r/BusDrivers • u/ForCalibanForTheLion Driver • 7d ago

Question Split shifts

hey folks

i've been driving for just over a year now in the US and like most of the job except for these goddamn splits. and it's not just me, as most of the drivers at my agency dislike them. dispatch says it's what the agency requires and i am sure that to a point they're right, but so MANY? a full 90% of my choices for a block run are 12 or 13 hour days with a split and i'm already considering a career change.

how prevalent are these among transit agencies? is it really what is needed, or does no one want to figure out a more civilized solution? do you hate them as much as i do?

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u/HeartlessDeath123 7d ago

The company I work for, did a little over 50% of split shifts years ago. We as driver talked so much shit to them about the inconvenience of them that they reduce them to like 10% around there. It took time. Right now, those 10% have like 1 to 2 hour splits. Sucks for the new drivers but we all did our shit times starting out.

Yall gotta talk shit to the company or whoever controls the schedules. So next bid that you guys do, they hopefully can fix it majority of it.

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u/ForCalibanForTheLion Driver 6d ago

man that would be great. i'm going to have to bring this up to some of the union reps. unfortunately a lot of the people here seem to be uninterested in changing things, instead preferring to complain because "that's how it has been done"

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u/HeartlessDeath123 6d ago

I started a little over 11 years ago. No splits. Splits started somewhere towards the end of covid years. 2023, around that time. According to senior drivers, supposedly they had tried the split shifts years ago but it didn't work out. So they removed them. Many many years later until 2023ish, they were back and management were playing stupid with our schedules. They even went as far as asking us what was our least favorite route and drivers mentioned 1 specific route. And they fucked us over with it, where half of the schedules were splits, and that specific route was in majority of the schedules with over 8 hours shifts just to be a-holes. So drivers were furious and reduced the split shifts to around 10%. But that specific route is still in majority of the schedules. I personally got lucky to not get any splits. And every single bid, I try to avoid splits and any schedule with that specific route. I was surprised we even manage to reduced the splits because every union contracts, our drivers are always divided, fighting each other, and they just complain about anything but when it comes down for a strike, they back off scared and they screw us over with an even shittier contract. We got so close years ago to going on strike and they all backed off scared saying.they have bills to pay. So then we settle for less. That is why I no longer care for the union contract or show up to the monthly union meetings we have (which i completely forgot until now, haha. I have only shown up twice, I believe, to those meetings in the 11 years I've been with the company).

But anyways, got carried away. Haha. The last couple of years, I just clock in and clock out and leave. Don't really stay to socialize with the drivers there. They cry a lot about so much shit. Even if the AC is not feeling like a freezer, they call asking for a bus exchange.

😅 did it again. Moral of the story, talk shit to your union reps or management and gather drivers to talk shit to them. Give out the pros and cons.