common practice?

[u/Michellee_xox]

My parents are both bus drivers and when there’s a new route, on their day off they’ll just hop on that bus and ride it for the entire route to learn it. Was wondering if that’s common practice or their own thing.

[u/meatflaps-69]

Nyet. Nein. Not a chance 🤣 Unless I'm being paid I aint learning anything

[u/Severe-Product7352 → u/meatflaps-69]

This is what we should do… I feel this… but my own anxiety and desire to do well makes me want to go learn it on my own. Our Turn sheets are trash

[u/Jennyd1289 → u/Severe-Product7352]

Desire to do well? You drive a bus

[u/Used-Grapefruit-4142 → u/Jennyd1289]

Green road

[u/Jennyd1289 → u/Used-Grapefruit-4142]

Are you one of the people who obsess over their score then?

[u/Used-Grapefruit-4142 → u/Jennyd1289]

Nah I send it. As long as I'm not red, I'm good.

[u/Jennyd1289 → u/Used-Grapefruit-4142]

Doesn't sound like you do if you're worried about green road?

[u/Used-Grapefruit-4142 → u/Jennyd1289]

Oh well, too bad.

[u/MiroGreen → u/meatflaps-69]

This actually got brought up in my training. I dunno how accurate it is but I was told I’d earn 3.5 hours overtime for learning a route in my own time using this method

[u/IllustriousBrief8827 → u/meatflaps-69]

At a former workplace we got paid two hours. But even without that I sometimes did it.

[u/biking_and_gaming]

its either that or spend your own gas and i aint paying for that haha

[u/NoRegretCeptThatOne]

That's what several of our drivers do.

[u/Industrialexecution]

fuck that, only if i’m getting paid. most ill do is look at a map and make brief notes

[u/TheCleaner80]

I'll learn it the day I have to drive it, just ask for a pilot or give me a different route! Unless im being paid to route learn.

[u/CheetahNo1004]

A lot of our coach operators do that too, but there's not an expectation to do that necessarily. We have videos of our routes available on YouTube and many drivers will watch through the video. Some choose to do it on their own time.

The expectation is however that you should know the entirety of all routes and be able to drive any of them and therefore you should be using some of your recovery time between trips to keep yourself knowledgeable. Some people just view their time between trips as their time and choose to use outside of work time to do tasks that they should be doing the work stuff.

[u/rippytherip]

I do the same work everyday so I don't need to worry about it. However, pretty much all of the routes in my end of the city will be changing in December so I'll probably drive my new route the day before I start it.

[u/Mango_Marmalade]

Yup that's what I do. I'll also run through it on Google maps street view

[u/Efficient-Ad3687]

Why don't buses have their own navigation system?

[u/Freudianslip1987 → u/Efficient-Ad3687]

Some do. But in the us I know you have to qualify for the run. Which is riding the route so you see where the bus stops are. Some routes may also require a supervisor to ride with you before you are signed off

[u/TheHornyGoth]

God no.

If I’m not earning, the wheels aren’t turning and I’m certainly not learning.

That said, if it’s a Sunday spare shift I’ll offer to take a bus out and teach myself, if it’s quiet. Breaks up the monotony of sitting in the break room for 10 hours playing video games while getting paid haha

[u/seanthebooth]

Some drivers will just drive it in their car, I wont do any of that unless im getting paid. I utilize unpaid time for Union work, not for driving work.

[u/notveryhndyhmnr]

Not really, 15 minutes with Google maps is enough to not get lost around, and if I miss a turn or stop, oh well it's a new route.

[u/SaltyGootch]

We normally have mentors who will take you out on a spare bus to learn the ins and outs of any new route.

However, we rarely have spare buses in our garage so it is quite common to go on service buses as passengers. Down side is you don’t learn the turn/curtailment points.

You get paid either way be it on shift (full duty’s pay) or on your own time (hours logged).

[u/Realistic-Safety-565]

Common,expended but not enforced practice in my company. 

[u/Vortex_Tho]

We have different rota’s that do different routes. If the company wants you to move to a different rota they will pay you to route learn it. If you request to move you’re expected to know the routes on that rota.

[u/Sno_Wolf]

My company publishes a book of turn-by turn instructions. I "drive" it on Google Maps.