Do all Dublin Bus drivers hate their jobs or just life in general?

Monkey face

I was on the bus this morning going to work. We are passing through Donnybrook when the bus driver pulls down his window and calls over the Metro guy to get a paper. All in all this took about 2 mins to complete his transaction at which point we proceeded to hit every red light on the way to town. Before I got off the bus I mentioned to him that this was not cool and he hit the roof asking me was he not entitled to his paper....eh, no your not entitled to your paper when your driving the paying public to work and making them late.

If you don't like driving a bus maybe you should consider doing something that you would enjoy as opposed to making the general public have to put up with your petulant s**t. I know it’s not as simple as walking into your dream job whenever you want but are these guys really that unhappy?

Any have any similar situations?

GM071class

Monkey face wrote: »

I was on the bus this morning going to work. We are passing through Donnybrook when the bus driver pulls down his window and calls over the Metro guy to get a paper. All in all this took about 2 mins to complete his transaction at which point we proceeded to hit every red light on the way to town. Before I got off the bus I mentioned to him that this was not cool and he hit the roof asking me was he not entitled to his paper....eh, no your not entitled to your paper when your driving the paying public to work and making them late.

If you don't like driving a bus maybe you should consider doing something that you would enjoy as opposed to making the general public have to put up with your petulant s**t. I know it’s not as simple as walking into your dream job whenever you want but are these guys really that unhappy?

Any have any similar situations?

Try being nice to them??

I wouldn't begrudge him getting a paper, and unfortunately the Drivers (be they Dublin Bus or any other) can't control the traffic lights!

godtabh

A bit of an over reaction

Plates

A bit of an over reaction for sure - but to be honest - Dublin Bus drivers wouldn't be known for their charm. They're generally a fairly miserable bunch.

monkeyfudge

Not my bus driver.

My bus driver whistles while he drives each morning.

tommyhaas

FFS, your complaint is that the driver delayed you two minutes while getting his paper. If that caused you to be late, well you should have been on an earlier bus.

Really annoys me this sort of whining, 2 minutes you were delayed, get over it and show some decency. The man was only getting a paper

thirtythirty

Monkey face wrote: »

I was on the bus this morning going to work. We are passing through Donnybrook when the bus driver pulls down his window and calls over the Metro guy to get a paper. All in all this took about 2 mins to complete his transaction at which point we proceeded to hit every red light on the way to town. Before I got off the bus I mentioned to him that this was not cool and he hit the roof asking me was he not entitled to his paper....eh, no your not entitled to your paper when your driving the paying public to work and making them late.

If you don't like driving a bus maybe you should consider doing something that you would enjoy as opposed to making the general public have to put up with your petulant s**t. I know it’s not as simple as walking into your dream job whenever you want but are these guys really that unhappy?

Any have any similar situations?

So you are deducing that that 2 minute wait put the bus into a position in the road whereby it was out of sequence with normal traffic flow, despite the fact that you know nothing about traffic light networks and subnets, phases, or trigger switches. Not forgetting ad-hoc red lights due to pedestrians. If not that, then I wonder why you're giving out about a 2min stop...

I wonder how much personal time you spend at work sending a mail to a friend, getting a coffee or drink, or *ahem* posting on boards. Surely you have to work non-stop perfectly to the clock like these busbots, sorry, bus drivers have to?

Plates

monkeyfudge wrote: »

Not my bus driver.

I'd whistle too if I was employed to be someones personal bus driver.

rebel10

Why would you go out of your way to tell him it wasn't "cool"? Seriously. Could you not have let it go and realise that you might be over reacting?
He had every right to tell you to f**k off, doesn't make him miserable or hate his job, just the eejits they have to encounter everyday!:rolleyes:

delop

Have you not noticed... Everyone is pissed off these days

Cookie_Monster

It's pretty unprofessional to stop the bus just for a paper mid journey but its the kind of thing that's rife in all Irish workplaces, not just DB. cute hoorism / dossing / sense of entitlement etc etc. like when you go for your 15 mins breakfast and come back 35 mins later

I once had to wait on a 111 at DL shopping centre while the driver went in to get a danish and coffee for breakfast, first bus of the day but I'd just worked a night shift and was too tired to care

Walsh

Heard they have a pretty high suicide rate?

hidinginthebush

I was walking down talbot st. just over a week ago and there was a foreign girl taking a picture of her foreign boyfriend (late 20's / early 30's) in front of an out of service dublin bus. The bus driver in the parked bus started yelling at them, so I sort of slowed my walk to see what was about to go down. The bus driver then opened the door and let the guy sit in the drivers seat and get his picture taken there.

So in relation to your post OP, no, dublin bus drivers don't hate their job, they are the most awesome people in the city!

ordinary_girl

Ah here, getting a paper and delaying the bus by a few minutes is nothing. I've met both nice and angry bus drivers, I don't begrudge them for this. They hardly have the most pleasant job in the world. Once the bus actually arrives and I arrive at the place where I'm meant to be then I'm grand. Serves its purpose.

Cookie_Monster

Spend 10 mins chatting to that guy Ray who drives (drove?) 75/111 (and whatever else)
HE loves what he does and is one of the nicest friendliest people you'll ever meet...

darsar

OP, a nice man once told me that "on time is five minutes late".

Have a look at your punctuality and if you were really mad at the time of starting this post and still that annoyed at time of submitting post, all over two minutes of your time it seems there are deeper issues

BenShermin

I think the OP may have over reacted but he is totally right in principle.

Think about it, two minutes to get a newspaper, two minutes stopped at a bus stop to wait for a passenger running for the bus, two minutes to talk to the driver of another bus across from him on a narrow residential road. All these two minutes add up to make bus commuting times an absolute joke in comparision to the car.

It may not happen that much on Dublin bus but take a trip on Cork City's BÉ service, journey times are a joke because of this sort of carry on!

clunked

Monkey face wrote: »

I was on the bus this morning going to work. We are passing through Donnybrook when the bus driver pulls down his window and calls over the Metro guy to get a paper. All in all this took about 2 mins to complete his transaction at which point we proceeded to hit every red light on the way to town. Before I got off the bus I mentioned to him that this was not cool and he hit the roof asking me was he not entitled to his paper....eh, no your not entitled to your paper when your driving the paying public to work and making them late.

If you don't like driving a bus maybe you should consider doing something that you would enjoy as opposed to making the general public have to put up with your petulant s**t. I know it’s not as simple as walking into your dream job whenever you want but are these guys really that unhappy?

Any have any similar situations?

Your rant perhaps tells us more about yourself than the driver you are attempting to criticise. You sound a little unhappy yourself:D:D:D.

Monkey face

Okay, fair enough. It maybe is a knee jerk reaction over something small and I am not claiming to know how the intricate traffic system in Dublin works. But taking a paper off some dude in rush hour traffic is taking the pi**.

If people are late can you actually say that it is not bus drivers fault?

I'm not saying bus drivers are all moody so and so's (the guy on the 84 is a legend), but I would say that they are erratic at best. For example, there is a particular bus driver that goes my route and he is an aggressive driver and will drive through amber lights etc. Then there is another guy who is the Dublin bus miss daisy equivalent. So there is the better part of a 15 minute difference of when you arrive at your destination between these guys.

I am not saying either one is right/wrong for the way they drive (to fast you can cause an accident and to slow you can cause frustration and maybe an accident).

I suppose my main question is how is this type of stuff monitored? The Dart had a 97% success rate for trains arriving/departing......what did Dublin Bus have?

GM071class

BenShermin wrote: »

I think the OP may have over reacted but he is totally right in principle.

Think about it, two minutes to get a newspaper, two minutes stopped at a bus stop to wait for a passenger running for the bus, two minutes to talk to the driver of another bus across from him on a narrow residential road. All these two minutes add up to make bus commuting times an absolute joke in comparision to the car.

It may not happen that much on Dublin bus but take a trip on Cork City's BÉ service, journey times are a joke because of this sort of carry on!

Ahh sure we'll all get there in the end....

It's not Germany, we don't worry too much for effeciency....

Failte Go Mall.... We like it like that!!!

Cookie_Monster

Monkey face wrote: »

I suppose my main question is how is this type of stuff monitored? The Dart had a 97% success rate for trains arriving/departing......what did Dublin Bus have? [/COLOR]

overly generous journey times so that they are on time.

tomED

OP - If a passenger gives out to me for grabbing a free paper, yeah I'd probably hate my job!!! Give us a break will ye!!!

BUT - it is an interesting question.

I don't use buses that often and in the rare occassaions that I do, I must say I've had encounter some strange bus drivers.

The weirdest was when one driver held up the bus for about 5 minutes while he argued with me about my destination. He insisted the bus didn't go there, even though the route hasn't changed since I was at least 5 years old (that's about 28 years) and when I was getting off the bus, he started another row with me about how the place I was getting off was not actually called that.... But sure how would I know, I grew up there and my mother still lives there -

Then of course, there are the bus drivers who love to pull off just as the old granny who has just run five metres in 3 minutes flat gets to the door...

But I'm sure they're not all like that!!!

delop

tomED wrote: »

OP - If a passenger gives out to me for grabbing a free paper, yeah I'd probably hate my job!!! Give us a break will ye!!!

BUT - it is an interesting question.

I don't use buses that often and in the rare occassaions that I do, I must say I've had encounter some strange bus drivers.

The weirdest was when one driver held up the bus for about 5 minutes while he argued with me about my destination. He insisted the bus didn't go there, even though the route hasn't changed since I was at least 5 years old (that's about 28 years) and when I was getting off the bus, he started another row with me about how the place I was getting off was not actually called that.... But sure how would I know, I grew up there and my mother still lives there -

Then of course, there are the bus drivers who love to pull off just as the old granny who has just run five metres in 3 minutes flat gets to the door...

But I'm sure they're not all like that!!!

I think I know that place , friend of mine lives there, is it Addison park, Glasnevin? when he would get taxis the drivers haven't a clue where it is, apparently, its actually in Finglas :-)

tomED

delop wrote: »

I think I know that place , friend of mine lives there, is it Addison park, Glasnevin? when he would get taxis the drivers haven't a clue where it is, apparently, its actually in Finglas :-)

No it's not there - it's actually Loughlinstown, apparently the 45a doesn't go there...

devnull

tomED wrote: »

Then of course, there are the bus drivers who love to pull off just as the old granny who has just run five metres in 3 minutes flat gets to the door...

They are not all like that, I get a bus every day and the drivers are always helpful to those around them and passengers in need and old ladies etc, and there is a real sense of community on my routes, but sure, it doesn't happen everywhere on every route, but not everyone is like it.

There was one occasion recently when a bus I was on there were three people who were barely able to walk and it was night, and the driver let them on between bus stops and let them on without paying a fare as he was worried about them, one of them thanked him by giving him a lecutre about how nasty Dublin bus drivers all are, then proceeded to leave a parting gift by using the bus stairs as a toilet!

tomED

devnull wrote: »

They are not all like that

Which I clearly state at the end of my post....

Cookie_Monster

tomED wrote: »

No it's not there - it's actually Loughlinstown, apparently the 45a doesn't go there...

no, it doesn't go there at all, well hasn't for the 25 years I've lived in the area anyway

tomED

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

no, it doesn't go there at all, well hasn't for the 25 years I've lived in the area anyway

Oh no, the bus driver visits boards too! :P

yosser hughes

Interesting that the bus driver used the word "entitled". That sums them up for me. They have an entitlement culture and in my experience most of them are rude and obnoxious. Apart from that some of them drive way too fast,usually when heading back to the depot at the end of their shift.

paulm17781

OP, you are right, he should not have gotten a paper and no, he is no "entitled" to do this. He can do this before he starts or on his break, not during his shift. I would report him for this. I despise this sense of entitlement people seem to have. What he is entitled to do, is drive the bus until his break and get commuters to work.

Now, I am expecting to get flamed for having an expectation that someone does their job properly, but that's what happens here... :rolleyes:

Cookie_Monster

tomED wrote: »

Oh no, the bus driver visits boards too! :P

No I just live in the area, know where Loughlinstown is and know where the 45a goes. Bray-Shankill-Ballybrack-Church Rd*-Churchview Rd*-Rochestown Avenue*-Sallynoggin-Dun Laoghaire.

If it went right instead of left at the end of Churchview road like the 7,11 it would go to Loughlinstown.

* all Killiney