....

34 replies

P0SSUM · 24/02/2006 15:56

arseholes? Yesterday one wouldnt let me get on via the back doors despite me telling him my pram didnt fit through the aisle. And today one refused to puss in closer to the kerb so i could even get on. I hate hate hate them!!

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fransmom · 24/02/2006 18:29

omg i know how you feel! i went into town a few weeks back now, and the bus driver pulled away from the kerb before i'd even got the pushchair secured properly!

NannyL · 24/02/2006 19:52

i HATED then too when i used them

i broke my leg in a car accidnt and was on crutches for a year...

One B*D bus driver didnt let me get off.... I pished the button.... the people who could wlak walked to the front... me with my borken leg waited until the bus had stopped to make my way down the aisle and he started driving off...

i SHOUTED stop and he turned round and said "cant you get off any quicker?"

to which i repsonded VERY loudly that "actually i had a broken leg and NO i couldnt get off any quicker".... much to the amusement of the rest of the passengers....

then complaiend to the company and got a weeks free bus pass

NannyL · 24/02/2006 19:53

apologies for all the spelling mistakes... pressed post instead of preview by mistake

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kittyfish · 24/02/2006 20:00

I loathe bus drivers - appallingly rude drivers the lot of them. They all have tiny willys imo. Don't know why female bus drivers are so vile though - maybe they're all married to male bus drivers...

ssd · 24/02/2006 20:32

give them a break for christ's sake!!!

my dh was a bus driver for years and years, he's been spat at, shot at (!!!), been called plenty of names by kids and adults alike and generally been treated like shite by the general public, although certainly not all of them.

he told me a story which illustrated his job well - one day he had a teenage school girl on his bus who realised she'd missed her stop and rushed up to him panicked. She asked him to let her off the bus immediately as the further he drove the more lost she was getting. So he pulled in between stops to let her off. As he was driving away a policeman pulled in sharply in front of him and jumped out the police car. He came up to dh and asked him what he was doing stopping between designated stops and when dh tried to explain why he's done it he shouted in dh's face saying "you don't decide where you stop okay". So dh says ok. So then a little later in the day another person on the bus says to dh can you let me off here mate, it's nearer my house (between stops)and dh says no as he doesn't want the police pulling him up again. So the person on the bus says thanks wanker and spits at him.

so give bus drivers a break, there is areholes everywhere, they're not all the same!

fransmom · 24/02/2006 23:00

i'm sorry ssd didn't mean to sound like i thought all bus drivers are the same some have lovely manners. most bus drivers lower the bus for us and wait til we say we're safe + ready. i am shocked that your dh was treated so badly by the passengers.

TambaTheDragonSlayer · 24/02/2006 23:05

I saw the cutest bus driver the other day....

charliecat · 24/02/2006 23:07

I like my bus drivers they wave at me when im walking through town Thats means im on the bus waaaayyy toooo much I know

cutekids · 24/02/2006 23:07

BASTARDS!!!?

justmummy · 24/02/2006 23:08

They do have to put up with an awful lot of shit from passengers. My dp is a bus driver and is not at all rude and is a careful considerate driver. Just bear in mind that they work 12 hours days and sometimes have been driving for 5 and a half hours with no breaks. Can you imagine how tiring this is.
If you get treated as badly as you have said here definitely complain to the company. Likewise if you experience a good driver why not compliment them. They'll all be a lot more polite if passengers are equally nice to them.
And they don't all have small willys !

charliecat · 24/02/2006 23:10

I have however noticed that the male bus drivers..old...never take £5 /£10 notes off of teenage boys, they tell them to get off and get change...then take a tenner off a mum with kids for example...not sure why that is, but i have noticed teenagers seem to get a raw deal from them.

fransmom · 24/02/2006 23:22

if only it was that easy justmummy. i did complain to first bus about one of their drivers and asked for them to let me know the outcome but i never heard back from them.

NannyL · 24/02/2006 23:31

Just because bus drivers put up with a lot of Sh!t from many passengers does NOT mean they can be rude to me. (I do my upmost to be nice and bright and cheerful to everyone all the time (INCLUDING bus drivers!). and expect no less from others.... ESPECIALLY those being PAID to provide me (and others) with a service.... that we PAY for

in my time of using the busses before i could drive and while at uni i encountered SOOOOOO many rude / horrid / nasty ones.

I must have written and complained about truley unacceptable behavoiur at least 12 times.

I did meet several bus drivers who really were sooo nice tho, and all credit to them.

But some are not, and i do think we all ahve a right to be cross with the ones who treat us like animals...

who dont let us get on / off busses
who DELIBERATLY refuse to wait for old ladies to sit down (even when asked nicely) and then make them fall over on purpose and refuse to stop so she cant get up
who swear at us fro pressing the bus bell when we want to stop
who get out and violently attack passengers for no reason
who drive past the bus stop while you hold out your hand to stop and dont ON PURPOSE

All of the above i have personally witnessed / been subjected to.

It is these bus drivers that give soo many a bad name... (the same way the aupairs on the nannys from hell program give US a bad name too )

Caligula · 24/02/2006 23:37

Sorry, but if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen. Yes bus-drivers, like lots of jobs, have to put up with an awful lot of shit, but that doesn't justify them handing out arbitrary shit to the people who depend on them in return. Unkindness and lack of professionalism may be understandable, but they're never justified.

The memories of using buses with a pram have made me determined to hang on to my car at all costs. If we have to live on porridge for weeks, I'd rather do that than stop paying for diesel. Using buses with children and buggies is the modern equivalent of being forced to wear Serf clothes, imo.

mummytosteven · 24/02/2006 23:46

IMHO bus drivers are a bit like passengers - it's the appalling minority that spoil it for the rest of us, while the vast majority were OK. DH used to be a bus driver, but gave up mainly due to the hassle from the passengers, including death threats! DH's opinion is that only the less sensitive and less customer focused drivers will be able to put up with the general hassle and will last at the job.

Caligula · 24/02/2006 23:47

I blame privatisation and de-regulation (they're usually good culprits)

justmummy · 24/02/2006 23:47

I agree NannyL that some of them are real wankers but i just wanted to point out that you couldn't say they were ALL rude, as many here have said.
Just hated the generalisation.
And i didn't mean to condone their bad behaviour by saying they get treated badly so behave rude to everyone. I agree this is not right.
I'm sorry some have been horrible to you when you are nice, my dp loves it when passengers are nice to him and would never be rude just because last one was horrid to him.

Screwballmuppet · 25/02/2006 00:33

My dh is a bus driver. He's come home many a time and told me of the tight schedule he has to keep on that by hanging on for one passenger means the awaiting passengers at other bus stops are also held up. That he can be fined for running too late or too quick. He loves providing people with a service as he's very sociable and always thinks of others but gets alot of grief and does get fed up when being yelled at by an old age pensioner for being late yet the reason be's late is that he's hung on for an old age pensioner at the previous bus stop who wasn't quite at the stop so he hung on. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. If he lets too many pushchairs on then there is no space for a disabled person (mandatory by law), which he can be fined for if the inspector gets on, yet he feels terrible when he has to refuse.
He is looking for another job and if it was me I would of packed the job in ages ago, the money is terrible and the hours are crazy but he has a lot of tolerance.
As he has only been there 8 months he has to work a spares system meaning he doesn't often know what he time he will start or finish till 24 hours before hand (making it difficult to plan things round), his holiddays are given to him he can request but at the end of the day they have the ultimate say. Often he'll start around 5am having to leave the house after 4am...he works shifts where he doesn't finish till well after midnight despite having to get up for an early shift the next day.

My point is bus drivers are entitled to have a bad day as much as anyone but as they are working in the public eye and are under scrutiny they could of spent the day going out of the way for passengers and for one moment perhaps they need the toilet and can't go for another hour as they are running late due to traffic and don't come close to a toilet, they end up saying the wrong thing or pull away quicker than ususal and are slated for it.

This may not make sense....its late I'm tired and have been working in front of computer most of day. It just winds me up something chronic when bus drivers get slated.

gigglinggoblin · 25/02/2006 07:24

i got the bus a lot when pg with ds2 after i was about 6 months gone. ds1 was 18 months when he was born and i had to get him and a folded pram on the bus. one nice driver jumped out of his seat to help me, one lady offered to hold ds1 while i got on - but the vast majority just sat there tutting because i was taking too long to get on. it was very obvious i struggled! so if its a matter of me messing up their schedule - surely they would be better off helping than sitting there tutting?

(none of the passenger ever offered to help btw, so they werent exactly good samaritans)

Original poster

P0SSUM · 25/02/2006 08:24

so we're agreed then? all arsehole busdrivers have tiny pricks and the nice ones are hung like a horse with goddess-like wives....?

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mummytosteven · 25/02/2006 12:04

completely agree with Screwball. Pay isn't great and hours can be absolutely dire. DH was also on a spares type rota for several months when he first started at Southport, and was put under enormous pressure to run exactly to time, although traffic conditions can of course cause delays that were out of his control.

kittyfish · 25/02/2006 15:15

There is no excuse for rudeness however shite the pay/bad the day/awful the passengers. I always say please and thank you and smile while I'm doing it - very very rare I got the same treatment from bus drivers when I was using public transport. And when was the last time a bus driver let someone pull out in front of them?

kittyfish · 25/02/2006 15:16

Possum, I thought the definition of a nice man was 'hung like a horse'.

NannyL · 25/02/2006 15:16

Ok.... bus drivers may have a hard stressful job / poor working conditions etc etc etc

But they still have absolutely NO right at all to be rude to ME.

If they cant handle the public / stress whatever stop driving busses and use their driving skills driving Dustbin lorries instead.

Then we can keep the "nice" bus drivers to do the bus driving

Original poster

P0SSUM · 25/02/2006 15:19

of course....silly me.

and nanny1...good idea. if all busdrivers were 'nice' we wouldnt have to wonder how big their willies were because by definition, they'd be huuuuge

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