Driven

Okay so yesterday I was in the midst of showing how I start my day at work. I stopped short of me opening the door to dispatch, So now I report in and while doing this I am looking at the wallpaper posted on every conceivable flat service there is, you know don't do this. don't do that. If you can imagine Louie Depalma's office in taxi, then you have a pretty good idea of what we're looking at here. I give the dispatcher my run number and get my schedule or paddle as it is called.

We turn towards the garage now dodging other drivers and speaking to some and as we get to the bus assignment sheet we wait in line while those in front of us try to find their run number we use that to find out what bus is assigned to it. Now this is usually where I get my first clue as to if I am going to leave the station happy or apprehensive. We have just so many vehicles at the garage and when you have been at this for a number of years you start to know a bus number and everything that is associated with it.

I know life has it's ups and downs but at RTA this takes on a whole new meaning and for me that term just did not match what you could wind up going through in a week. So I came up with my own way of describing it, "Seasons"! Well during the rainy season everything could fall on you except water. You could tell while you waiting your turn if someone had seen a good number or a bad one, by how creative the cussing was. Now me I try to refrain from using colorful language but I have to tell you there have been many close calls.

Professional drivers have many things that we have to deal with to do our job, we are ultimately responsible for the safe operation of our vehicles, so before you can pull the bus out you have to perform the pre trip, now you need to know every company has their own interpretation of how important this step is. Now I come from a background of companies who use this as the last step to determine if we are going to be safe or are we going to kill someone. I love the latter mindset. What this did was if the driver found something that he thought was unsafe if it was major the tires never saw the road.

Now that's all I am going to say on that subject as RTA is concerned you be the judge. Now I have not found anything that I think will keep me from pulling the bus out, so at my departure time I pull out. Now don't think that just because I made it out of the garage that everything is going smooth, Lets say that I know that this bus had a problem two days ago and I wrote it up now I have it again, I have to get on the highway to get to my starting point, every thing seems okay. I get to my exit I start to slow down, okay I attempt to slow down and guess what I discover the problem I had with this bus was that it would stop below thirty-five mph, but not over that speed so here I am at the same story and it looks like a more interesting one today because I have someone who just cut around me to get in front of me now he is sitting at the bottom of the exit ramp and I can't get this thing to stop.

I lived this story many times and thank God I never hurt or killed anyone, lets get to the fun part of this, of course you send a satellite msg. letting them know that the bus is defective, they want to know can I continue, well if I say no I have a bunch of people who like me were not born with silver spoons in their mouths who will be late for work and school and if they have to make more than one connection they will be up a creek, now I know this thing will stop below thirty five mph, so I tell them that I can but I will be late as I will have to take my time. I also know that because of the time it's about six-thirty am that there is a certain part of my route where there will be no traffic near downtown so when I get there I can make up some time and at least get them to their connections.

When I get downtown I park the bus and tell them that I need another one, we go through a song and a dance about bringing it back up, I refuse they finally send another one, I am late going back but since it is true rush hour now there are three times as many buses out now so I did not make anyone late. That folks is the start of my day!

Driven

I used to look at "old guys" and wonder how they got to where they are now, especially if it looked like they did not have anything to show for all the time they spent on this world. If you were standing beside me you would be looking at how they dress, the car they drove, if they drove a car at all. The worst one of all was the one who caught the bus. Imagine having to leave your home two hours ahead of time just to get to a job that barely payed enough money to allow you to get there.

My goodness if you wanted to have a little fun, say have a life. You would have to try to think about it between the bouts of stress that seem to pop up every thirty seconds because you don't have enough money to pay your bills. I also want to make sure that I am non partial in my thought process and make sure I show how I feel about single mothers and the things that they add to this mess. You know have two kids and dad decides that he wants to be his own one man show and anything more than one is a crowd. Mom now has to decide how to cut away motherhood to become the bread winner for eight to twelve hours then remember where the nearest phone booth is so she can change back to mom before she steps in the house.

Baby boy and Baby girl who now have all the freedom in the world since that winch that wants us to call her mom is never home serving us or bowing down on her knees as required, Decide now that they know how to handle things better than mom and strike out on their own adventures meaning torturing and murdering other people's spirit with their little toddler tantrums. Now in the midst of all these calamities I find myself accessing all that applies to the plight of people not in the least related to me. Wondering why should I care? The answer it is really simple, To me anyway, I always have time to reflect on my experiences especially when it relates to riding a bus, a public transportation vehicle. I am the driver and they are in my care as long as their beautiful rump sits on the bus's gaudy thin plastic seats.

I am now that older guy who has to leave out early to catch two buses and the rapid to get to work on time, and yes I sweat too when things don't seem to be going as planned for my drivers. I would laugh but the stress is holding my smile muscles captive. What stress you might ask, well let me see, first I have to get there early, yes early not on time but early. That's my window of safety just in case someone in the high office has found a new unread volume of the gestapo's greatest hits list that's guaranteed to make me late while I try to read it. Then I have to hope that someone is not pissed at the union and came in and put up new wall paper comprised of all the new don't s , yes I know that it should be do's and don't s but RTA decided to save space and time so we just have don't s.

I just realized that there is so much to getting my work day started that I will have to do another post.

Whats the matter Cleveland?

I want to express my thoughts on the plight of my hometown, We are suffering in the midst of this national financial crises, families are losing jobs and their homes along with hope Through no fault of their own. I have listened to so many plans to bring help to our community some include recruiting out of town business. There is one fly in the cure, our transportation situation, in a word it is awl full and with no sign of getting any better. In my opinion we need to look at the head and the panel of people who are supposed to look out for us the consumer. I want you if you use RTA to ask yourself even as I have.Is this service helping my community in the way that it is supposed to?

I have been a witness to all the dispair that this company has inflicted on our community and it is not over yet how can a service that is designed to get you to your job, appointments and what ever you need to accomplish wind up cutting the very service that it is supposed to provide, You are charged more money and giving less service, we have community meetings and Joe and the board of trustees continue to screw us. I am a driver and I use the system too, some of these changes took place before I became a driver, They the changes left me scratching my head even then. The changes that are taking place continue to make the users of the system suffer. Before I end this edition I have one question to those that are trying to draw new business here, Anyone who may be interested in Cleveland will look at our transportation system, and if you cant get your people to work are they going to come here? I think not!