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School bus drivers.

R

randallinMo

Member
My hat goes off to school bus drivers. I recently "thought" maybe I'd give something back to the community by driving a school bus for a couple years. It would have worked well with my schedule and our school is desperate for drivers. Becoming a school bus driver is about like trying to work for the FBI. You have to have all the CDL requirements, you can't have any kind of record, you have to be finger printed, they do a background check on you.....in other words, you had better lived a model life, never been arrested, been a pillar of the community and willing to work for darn near nothing. I"m talking less than $10.00 per hour! Oh, and did I mention you have to take heat from every parent, guardian, school administrator and school board member? To become a school bus driver you have to be the best of the best. Then, they pay you like you are the worst of the worst. I said, "No thank you". I admire those who do.
 
Randall, I know what you mean on the FBI. I drove the same bus route 25 years. When I began we had a 20 dollar "chauffers" permit. As time went on, CDL, special bus permits, training couple times a year. My special peeve was the randon drug testing. You were expected to "produce" on command. Best part was a retirement check every month at age 48. Over the years I never had much problem with the children--it was the adults. LB
 
And the main point, you get to deal with up to 50 kids that are all wound up from heading home after being cooped up in school with rules.......

It is a thankless job, hats off to them.

Paul
 
My Dad drove pretty much all of his working life. He drove his senior year in High School and then started again when he got out of the Marines after WWII. He was bus mechanic and transportation supervisor too. My mother drove for 25 years as well.

Had an uncle who tried it as a sub for a few days,he couldn't take the agrivation from the kids. The husband of a woman who drove for 30 years or more said it best. Said he'd rather haul can milk. Said he could shut the doors and all the noise was in the back where he didn't have to hear it.
 
I was a sub school bus driver since "85. Since I was a teacher at the high school and had a semi license, I thought I might as well help out.

When the CDL"s came out, we had tests at the Junior High and I took them all and of course passed them. They were quite easy back then.

I retired from teaching and they asked me to be a daily sub a couple months into the school year. This is my second year with a regular route. I only drive high school kids and many remember me from my teaching years. Discipline is easy if you are consistent and have support from the school. Our drivers are employees of the school and thus get their support. Parents don"t give me much grief but then again, many of them are my former students.

Never been background check or fingerprinted but do have to pee when they do a random. Since I am always clean, I am often "picked" for the random.

And as mentioned above, another pension is in the works.

Yep, bus driving is one of the easier jobs out there. No homework, nice people to work with and you don"t have to see the boss until you come back from routes.
 
Yeah Randall, I ain't equipped for it. My daughter-in-law is full time driver, and my son (her husband) works locally and subs in emergencies. You have to have a special personality to make the kids want to behave. Both my son and his wife are like a magnet to kids - everywhere we go the kids flock to them. There's the occasional problem child that the penal system will probably end up disciplining someday, but the buses have cameras, and when all else fails, the video will tell it all. It's pretty hard for an angry parent to deny their child was involved while sitting in front of the screen in the sup's office.

As far as the pay - I liken it to a farmer hiring a guy for min wage to run high dollar equipment. It doesn't make sense, but the money comes from tax dollars, and you know how that goes. I tell them that back when I was a kid, I walked to school, and it was uphill all the way - both ways, but especially going to the school.
 
It has worked out ok for me. I retired four years ago from 35 years of 60 hours a week trucking and trying to play farmer. The Farm gig wasn't enough to keep me as busy as I like to be, maybe I should say as busy as I was use to being.
So I went to work for the local school where my kids went and where I went to school. I had most of the needed Licencing so they were tickled pink to have me sign on. Its a good fit with my farming as it comes to about five hours a day driving. Like any job, you have good days and days you wonder why in the heck are you doing this.
We got outsorced last year and we all got terminated. I figured they did me a favor. The same day the outsorce company offered most of us our job back with a 2 buck an hour raise. (It was already allot more than 10 bucks an hour before the raise.) After 4 days of school its too early to tell how its going to work out. I did move up from a 14 year old bus to a brand new one.
Its like you said though, its not easy to get drivers. I never thought I could put up with it but I guess I sirprised myself.
 
I was kidding some on my people mover at Rantoul, that it was like driving a school bus. You watch and not run over anyone, watch getting on and off, and getting back to another bus on time. Yes I have a CDL but gave up hazmat because of the background check and $45. I said I had a security clearance when I was in the army but that didn't count. So I dropped that but I had to go through 6 months of paper work to get my insulin exemption plus send reports every 3 months from doctors. But I have a CDL with a medical card.
 
Had a neighbor who drove school bus while establishing a raspberry operation, and raising hay and Holstein heifers. Said it was OK, but it seemed like he was spending half his life changing clothes.
 
Or how about the RTA driver from Cleveland Ohio who got fired awhile back for clocking that woman who spit on him. I say they should of gave him a medal ! If you watch the video he took alot and warned her several times before he acted.
 
My wife drove a bus for a number of years, for two different schools. She had her CDL with an air brake endorsement.

She also had the roudiest route in the district. She'd throw kids off the bus, then their parents would go to the Supt. with a big sob story about how their kids couldn't possible do the stuff my wife claimed. The district finally put a video camera on my wife's bus.

The camera ran whenever there were students on the bus. That sure settled a lot of debates in a hurry.
 
I could only do that job if I was allowed to duct tape the mouthy ones and the pay was $30 hour.

No thanks.
 
Ya' Know.. There was a time when i thought when I retired from My Job, it would be GREAT to Drive a School Bus, It NEVER Crosses my mind,Now. Theres No respect in this World, I don't see how anybody,... actually deals with it! Larry
 
I drove for 10 years starting in 1974, only needed a chauffers license with a school bus endorsment. Quit when they gave the kids more rights and privileges than the drivers...
 
Kid was raising heck on a bus, video camera had a clear shot of him. His parents said, looking at the video, that is not our kid. That is the kind of people schools are dealing with.
 
I drove for six years, quit four years ago for all of the reasons you stated and then some. Can someone explain to me why it is illegal for me to drive my car talking on a handheld cell phone, (which I agree with) but the same government REQUIRES me to look in a big mirror above my windshield and babysit while I am driving a school bus? All busses should have a monitor on them, and some of them need a cop. Don't forget the NOISE.
 
It takes a special person, that's for sure. For many years I owned a transportation company. I used old retired buses that had been gutted to run weddings, tours, and drunks. The only thing worse than a bus full of kids was a bus full of drunks.

I actually liked it a lot. As time went on I had good staff and only drove as a sub or if needed. I had drivers from the local schools that needed cash. They made it in tips big time. The one thing nice about the drinkers is the are abundant with their cash at the end of the night.

Sad to say, but the best part was running the buses. I really enjoy driving bus. I kept a Ford with a gas engine and 4x2 around just for me to drive if I had a route. Oh, and it had nice cold a/c as well. That is kind of an upgrade from a route bus. It made me sad to watch that old girl leave when I sold the company.
 
I drove one back in the 80s. Student driver too! It was my way back and forth to school without having to pay for it myself, got paid a whopping $3.25 an hour. The state did some studies, and the year after I graduated they went to adult drivers. Guess what, accidents went up, problems went up, breakdowns and repairs went up!
 
As a teacher, the most valuable lesson I learned in college was not to upset bus drivers, custodians, kitchen workers and secretaries. These folks will pull your butt out of the fire WAY more often than anyone else you work with. Make the principal mad, make the superintendant mad, but keep bus drivers, custodians, kitchen workers and secretaries happy. They do more to keep the school running anyway.
 
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