A Clean Bus Is Next To Godliness....

I've been kinda fighting back lately.

Let me start from the beginning.

Some of you may have seen this, many not.
Right in the middle of your trip, your Driver gets off the bus and another sits down and takes over.

We call that making relief.
The Driver who leaves is being relieved and the one taking over is relieving him.
When I pull a bus outta the garage and get relieved, I'm the Driver who makes sure all the windows are spotless clean, the bus has been kept clean and everything is organized and uncluttered.
I'll even punch an extra book of transfers so that in the middle of the next run, your new Driver doesn't need to stop, panick and take time out (putting everybody behind) to punch more transfers.

But when I'm the new Driver taking over, all the other Drivers for whom I'm taking over have been giving me the shaft!
Dirty butt buses, no transfers, mirrors and glass so dirty that half the time I can't see out through all the spots, glare and shadows.

I got on one of the Drivers once and he had the nerve to tell me that he's an operator, not service & cleaning (the guys who pretend to be cleaning buses all night for us) so he's not responsible for cleaning the bus.
I asked him if that doesn't reflect poorly on him, the Driver, when Passengers get on a bus that is filled to the hilt with trash.
He replied that it reflects poorly on the dumpy passengers, then he went on to trash and dump all over his slobby Passengers, etc.

That's the attitude of the guys I'm relieving!

I've been reminding them recently that they are supposed to walk the bus at the end of each run to look for lost items left on the bus.
In that process, they need to clean.
If they, in their negligence leave a broken bottle, something tiny, something poisonous, etc that a new passenger, his kiddo or whomever gets in their mouth or cuts themselves on - it's that Driver's responsiblity for allowing harm to come to his Passengers.
And that we're one big company, helping each other out all day long.
If service and cleaning needs to spend twice as long cleaning his bus, that means they don't have the time to clean my bus and I get screwed the next morning, thanks to him.

So yeah, I've been spoiling the guys who relieve me and the guys I relieve have been treating me like crap.
I know I'm still "the new guy" to many of them but I'm going to start fighting back.

Drivers need to start treating customers like customers, like Gold.
None of this, "The customer is the bad guy" here.

Sorry - I'm still in my First Year but I'm getting soo sick of these Senior Drivers who are all grumpy and ticked off at the Passenger as if y'all are the enemy.

That bus is the whole means of taking care of the Customer/Passenger.
The Service we provide is on that Bus.
Clean it, Driver it and provide the best possible service to our Customers/Passengers.

I shouldn't have to be the guy telling or reminding y'all.
I should be the guy learning from y'all but all I'm learning is that if I ever get to be a manager or boss, y'all are fired!
I've read too many complaints by the Passengers about you nutters and you're making us look bad.

LOL
Ok, rant over.
Sorry folks.
Please don't judge us all by the bad apples surrounding us.
You know the good Drivers when you meet them.
We are the true heart of RTD.

And speaking of RTD, remember - these posts are solely my thoughts and opinions.
RTD neither supports nor endorses...etc yada yada yada....
Y'all know the drill by now.

As always, "Welcome aboard, find your CLEAN seats - Let's Roll!"