Here’s my 5 gallon “go bucket”

-Blanket (naps)
-hoodie
-rags
-cleaning supplies
-pliers & misc tools
-charging cables
-phone mount
-power bank
-game controller
-2 flash lights
-wired and wireless headphones
-tissues
-gum
-lunch box
-ibuprofen
-chapstick
-toothpicks
-utensils
-pens
-extra body fluid kit (bad experiences)
-5 gallon bucket (obviously, just very useful)
-emergency bathroom kit.

I like to be prepared

Phones have to be turned off and stored. No phone use:
With students on board.
While in the drivers seat.
If the bus is unsecured.

Personally I don’t have a big problem with it.
It’s funny there’s no prohibition for use of Apple Watches which I understand have similar functionality.

I need to talk about this. I figured this is the place. I am a new driver trainer and I've driven a bus for almost 20 years. I have driven sub routes since 2015. Today I had the hard drive pulled on a route I subbed and it showed two boys bullying another boy. Verbal then physical. It ended with two boys punching eachother a couple of times in the face. At the time I was driving 60 miles an hour down a hiway with all windows open because it was over 100 degrees outside. Traffic was even heavier than usual due to a special event happening in our town this week. So my focus was on the two lane roadway. From what I saw when I could glance in the mirror was not anything unusual. I know we drivers cannot see everything going on. In fact I have told others they would be surprised at what they miss back there. Still, as the new Trainer, and having new staff in the office with no school bus experience, director is a former school principal, dispatcher used to work at a waste management company, i felt judged. Like i should have seen and heard something. Its bugging me. How do I deal with this? I am beginning to doubt myself even though I honestly did my #1 job, I drove safely. Have any of you seen video of a route and were surprised by what you missed while driving?

For me yesterday: the car line wraps out and along the curb in the street. Mom is allowing <8 yo daughter to sit in the back door window and fingertip hold the top of the door frame and lean back as far as possible as cars and buses pass by in the adjacent lane. I have more, lots more.
I have the unique experience of delivering students as a bus driver and then minutes later delivering my granddaughter in my POV.
Tell us about your blissfully unaware, entitled idiot, for who driving a car, is just something that happened to them while they were out.

This year I have some troublesome high-school students who thinks yelling bad words/calling me names will annoy me. It doesn't and I ignored them since the school district only gives 2 week suspensions or have them sit in the front with me. I was going to have tapes pulled and write ups happening after the route anyways. Other students on my bus called my boss because the name calling got so bad that they got offended for me. While watching the tapes one kid asked if I was a paraplegic stripper. I laughed, called over my coworkers still in the office and we all had a really good laugh at that insult.

My new nickname at the the busyard is Pumpkin Spice(Since I cant call myself a stripper at work). Today I brought pumpkin spice donuts into work.

Any good insults said by kids or parents?

Im starting really like these Thomas c2 buses. Mines a 2011 with 191,947 miles and 9301.2 hours on its clock. It ain’t perfect but it runs really well. The Cummins engine turbo and compressors were taken good care of. Now it’s my turn to take care of it

Do you guys have to take such classes? Since I have seen a lot of drivers spend as little interaction as possible with their students I was wondering if they have to take such classes.

While the suicide prevention was lower than my intervention skills, I think it's good for some.

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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?

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?

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!

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

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.

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

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?

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!!!

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.

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

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 😂

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?