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!