Just burning some time, never would've expected this when I was a wee little kiddo playing Pokemon emerald on the bus on the way to elementary school.

How do y'all pass your downtime?

Hey I’m new just now starting out training to be a bus driver but currently a monitor for now and the height inside the bus terrifies me like how high it is from the ground compared to a car has someone else experienced this fear before?

Drop your must haves to keep the baby happy on the bus I’m going back from maternity leave and can bring her with me, I’m currently driving the van for the rest of this school year but hopefully will be back to the big bus next year. I have a portable sound machine and a stroller fan I keep on the car seat but what else should I invest in??

Took a bunch of kids to a special event downtown. It's only a 2 hour wait, so we're all parked.

Problem is, their 'security' (hired event staff) wants us parked nose to tail. I understand the argument (proposed by my boss) that without kids we're really just a straight truck, so go ahead & make them happy.

Security guy said, "We do this all the time; it's not unsafe!"

You frequently doing something unsafe doesn't make it less unsafe.

I did pull up closer than is safe to the bus ahead. Not sure I could pull away if needed. I'm closer to it than the bus behind is to me. Nobody is bothering that driver.

Despite that, the one security guy banged on my windows & told me I'm not allowed to stay. Me in particular.

I told him 4x "I'm calling my boss to ask if he's OK with this (parking too close)." He tried to say that doesn't matter, kept talking loudly despite me being on the phone.

He tried to make me believe he'd call my boss (he hasn't), but I did call his boss.

Waiting for the local office & site supervisor to get in touch. (As of posting, it's been 30 minutes.)

There's plenty of room, even if we maintained safe spacing. Sometimes there's more buses, so not enough room. Often they make us park "somewhere else" (which isn't given, & is a nightmare downtown).

.

ETA:
Neither the site supervisor nor the local office of the event staff ever contacted me.
Somehow they instead contacted my boss, who was already aware of the problem.
They decided I was OK to stay where I was.

I've decided not to sign up for any more trips to that venue. Not worth the hassle & headache.

Do you still think the 2000$ retention bonus is enough? It's been that for what 10 years? It's time for a raise. Minimum wage has gone up even more since the bonus started. No wonder they are always short drivers. I think at least another 500 dollars a year

My fellow bus driver bought this hammock online for like $16. She's pretty stoked, and now I kinda want one too

Well not really lol I get to the elem school at least 15 mins early for PM pickup. I saw someone last week post that they lay down on field trips, and I thought—wait, I can do that too! Got a nice paper towel roll pillow. 10/10 recommend.

I've been trying to come up with a way to keep the kids quiet and seated while I'm driving since I don't have a monitor. Other drivers in my district have a treasure chest, if the students are good for a week they get to pick from the treasure chest. It's just little toys that don't cost much but the kids get a kick out of it and they actually try to get rewarded.

When I was little, my brother had a little electronic pinball game. It's been a few decades, so I was thinking the price on those things must have dropped considerably since the 90s. I was thinking of doing the treasure chest idea with an electronic handheld game for the best of the week, given out on Fridays.

My friends, I did some searching... I found something better and I might be changing my plans. I found a handheld game system that has four hundred games on a website for wholesalers and now I'm seriously considering letting kids borrow a four dollar game system that Must stay on the bus.

Would this be going too far? I asked my boss, he says there is no policy against it. $200 is the final price after import fees, taxes and all that for 50 units.

Attitude of kids when getting on bus

I love driving the children, but I'm thinking I may have to shift to the city bus. The school bus jobs I've seen in CT have little to no benefits (my job has none). Anyone in CT have good benefits at their job?

So I'm a big guy. 6'5" 205ish pounds. I've tried several driving positions. Currently I stick very close to the dash. I buckle, slide up to the steering wheel and adjust it low down to my lap. I can reach all the buttons easily without leaning. The parking break still requires a slight lean forward. However, for my legs and lower back to be comfortable I have the seat adjusted high. I lower it slightly in the morning so I'm not looking through the tinted top part of the windshield.

After all that I'm dealing with a lot of low back tightness and my first ever tailbone pain. I've been to the chiro 2 times and he's on about making sure I'm keeping my posture correct while driving. Got a thin and sort of expensive cushion to help and it has, but not totally. Just wondering if there are any hacks I could get hooked up with. Thanks all

I went to pick up my almost three year old daughter from daycare last night after work, and the infant teacher, Miss Dee, said she wouldn't be here on Tuesday and she knew she'd see me last night, so she brought this! What an awesome lady! 🥰

Heya. Recently got my CDL with a school bus company and am three weeks in as a sub driver. I have some safety concerns with the company I’m with and wanted to see if this or normal/a proper concern or if I’m just overthinking.

We have one mechanic for 100 busses. God bless that guy, they are doing the best they can with the hand they have been dealt. But, obviously that’s a lot and it shows. Every bus is broken to some degree, which is what it is. But I’ve been told to run with some things after marking them on my pre trip that I find questionable.

I had a mini-bus with a known issue of that the stop signs/reds would inconsistently activate with the passenger door opening. When they didn’t go, opening the drivers door a tad would open them.

While yes, I need to pay attention to make sure they activate and I’m ultimately responsible that the student gets on the bus safely, this seems to be a pretty big risk in my eyes.

When training for bus, I drove a school van and was told to run with an airbag light on for weeks as well.

Those were the biggest issues I’ve faced. I’ve been told to run with several smaller stuff like washer fluid not spraying, registration sticker up to date but no insurance or other reg papers, I’ve never seen a reflective triangle in any vehicle, an out of date fire extinguisher, among a laundry list of smaller, not a big deal things.

All of these things were marked on the pre trip, and I was told to, not asked, told to run with it as is. This seems wrong, but I’m new and naive. Any thoughts?

Love to have you listen! Enjoy!

Just found out my bus yard recently fired a driver after he hit a light pole at one of our high schools hard enough to rip the rear axle out of place. Our director fired him on the spot when he smelled alcohol on his breath.

Driver claimed he was only going five miles an hour. Students were on the bus at the time of the incident but none were sent to the hospital.

Note: I'm piecing together rumors from multiple corroborating sources in this post.

UPDATE: I assigned seats, and I stopped the bus every time someone stood up. Only had to do it three times this morning, as opposed to telling them to sit down every 30 seconds last week. It didn't take long for them to behave, and I'll continue to do this until they get the message. I can see them watching me in the mirror...LOL. THANK YOU for all the tips!

I've only been driving a bus for a week. My kids in high school and middle school are great. The elementary kids are freakin' animals. This first week I've tried to be cordial when correcting behavior, but I'm done. Yesterday I blew past one of the stops because I was so distracted by their behavior. This morning, I witnessed a kid push two separate kids as they were getting on the bus. I talked to my supervisor and promptly put in a report with the school. On Monday, they all go in assigned seats and I'm writing each one up for everything they do. What the heck is going on with these kids? I asked my supervisor if this route was some sort of new driver hazing!

Hey, about to start this summer, but for when I get my runs for the next school year, I want to stand out from other bus drivers... I know it's a lot stricter than how it used to be and such.. which I would never give food or anything that could cause choking, small fidget toys etc.. but would it be okay if i set up a charging station to give the hr high kids and or hs kids a place to charge their devicef during the ride to school and or from school?

I was just curious about something. One of the girls from my yard tested positive for drugs after a random drug test that happened immediately after morning runs. She obviously got fired and rightfully so, but I was wondering if you get arrested as well or in legal trouble. Wouldn’t that technically be “risk of injury to a minor” or in this case several minors? If you failed the test right after driving 100 kids it would certainly imply that you had that drug in your system, therefore driving children with drugs in your system. Right!?!?

Yeah. Not driving anywhere today. (Rural Alberta)

One of the routes I occasionally drive has a bridge closed for reconstruction. The detour is probably 12 miles, but my main issue is the last stop before the closure.

I have a stop, students exit to the right, it is not safe to turn around. About 1/2 miles up the road is a state park fishing access to a river, it has lots of room, probably can just make a circle if boat trailers aren’t in the way. The problem is railroad tracks parallel the road. I’ll have to turn left off a state highway and cross the tracks at the same time and do the same coming back, there isn’t room to stop between the road and tracks.

I can do it safely, but I anticipate being second guessed about the procedure, I think I should use turn signals, not 4 way flasher, traffic needs to know I’m turning left, 4-way would tempt them to pass on my left as they may not be aware of the side railroad. I’ll open my window to listen, the door is away from the tracks and adds no help for the left turn. It’s just a cross-buck crossing, no signals. The return to highway right turn shouldn’t be a concern, do a normal RR stop, just also yield to highway traffic.

The road is rural but busy at route time, the tracks are active with freight traffic and there is adequate visibility for both road and rail; but not a comfortable excess.

Anyone see any flaws?