Assuming you’re working for a public bus service, how do you pick which route you drive? Do you just get assigned or do you get a choice based on seniority? Do you always drive the same route every day or do you switch from day to day? It is based on seniority, and most organizations have two main systems. A ‘run’ which is a regular schedule week to week (but could vary depending on the actual day of the week or public school schedule) and ‘Extra Board’ where every day is different. Extra board drivers are basically covering for all the other drivers who are sick/on vacation/suspended, etc. Somebody needs to cover the schedule. Every 3 months we pick what we will do for the following quarter; each person takes turn picking based on how long they have worked there “Bidding”. You also pick what your days off will be, with Saturday/Sunda being the most desirable. There are few bus schedules that are, say, 9AM-5PM like when most normal people work. Most are in the extremes; 4AM-2PM, or 3PM-1230AM. High-seniority people tend to go for the ‘earlies’ since you get done early in the day, and most of the older drivers have families so they need/want to be home when their kids get off school. Due to the crazy schedules, the job can be extremely hard for low-seniority parents, particularly single parents stuck on the extra board. 
If you’re driving for an interstate bus service, how do you arrange your accommodations? Are they set up by the bus company or do you just take care of it yourself via a per diem? How do you handle local transportation when you’re spending the night in some location en route? interstate bus driving is somewhat similar to airline crews; some jobs (Greyhound) actually provide dormitories for drivers to sleep overnight or motel vouchers. Getting back is the bullshit part for Greyhound drivers: Say my shift is to drive from San Francisco to Salt Lake City (dunno if this is a real shift, just giving out an example). Once at SLC I’d be done, and to get home, I would ride another Greyhound bus back the other way. If I chose to do this, I would get 50% of my hourly pay riding the bus back, HOWEVER, in regards to scheduling and shifts this time is counted as ‘off duty’ meaning that I could get stuck on a 14 hour bus ride, only to have to drive a bus of my own at 6AM the following day :rolleyes: Higher seniority drivers (just like airline pilots I guess) tend to pick routes that have them back at their starting point, or shorter intra-state routes that won’t leave them stranded overnight in bumfuck nowhere. But overall Greyhound is not a popular bus driving job based on all the ex Greyhound drivers I have met at my current job.
What kind of training for emergencies do you get and what kind of emergencies do you encounter? We have a card that lists all the things to do in different situations. I can’t think of everything off the top of my head, but the few that stand out: In the event of a bomb threat/suspicious package we are advised to evaculate the bus and avoid using any wireless (cell phone, radio) device within 300 feet of the device, find a land line to call for help. The most common ‘emergency’ I deal with is people passed out drunk that won’t wake up or fall over getting into/out of the bus. They are strict about paperwork, so if a drunk guy passes out on my bus and I call it it in, some days there will be 5 firefighters, 4EMTs, 3 supervisors, 2 sheriffs, and a partridge in a pear tree all out there for one guy :rolleyes: . Then I have to make sure I got the badge numbers of every other county employee involved, their vehicle numbers, compare notes to make sure all our respective reports will be consistent with each other, and spend a half an hour at the end of my shift filling out a massive form that basically says “A drunk man passed out on the bus. Firefighters, EMTs, Sheriff’s deputies and supervision arrived on scene to assess the situation. The man appeared uninjured”. Then someone from the office has to review all this, along with the CCTV footage, cross-reference the incident reports from the supervisor and other county personnel, to see whether or not I was ‘at fault’ for the guy passing out drunk 
What kind of training is involved? Our training is very extensive. To drive a bus in California, you need a class ‘B’ (commercial) driver’s license with a Passenger Endorsement. The ‘B’ refers to the size of the vehicle you are authorized to drive, while the Passenger Endorsement authorizes you to carry Live Human Beings vs just bulk cargo, hazardous materials, etc. Firefighters and EMTs have their own special licenses/endorsements for their vehicles as well. Many transit agencies will actually train the driver on earning their class B license- you don’t have to have it to get hired. They will get special permission from the DMV to have a ‘field office’ in their own training facility. This lets them train their bus drivers ‘in house’ which has the advantage of training them on the equipment the employees will be driving during their career. It is also great for the employees since unlike going to trucking school to get a class B license, you are already hired and are actually getting paid to take the DMV written and behind-the-wheel tests. Much of the training is reminiscent of “Driver’s Ed” only for grownups. Many people get hired already having the proper license and endorsements, but to make sure everybody is trained consistently, you must go through all the training regardless. This is especially important for people who have driven buses or tractor trailers in the past to help them ‘un learn’ all the bad habits they have picked up. Every transit agency has to follow the rules of the DOT and CHP but will have their own individual procedures on how they want their employees pulling into/out of a bus stop, backing up, making a square right turn, etc.
Do you have to work your way up from a smaller vehicle to a full-size bus, or do you get thrown into a full-size bus from the beginning? It depends on the agency. Generally the equipment used is based on the route. For little routes that go through neighborhoods with narrow streets, they will use smaller buses. Many agencies also get contracts for local airports (San Jose International, SFO, Oakland International) to provide shuttle service between the airport and train hubs/BART. These vehicles are also sometimes little shuttle buses. While some drivers are picky about the type of bus they want to be driving every day, its usually the route, not the bus, that drives their decisions. So in some places its the opposite- the huge articulated buses driven by the newbies because the schedules they run suck (or they deal with the most crazy people) while the dinky little shuttle buses just drive through a nice quiet neighborhood every day driven by some 36 year veteran.
