The great big bus driver shortage. Why in the name of god would you drive a bus these days anyway...

As i posted earlier, get out of bed early Sunday and you will see buses on their way empty to terminus get stopped by Gardai shortly after they have left the depot.

Unrealistic running times.

Simplified so all can understand

You are given 60 minutes for a journey, regularly take 70-75 minutes, get to terminus call control , "I m late what will i do" usually controller will tell you head of now.

So you start at 12:00 each journey is 60 minutes, arrive at outer terminus at 13:10, back to town at 14:25, back to outer terminus arrive at 15:35, so you call control " im supposed to break in town at 16:00 what will i do?" get told head in empty, so there is one departure dropped.

Arrive in town at 15:25 call control," im 25 minutes late breaking, im supposed to be back at 16:00 im taking my full 1 hour break, i'll pick the bus up at location xyz where its parked". So now the bus thats coming in to hand over to me at 16:00 has no driver to hand over to (may not be running he might also be coming in empty to try get back on time)

So for certain 1 departure dropped, possibly 2 if the driver coming into hand over to me is late and is coming in empty, i come back after taking my break and am late, call control and i get sent empty to outer terminus to get back on time for the 17:00 back in to town, the driver that was to hand over to me earlier could be in the same boat, so 4 departures dropped.

This leads to big gaps in service, the buses that are running are packed and delayed , making them late, its a problem that multiplies, all because insufficient running time for journey, can be fixed with realistic running time, but thats a bridge the NTA dont seem to want to cross.

Now all these missed departures leave those buses running very busy with irate passengers giving drivers a earful, no wonder they cant get new drivers? Just angry passenger and the drivers have done nothing wrong.

Now i know many will be moaning you still have a 35 minute break, lets break it down, 10 minutes walk from Parnell Square to DB canteen, 5 minutes up the stairs to use toilet, 10 minutes in queue to get food, 10 minutes to walk back to Parnell Square to start second half.

As you can see that is 35 minutes before you eat your food and around here loads of bitching about waiting for a driver to turn up for hand over, can you blame a driver for taking the full hour break?

Don't forget the electric scooters, how someone has not gone under a bus i dont know

Just from reading this the whole thing sounds like a mess especially with schedules, and no money will pay people to deal with those kind of hours.

why don’t they just do a 12hr shift, 3 days on 4 days off, 4 days on and 3 days off? Simple!

Pay only goes so far, because you’ll be taxed into oblivion.

stressful job like that you need plenty time away from the wheel, top of the range pension after 20 years service

You are just being obtuse for the sake if it now, your argument does not hold up to any scrutiny.

What bus will get the driver in for first duty in the morning and get them home after last bus at night?

DB going bust and closing down was not and is not a option.

Turkeys don't vote for Christmas and neither did drivers vote for this pay deal! A extra €25 a week for a extra 2.5 hours driving! 😉

Pay deal included a load more other negative changes to the job as well, its clear you don't have a high opinion of drivers but we're not that stupid to vote YES for €25.

17a very well may have been unreliable, just for a moment image a realistic schedule with plenty of running time, the 17a would become reliable over night, but the NTA don't want to spent the money on achievable timetables so we have the city wide mess of missed departures.

Looks like you don't understand what making the bus service private means regarding the tax payer, GAI are private, the tax payer still pays for their service and it is bad, by all accounts even worse than DB.

Your constant attack on drivers make you come across as someone who applied for a job at DB but did not get it. 😓

For arguments sake we will accept it is a low skill job, but then you hit the nail on the head , its an unpleasant one, and the way to fill positions in unpleasant jobs is to pay higher wages, give better conditions, this is not the case so we have drivers leaving and a problem getting new drivers.

You want a good bus service it will cost money, until the NTA accept this we will have the driver shortage and all the problems that causes.

Its not just about paying drivers more, its realistic running times, decent rosters, for both you will need more drivers/buses to run the service and that will cost more money, the NTA have the money but don't want to spent it where it is most needed.

Now i have ZERO knowledge of what happened here but they will be up to see boss, in trouble, what do they say?

Bus looks empty.

I was absolutely on the verge of shixxing myself, a bad dose of diarrhea, early morning not a pub open to use a toilet, no toilets at the terminus, built up area loads of houses no bushes to empty my guts behind, plenty of people out and about so unleashing a torrent of diarrhea on side of the road not a option, i was trying to get to a toilet to use.

Unions on about toilets for years, this would be stick for them top beat DB/NTA with, if female driver even better.

Result will be driver back to training centre for a refresher course.

For all we know this could be the reason for driving on footpath, lack of toilets is another joy of the job, the ladies really love that aspect