Dublin bus driver here, ask questions.

Martyn1989

Stheno wrote: »

Nothing major, but I don't advocate fraud against my company under any circumstance.

I get measured on my performance on a weekly basis and if I'm not up to scratch I'll get fired.

Bobby wouldn't last very long going by his posts.

Ah your just giving bobby a hard time for being honest. There is no way you would chase the gang of drunks up the stairs over 10 cent.

If in your weekly performance report it was being consistently stated that you had provided bad service by refusing your customers discounts you would soon lose faith yourself and keep your head down for a quiet life. Unfortunately its the reality of many workplaces. Seems the problem here is customers blame drivers, drivers blame management and management blames drivers. Working against each other rather then with each other.

The_Wrecker

Stheno wrote: »

But surely there is some system that you can use to feed back suggestions on how to improve things?

I've worked in two semi states and it was fairly horrific in each, very slow to move on, so I can understand a lot of what you are saying.

What's the estimated rate of fare evasion?

You may suggest either via the unions or by climbing the stairs, depending on managers moods.
Fare evasion in huge, by weighed against the wages of 4 inspectors in a new Ford Focus?

Stheno

Martyn1989 wrote: »

Ah your just giving bobby a hard time for being honest. There is no way you would chase the gang of drunks up the stairs over 10 cent.

If in your weekly performance report it was being consistently stated that you had provided bad service by refusing your customers discounts you would soon lose faith yourself and keep your head down for a quiet life. Unfortunately its the reality of many workplaces. Seems the problem here is customers blame drivers, drivers blame management and management blames drivers. Working against each other rather then with each other.

I'm pretty unimpressed with Dublin Bus and if you check over my last few posts I've asked why it's such a bad set up and gotten some reasonable answers which make sense?

I like my normal bus driver, and have seen him put up with piles of crap from the odd non regular user of the bus, it's the 41x and he gets abuse when people don't realise it is an express, and deals with it well.

Something is rotten at the core of Dublin Bus though there seems (from the posts on here ) to be little or no interaction between staff and management.

In my work, small suggestions even from junior staff are taken on board and implemented if they are worthwhile

Typical semi state set up seems to be what Dublin Bus are?

bobby23

urbane4u wrote: »

I got a question -> There are frequent advertisements asking people to use the bus; Do company official and your boss, management ever use the bus. I see lot of swanky cars (always parked wrongly) near the depot at phoenix park entrance.

In fairness some do use dublin bus.
AFAIK they are in from 8-4 so it makes sense you use the bus lanes.

Over the years have had plenty of management on the bus.

Stheno

bobby23 wrote: »

In fairness some do use dublin bus.
AFAIK they are in from 8-4 so it makes sense you use the bus lanes.

Over the years have had plenty of management on the bus.

Do they use the service outside of 8-4 and do they take the dodgy routes?

I hated when I lived in Blanch and used the bus because there was always someone smoking.

bobby23

Stheno wrote: »

For the THIRD time, I've suggested counting machines.

Key word "suggested".
There is no counting machine.

bobby23

Stheno wrote: »

But not while peeing going up the stairs? Couldn't figure that particular gem of a post from bobby out given the stairs are at least a good six feet from the driver cubicle.

Your post at least makes a bit of sense.

Someone should send this entire thread to Dublin Bus "management" to demonstrate how well their customer focused attitude is reflected by a member of their staff on the biggest message board in Ireland.

Makes a mockery of the good work they did in Swords last year where they'd an information stand, and some very nice staff from Dublin Bus spent time and effort answering queries from the public, I'd a very positive interaction with one of those staff, who took my query, followed it up and gave me a reasoned explanation.

Compare that to someone like bobby, who doesn't give a **** as in his own words, he still "gets payed the same" regardless of how he performs on the job, supports fare evasion, doesn't give people change if he can't count the fare and isn't asked, and generally can't be bothered.

As i said in first post, a lot of ignorance on this board.

Stheno

bobby23 wrote: »

As i said in first post, a lot of ignorance on this board.

No a lot of ignorance on your part trying to convince us you get showered with pee from people going up the stairs

At least the Wrecker explained it.

Martyn1989

The following are quotes from you against bobby which are either rude or condescending, and thats just from the last page or two.

Stheno wrote: »

Do you people ever feed this back to "management" or is your relationship so poor with them you don't bother?

Stheno wrote: »

No you are not just like me.

I don't advocate customers of my company commiting fraud to avail of my companies services for a start.

And even though I get "payed the same" I spend a lot of time and effort, and extra hours to make sure I give my customers the best service I can.

And yes, I work in the service industry.

People like you with your attitude really really feck me off.

Stheno wrote: »

Compare that to someone like bobby, who doesn't give a **** as in his own words, he still "gets payed the same" regardless of how he performs on the job, supports fare evasion, doesn't give people change if he can't count the fare and isn't asked, and generally can't be bothered.

Insulting people will get you no where, surely as a guru of the service industry, working within your text book management systems you know that.

Stheno wrote: »

I'm pretty unimpressed with Dublin Bus and if you check over my last few posts I've asked why it's such a bad set up and gotten some reasonable answers which make sense?

I like my normal bus driver, and have seen him put up with piles of crap from the odd non regular user of the bus, it's the 41x and he gets abuse when people don't realise it is an express, and deals with it well.

Something is rotten at the core of Dublin Bus though there seems (from the posts on here ) to be little or no interaction between staff and management.

In my work, small suggestions even from junior staff are taken on board and implemented if they are worthwhile

Typical semi state set up seems to be what Dublin Bus are?

I don't blame bobby for his opinions, I know I'd be the same and I think well done on him for coming on here and sharing. I'd imagine you'd have it sussed that its a failure much higher up the company then bobby, maybe only two or three individuals with a bad attitude.

Stheno

Martyn1989 wrote: »

The following are quotes from you against bobby which are either rude or condescending, and thats just from the last page or two.
Insulting people will get you no where, surely as a guru of the service industry, working within your text book management systems you know that.

I don't blame bobby for his opinions, I know I'd be the same and I think well done on him for coming on here and sharing. I'd imagine you'd have it sussed that its a failure much higher up the company then bobby, maybe only two or three individuals with a bad attitude.

He's admitted he doesn't do much about fare evasion and given advice about how to evade fares from the first few pages of this thread.

I've repeatedly posted in the last few pages that there appears to be an issue at the core of the company and it needs to be dealt with if you care to read the posts but someone who posts what Bobby has done is a liability to any company.

bobby23

Stheno wrote: »

Do you people ever feed this back to "management" or is your relationship so poor with them you don't bother?

For management to take advice from lowly drivers or inspectors, how could they justifie there salary?
They have PHD's God damn it, who are you to tell them whats best?

Oisinjm

Stheno wrote: »

No a lot of ignorance on your part trying to convince us you get showered with pee from people going up the stairs

At least the Wrecker explained it.

Jesus man would you ever lay off. If you had his job, and had a herd of young lads upstairs smoking, drinking and generally upsetting other customers, there's not a hope in hell you'd go up and confront them. Especially if it were on an in any way dodgy route.

Your point regarding the coin counting machine, bobby has absolutely no power in implementing your fantastic idea and for the moment he doesn't take the time to count all the coppers and small coins. Perfectly reasonable in my opinion, if the bus is late, he gets a bollicking from other passengers for being late, which then leads to a complaint and a meeting with a higher up. Not worth the hassle and there's no way he can win there.

You just seem to have a vehement hatred for the majority of DB drivers. Some of them are shíte and act like cúnts, but you get that in every walk of life and in every job. If bobby gets punished for enforcing the rules of DB why would he risk his job for the sake of a few cent or a change receipt?

You need to relax, get a massage maybe, a beer or have a ****.

Oisín

Stheno

bobby23 wrote: »

For management to take advice from lowly drivers or inspectors, how could they justifie there salary?
They have PHD's God damn it, who are you to tell them whats best?

That in my opinion is a sign of a badly run company.

As I posted before, suggestions from very junior staff in my company have lead to improvements and we have a culture that encourage that.

Kurz

Stheno wrote: »

He's admitted he doesn't do much about fare evasion and given advice about how to evade fares from the first few pages of this thread.

Seems to me that his main priority is to keep the peace and keep the bus running with as few disruptions as possible and with little aggro/confrontation as possible. His priorities look spot-on to me and fair play to him for coming on here and being completely open and honest about his job.

Hail to the bus driver, bus driver man!

bobby23

The_Wrecker wrote: »

Also watch out for the Canadian 2 dollar coin which is becoming more frequent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Toonie_-_front.png

one good looking coin

Stheno

Kurz wrote: »

Seems to me that his main priority is to keep the peace and keep the bus running with as few disruptions as possible and with little aggro/confrontation as possible. His priorities look spot-on to me and fair play to him for coming on here and being completely open and honest about his job.

Hail to the bus driver, bus driver man!

Giving advice on how to evade fares is just wrong to me.

I'll admit I'm one of those people who believe that the first time I don't obey the law I'll be caught so I'm very black and white on it, but an employee of a company advising how to defraud that company?

I'd never advocate that.

scudzilla

Not sure if someone has asked this, Do some drivers use Mobile Phone blockers (blocks signals of mobiles within 30/40ft), i've heard some do

Scortho

ledgebag1 wrote: »

Wikipedia is wrong unfortunately far more in leixlip and as mentioned the maynooth customers combined full up the seats. I get the 740 x and it is almost full in leixlip village. I think this is due to reduced carriages on the trains

CSO says differently http://census.cso.ie/sapmap2011/Results.aspx?Geog_Type=LT&Geog_Code=06010

http://census.cso.ie/sapmap2011/Results.aspx?Geog_Type=ST&Geog_Code=06007

I did forget that some 66xs serve maynooth as well so apologies there! However there is a trainline from Maynooth that runs to Connolly as opposed to a train that runs to Heuston so that reduces a lot of bus demand traffic

Maybe they just need more buses! There is definitely a demand for another x in Celbridge in the morning anyway!

Kurz

Stheno wrote: »

Giving advice on how to evade fares is just wrong to me.

I'll admit I'm one of those people who believe that the first time I don't obey the law I'll be caught so I'm very black and white on it, but an employee of a company advising how to defraud that company?

I'd never advocate that.

The purpose of the thread was to ask a bus driver a question,not to find out what Stheno advocates or doesn't advocate. Start a new thread on that, I doubt anyone will read it though.

Stheno

scudzilla wrote: »

Not sure if someone has asked this, Do some drivers use Mobile Phone blockers (blocks signals of mobiles within 30/40ft), i've heard some do

Previous threads have indicated BE drivers do, never had a problem on Dublin bus, and given their new fleet has wi-fi can't imagine they will.

Firewalkwithme

Bobby, one last question if you wouldn't mind please,

You mentioned earlier about how the 'bus drivers friend' can be irritating and you don't want to offend him. As a passenger, I often see this and what concerns me most is that your 'friend' could distract you leading to an accident.

If I were on a bus with you driving and you had one of those 'friends' in your ear, if I were to go up to ask you to ask him to take a seat for the safety of all the passengers on board would that help or would you prefer me to stay out of it?

bobby23

ViveLaVie wrote: »

Why do some bus drivers refuse to let on people flat out running for the bus when it takes all of 2 seconds? The bus stop outside Heuston has a set of traffic lights about three metres away. The light was red and the bus had just pulled away from the bus stop to wait at the lights. He still wouldn't let me on despite sitting parked at the lights for another few minutes. I had to wait another twenty minutes in the freezing cold.

Also, not sure if this happens in Dublin but it does elsewhere. Why do buses wait ages at certain stops? I've been on buses where the bus has parked up at a stop for twenty minutes. It's the same stop every time so I assume it's procedure.

Why do Dublin buses not give change? The rest of the country does.

Once bus leaves stop do not open doors. company rules.
If plain clothes inspector on bus driver in trouble if he opens doors.

Dont give change because junkies where attacking drivers for cash.

Martyn1989

Stheno wrote: »

He's admitted he doesn't do much about fare evasion and given advice about how to evade fares from the first few pages of this thread.

I've repeatedly posted in the last few pages that there appears to be an issue at the core of the company and it needs to be dealt with if you care to read the posts but someone who posts what Bobby has done is a liability to any company.

It dosnt take a genius to recognise you can pay €1.40 and take the bus on the long haul, I don't because I know Dublin Bus runs a loss and it is a service I do not wish to be reduced so I'll pay my way and urge my friends to do so aswell. I have read your posts, it took you quite a while to even come to that conclusion, bobby expressed himself and other drivers receive a complete lack of support when it comes to dealing with customer complaints, causing drivers to be disciplined for carrying out their duties your so disgusted hes admitted to not enforcing. Sounds like a management team that havn't sat behind a wheel in years and have forgotten that drivers are dealing with the public rather the 'passengers' if that makes any sense.

Stheno wrote: »

That in my opinion is a sign of a badly run company.

As I posted before, suggestions from very junior staff in my company have lead to improvements and we have a culture that encourage that.

Your right that is the sign of a badly run company, and an unhappy employee. Your very lucky to work in a company that will listen to the new guys, that only works when management are encouraging and helpful to younger staff, do you really think Dublin Bus is going to be all that nurturing to a new driver with all the bright ideas.

Stheno wrote: »

Giving advice on how to evade fares is just wrong to me.

I'll admit I'm one of those people who believe that the first time I don't obey the law I'll be caught so I'm very black and white on it, but an employee of a company advising how to defraud that company?

I'd never advocate that.

This thread is due to a failing of the company, not bobby as an employee. I'd imagine he wants to open a few peoples eyes to the ****e he gets daily from the public and management. He has not shared anything that anyone with a bit of cop on wouldn't have figured out.

bobby23

Stheno wrote: »

Nothing major, but I don't advocate fraud against my company under any circumstance.

I get measured on my performance on a weekly basis and if I'm not up to scratch I'll get fired.

Bobby wouldn't last very long going by his posts.



So essentially you are saying the company is rotten to the core?

No performance management, etc?

What do you work at Stheno?
just wondering, aint going to judge you

Posy

Thanks for your answers tonight, Bobby. I appreciate your frankness and lack of bullshit.

Richard Hillman

Do you think there are too many bus stops? You can see the next and previous stop from most bus stops. There is an area in Sallynoggin that has 6 stops in one direction in the space of 1 km.

Also, at what point does a driver say, "There are too many people on the bus, I cant stop anymore". I think the safety record of Dublin Bus is unbelievably good considering the thousands of routes run every day but with the amount of people crammed into some buses it is a possible recipe for disaster.


Thanks for answering so many questions Bobby. Hail to the bus driver, bus driver man

Eathrin

I read through this thread and found a lot of the Q&A very insightful from the drivers point of view.
Thanks Bobby.
And to those bashing his attitude, lay off. The driver has a tough job. From what I've read Bobby doesn't have a lazy attitude to his work, more a desire to keep everybody involved happy.

dfx-

In fairness, I don't think a lot of theorising is transferable for a company as large and dynamic as Dublin Bus. Listening to new employees, proper CCTV, quoting cycle lane law - that sort of thing doesn't work well in practice. What if you get five new drivers out of the hundreds of drivers and then mechanics and admin suggesting things that contradict each other?

What works for the busy 17.20 37 from Blanchardstown with schoolkids doesn't apply to the 17.40 service or the 1300 service from Harristown on the 13 or 1445 27 service. What works in theory for one one day might hinder the other on the next day. It's easier for smaller companies like Swords Express who know its one route with set stops and known customers perhaps.

That's probably the root difference between the practicality of drivers and some posters here.

Qualitymark

What we need is competition - CIE's intercity buses were expensive, customer-unfriendly, inefficient, badly timed and badly run until private companies started competing. After several years of trying to drive the independents out with legal actions, CIE brought its prices down and its efficiencies up. The same could happen with city buses if there was competition that forced Dublin Bus to smarten its game.

Imagine: buses that stopped at a stop when someone was racing to reach the stop; buses where the drivers didn't keep their foot on the clutch at stops, causing the whole bus to vibrate sickeningly; buses where you could buy a ticket and get change like a normal business; buses that were kept clean and gave people a civilised, enjoyable journey; buses that arrived in time so people could rely on them to get to work, even if their work started at 5 in the evening; buses that ran on schedule - on a real schedule, without buses going missing without explanation; buses that took routes that served their customers - the 46A would go through estates rather than expecting old people to walk through several streets from outside the estate...

The_Wrecker

Qualitymark wrote: »

Imagine: buses that stopped at a stop when someone was racing to reach the stop; buses where the drivers didn't keep their foot on the clutch at stops, causing the whole bus to vibrate sickeningly; buses where you could buy a ticket and get change like a normal business; buses that were kept clean and gave people a civilised, enjoyable journey; buses that arrived in time so people could rely on them to get to work, even if their work started at 5 in the evening; buses that ran on schedule - on a real schedule, without buses going missing without explanation; buses that took routes that served their customers - the 46A would go through estates rather than expecting old people to walk through several streets from outside the estate...

All DB stock are automatics. The vibration is caused by fuel saving alterations. Regarding the 46a abandoning Oap's ~ the Oap's on Kill ave/ Carriglea downs like the new service. The Stillorgan stop southbound is rough for Oap's/Disabled due to distance from the village.