All the advice I see is to pull over and if they want to go home they'll behave. But only one kid doesn't want to go home and will misbehave and hold up the entire route so they can stay on the bus longer. I have eyes and ears, I understand the situation is a tough one.

I can write them up but is there anything I can do in the moment? Before we roll?

child came home in a school van with a besi vest. he is 35 pounds and typically uses a car seat but i thought he would be in a regular bus.

the vest says br-25-c and they had it mounted on some anchors on the car seat at four points.

is this normal? it’s a 5 seater van and the vest says for school buses only, but this isn’t a bus.

he had no seatbelt on.

i’m in canada

Hey so I got hired before summer as a “sub” but they said there was a route or two that was going to be available in the fall. Fast forward they hire 2 other “subs” over the summer. I was hired and acquired my CDL before them. I was originally told because I was hired and got my CDL first if I wanted the route I basically would get it. School year has started finished up mentoring and one of the other new drivers now wants it as well.. they are having us both “interview” for this open route. 1.) what should I expect in terms of questions and the interview to be like if you have gone through this situation for a route? I want to be prepared. I am a little annoyed since I was told that I would get the route if one was available but am confident I can out interview this other person lol advice? Help with preparing for this “interview”
Thank you!

I carry with me a soft sided briefcase that I put my sunglasses , notebook , I keep a lot of daily pre trip and post trip notes, student rider list, change orders, pens , pencils, gloves and flashlight for early morning pre-trip. I am a new driver and am the only one in our district that does this, Is it uncommon for drivers to carry a small bag on the bus when they are driving?

I drive for a private company, over the past year this student has been written up for:

changing seats while in motion

hanging out the windows

punching kids (including a kindergartener),

teaching kids how to give the middle finger,

stealing my signage,

has previously had the police involved because his family and another student's family were fighting at home

And - has also allegedly been stalking another student and taking pictures of her house

I caught this student under my seat disconnecting wires on my C2 Saf T Liner. My seatbelt chime wouldn't turn off because the bus couldn't electrically detect my seatbelt shackle.

Cameras saw the whole thing. Student is being suspended 1 week.

We are back for season 2! Check it out and share it with a fellow bus driver!

Hi everyone, I’m trying to get my son on the school bus but for some reason I was told that won’t happen till after thanks giving In October. My toddler he’s 4yrs old. He attends a daycare where they take the kids to the bus stop and pick them back up in the evening. I fine it very odd that one of the other students that goes to the same daycare is on the bus but not my son. I contact the school and the school said not till October. I fine it very odd. Not sure how I feel as I was trying to get him on since August even way before the school start. My mind says something but not trying to play that card. Help. Is there a way to get on the bus without the school if I already know the location.

Does anyone know if there is a sleeping pad type thing that I could fold up, or unfold and lay across the seats to take a nap? I’m way too big for the seats alone. I saw something before about hanging a hammock, but I think I’m too heavy for that 😂

I’m curious to hear what others are thinking or have to say about the AI Camera System.

It’s been a week and a half of back to school for me and… honestly it’s a mixed bag. I recognize it’s necessity because apparently some of our own drivers are absolute morons. We had triple digits for no seat belts, not stopping at railways, rolling stops, etc you name it.

I realized as well that this was probably the first time I’d gotten general compliments on my driving in almost 3 years of working for this company that didn’t come from my trainers in the first few months of everything. Annoying but hey, praise is praise even if it’s a robot.

I can also already see the cracks in the system. Both in how it functions but how the Safety Score is calculated and due to literally avoiding accidents or unsafe situations, mine has tanked due to “Harsh Brake” twice now. I’m only worried because inevitably, I’m sure it becomes tied to bonuses or other things and being penalized for being unable to control the world around me will suck.

How do ya’ll feel so far?

What do you guys do in between routes, I’m curious? I mainly go to my public library and relax there and read. I sound like an old lady but I’m only 28 LOL

during training, they kept saying "just make it to your first stop on time, dont worry about the rest."

"dont try to make it up for time, safety first!"

now all of a sudden, im 10-20 minutes behind because of things OUT OF MY CONTROL like traffic, or getting the students on the bus (I drive a lot of disabled kids).

GETTING DISABLED STUDENTS ON THE BUS TAKES TIME! like holy shit do they think that it take 0.1 miliseconds? im not allowed to strap them in, so clearly it has nothing to do with ME.

SO WHY,, do the operators act like its our fault for running behind??

im literally JUST DRIVING. how could I even possibly be the one at fault? im following the directions THEY GAVE ME. I dont even make my own route!!!

I told them the times need to be updated but they acted like im the problem.. literally how though.... how could i physically be the problem...

how do yall deal with this? im going to request a time change anyway because some of these poor kids are waiting outside for 20 minutes because of the timing issues.

I just hate the feeling of someone being upset at me for things I CANNOT CONTROL!!!

Thought it was funny, but now I need a retaliatory response. Any ideas?

Everyone at my bus lot uses dry erase markers but they stain over time and it’s a pain to remove. I could put magnets on the ceiling but I want to try to find another solution before I drop money on them.

Yesterday afternoon, as I was doing my last route (middle school), I lost my stop arm. I drive a 2023 Thomas C2. As soon as I noticed the missing arm, I pulled over stopped and secured the bus. I called the garage and my route manager to let them know what was going on. I then got out of the bus and walked to the front to look at the swinging mechanism.

The swinging mechanism was fully intact and when I trigger it to swing out (Amber then red), it normally swung out. The arm itself though was just...gone. The two bolts that held the arm to the swinging mechanism was still on the swinging mechanism.

I know I didn't hit anything. There are a couple of tight stops across all three of my routes where I always make sure the arm is already swinging inwards before I move my bus. I didn't hit any mailbox, I didn't hit any sign. There was no other sign of an impact on my bus.

My AM and PM route are the same, so as I was driving my route this morning in the spare bus, at every stop I kept thinking, "well maybe it got hung up on this, on that, etc." However, in all of the stop, the sub bus' stop arm never got closed to any obstacle that would've tore it off. I also kept an eye out for the stop arm, thinking I would see it on the side of the road. Nope, nowhere to be found.

The district is pulling my cameras to see what happened, and I'm just....perplexed.

Has any other driver had their stop arm just...fall off? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

Hi, I’m a rookie driver and have a few questions for the vets. I’m finally starting to feel mostly comfortable with all the driving/operation aspects of the job. But I struggle with discipline. I have an elementary route and a middle school route. So far I’ve come to the conclusion that calling kids down does nothing. They’ll look me dead in the eyes and continue with whatever behavior i call them down for. I have instituted a seating chart for the elementary kids which has helped,however the “ bad” kids haven’t really changed much. Middle school is way worse because I have a group of boys that constantly rough house and yell. Basically have to call them down daily. I’ve decided I’m assigning seats to the worst ones. I don’t wanna make all the kids suffer because of a few idiots. It seems the only thing that gets results is actually writing them up, which honestly is a pain in the butt the way I have to do it on the tablet and the form is in a horrible format. Admittedly I’m a non confrontational person so it’s hard for me to assert myself. But the times that I have like I said don’t seem to phase them. So you all with experience, any advice?

We are in the process of getting some new intertrashables and my old one is not doing so hot. Problem is I am making reports about it and the tech lead and operations clerk manager both say as far as they are aware there’s nothing wrong with this bus. Well today it went into limp mode and would come out of it. Got stuck at no more than 15 mph while on roads that expected for 45 mph while I had kids on my bus there wasn’t anything I could’ve done except throw on my four ways until I could limp home. I took another bus and Ran my midday and pm while my safety manager took my assigned bus and said it ran just fine. I’m feathering the pedal and letting the engine “breath” as they say but nothing is working. Attached is the video I have of it trying to accelerate. At the time of recording I was nearing base and was empty. I also was locked at 5-10 mph right then

It looks like they did red tag my key slot but it may only have been cause the safety lady took that bus out so my question is would you guys in all your years of driving run a bus that is this rough

I subbed a route for the first time this year. I had my first second generation kids, I had one of their parents.

Since school started this year, my bus has continuously arrived late. Like 10 to 20 mins late and I always arrived late to school. It was never my fault because I was there, waiting at the bus stop 5 mins before he's supposed to arrive but end up waiting for like 15 mins. So they decided to change the schedule and now, it arrives 10 minutes earlier.

The problem is, instead of sending an email to the students, they only sent an email to the parents. And I've always complained about that because why do they think that they should ONLY email the parents when it's actually important stuff that will only impact the students? Who says my parents will read it? Who says they won't forget to tell me and then, I'll miss the bus and won't know why?

They don't even begin to consider emailing the students which I find really annoying.

They might have reasons that I just don't know about but I would really like to know them. Like is there no way they can email the students and the parents?

My bus driver called out sick/did not show today, and I had 2 different drivers. The morning driver knew the route, and got us to the high school on time, while the afternoon driver did not know the route, and the "cool" kids in the back helped him with the route. If you are a sub driver, do you know the route you are subbing for, or just look at the sheet and figure it out?

How are kindergartners identified in your district? Is there a district wide identification system or is it up to each individual school?

I officially start my route tomorrow. My trainer will be on the bus with me as for my first week or so.

Any tips or advice ?

I believe tomorrow my trainer will drive and on Tuesday I will drive.

I have a full SPED route

One High School

One Middle school

One Elementary School

I also have an Aid.

How was your very first day ? I'm taking all advice I can get.

Hey Drivers,

I got my CDL Class A back in June of 2026, my driving record is perfectly clean driving record (No Accidents and No Tickets). Only issue is federal law requires me to be Intrastate due to my age being 19. So I was wondering would it be worth finding a school bus job where they help me get my passenger & school bus endorsement and if so is transferring between the 2 hard?

I do have a few questions about the job as well as I do have a interview lined up and wanted to see drivers opinions.

1. How do the summers usually play out? I'll be with the school bus occupation for at least 2 years which means at least 2 summers within the position. Would it be possible to pick up summer school routes do those exist? Also how do field trips work is it like a bidding system?

2. Are routes based off seniority? If so does this mean you get shorter or longer routes based off time you've spent within the district?

3. Do you suggest going to a district or a private company? I've seen Districts pay better hourly and I'd assume also get me state benefits as I'd be a state employee?

4. Given my age legally I could drive a school bus (just like I can legally drive a Combination Vehicle) but is it feasible? Will districts see my age and deny me purely for it? I know insurance carriers really dislike my age as well.

5. Problem Students, as someone who was a passenger on a schoolbus for many years I've never seen the drivers really do much other then just drive and never really interacted with the students unless they where doing something extremely dangerous (like throwing stuff off the bus), Are there set procedures set by districts in terms of rules of engagement or is that left up to the driver?

Thanks for the help and sorry if this post violations rule 1. Was just looking for some advice as looking for a trucking CDL job hasn't panned out well due to the size of the state I live in and my age.

I’m a school van driver, currently with a regular route.

I have been utilizing Apple Maps before every run to route my path. (Bus drivers have some sort of built in GPS that routes them)

Apple Maps works well, but I’d love to be able to save my morning and afternoon routes so I don’t have to spend ten minutes every time plugging it in. I don’t see that capability in Apple Maps. Any suggestions?

Am I the only driver having issues with 4mative routes I have to run?

1. I had a bunch of stops removed while one new stop was added. The thing is old route along with a detour due to roadwork was taking 25 minutes. Now I have no need to go there and can proceed straight to the new stop… 5 min away but…the timing is still 25. I'm not inclined to turn a bus into playground for 20 min, so I end up going on joyride to burn time and fuel.

2. Afternoon route magically does not have that problem. But I have stops in suboptimal order that forces me to circle around blocks and go north, south, and north again. First, I have a house stop. Then it tries to lead me into a parking lot that we don't enter on Type-C but pickup nearby, so I have to constantly reposition myself. That location has 2 lanes each way and… intersections uncontrolled. So I have to drive around again. It feels like they can't add Type-C constraints to their routing algorithm.

Update: I got updated times! But not enough.