People Are People So Why Should It Be...

Did you know that the RTD Union (Amalgamated Transit Union 1001) discriminates against Part Time Drivers at RTD?

I know I know, they are a liberal socialist club, why do I sound so surprised then, right?

Well let me tell you, it's 2010 and these unions have outlived their usefulness by about 50 years.
And they are still applying their 50 year old principles of discrimination and threats, etc as well.

Let's start over...

Drivers of all the buses; RTD, Veolia & First Transit are forced to join the ATU 1001 if they want to drive the bus. That Union extorts a fee from the Drivers each pay check.

And now the vote is coming up.
Actually, two votes:
The first being for Union Officers and the second being for the January Route assignments (Runs).
They both are illustrative of the discrimination.

The Union takes money from every Bus Driver.
Whether full or part time, the same amount is taken from our paychecks.
Retirees I believe have a lesser amount extorted from them.
But the HUGE difference in the amounts is that the Union only represents Full Timers.
They refuse to represent part time drivers, even though they work at least 75% of the hours of full timers.
Many part timers are working more hours than many full timers right now because the part time Drivers are allowed to volunteer for extra work.
So these part time Drivers are working only 25% less than the full time Drivers but get zero benefits, zero vacation, zero sick time and ZERO representation.

To make it more fun, the Union is holding their Officer Elections and there are no part timers allowed in the election.
Part timers are not allowed to vote nor are they allowed to be elected.
There is nobody to represent the part timer.

So as the Vote for the January-April  route assignments (runs) comes up, the full timers are voting/choosing their work for the next few months, as they always do.
Then the Part Time Drivers get to vote/pick through what's called "Trippers" for their 30 hours a week.
Trippers are the short 3, 4, & 5 hours runs that you see during peak times.
Most Part Timers end up having to vote for an AM (3-8ish) and a PM (3-8ish) type split to get their 5 days and 30 hours.
But as I've shown above, the Union hates the Part Time Driver and is making it evident this Vote.
They are allowing the Full Time Drivers to vote "extra work" by picking Trippers BEFORE the Part Timers get to vote.
So the Part Time Drivers are going to be hard pressed to find work during the First Quarter.

The Union hired close to 800 Full Time Drivers this last quarter of 2010.
And they went +30, meaning they hired 30 more than they needed to...
Which translates to 830 Drivers looking for 40 hours of work where there is none and they are going to demolish the Part Timer's Tripper boards.
Now the 200 Part Timers are going to all have to go find other work, thanks to this Union.
And as always, at least 50% of those newly hired full time Drivers from this last quarter are going to quit by the Summer and poor RTD will be left without the Part Time pool to fill the gaps like they did this year.

This Union is very anti-RTD, anti-Passenger/Customer and anti-worker!

Very discriminatory towards the Part Time Driver.

Yet they continue to steal the Part Time Driver's money and simply tell the Driver, "Hey you don't like it, leave!"

[shakes head] That's sad in this day and age [/shakes head]
Shame on you Amalgamated Transit Union 1001.

If I could afford the Billboard, I'd post one downtown for all to see - how discriminatory y'all are.

Happy Thanksgiving

Remember, Wednesday (24th) and Friday (26th) are regular scheduled days for RTD.
Thursday 25th, Thanksgiving - is a "Sunday/Holiday" schedule.

But who needs the bus?
Stay home with loved ones, enjoy the warmth, the good food and the fellowship.

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all...

We Can Dance If We Want To...

The dance were dancing on the roads had better be that Safety Dance.
Cuz if your friends don't dance we can leave your friends behind!

Problem is, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one dancing.

I've stressed this so many times but it's important enough for me to say again.

You've seen the space, the room we Drivers leave between the bus and the vehicles in front of us. That space isn't left there as a favour to y'all so that you can jump in and use it.

Many of you can't stand going slowly in the slow lane behind the bus so you speed into the next lane and dart in front of the bus only to slam on your brakes as soon as you're in front of the bus then immediately turn into the driveway.
What the...?

Had you been patient, you would have been here in another 5 seconds but now you have the bus parked on your behind with 100 of my closest friends slammed up against the big glass windows in front of the bus, swearing at YOU because I stood on the brakes so that I didn't further compact your car.
Then you call my boss and complain that I was driving too closely?
Who do I call with your license plate number to complain?

I've actually heard somebody say that he wouldn't mind if the bus rear ended him because then RTD would have to buy him a new truck.

NEWS FLASH!
In case you haven't seen the News, almost all of the Bus vs Car accidents result in fatalities.
RTD may have to buy you a new truck but you won't be driving it, your grand kids will be.

Drivers have a rule:
The faster we go the more distance we have to put between us and the vehicles in front of us.
We do this because as we go faster, it takes longer to stop.
At 60 mph, we're travelling at around 88 feet per second.
We've travelled nearly the length of a football field in three seconds.
And if we slam on the brakes, in the summer, on a dry-clean road, it takes that whole football field to stop.
Whether your vehicle is somewhere in that football field doesn't matter to a bus that weighs 33 tons.
It still takes that whole football field and if your car's in the way, you become a grill ornament until the bus stops and you're peeled off.

So please please please, do not follow the bus on his bumper (we can't see you back there) and don't jump in front of the bus unless you're planning on speeding away.
We are trying our hardest (I'm trying my hardest) to be safe, leave plenty of distance and avoid any accidents.
For our sake, for the sake of the Passengers and for your sake.
I don't need the thousands of little heart attacks y'all give me daily.

Our bumpers read, "Thanks for the brake."
Thank you for the brake.

I know only a few of y'all are reading this.
So I guess this is more of a Prayer than a plea.

But for those of you who take this to heart, I appreciate it.
Thank you.
I'm trying to be safe, thank you for helping me.

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

You're A Rich Girl & You've Gone Too Far...

Some passengers were discussing the high price of RTD Fares and how they are going up in 2011.
Then they noted the lower prices in other markets (cities).

As a Taxpayer, like most of you and also like most of you, as a former Passenger before I became a Driver - let me give you my take on how RTD works compared to these other companies, their prices etc.

Plain and simple, RTD gets every penny of its finances from YOU.
Through taxes, fees and fares, everything comes either directly from you or through the gov't in the form of grants, subsidies, etc.

In Canaduh for instance, the price to ride is incredibly cheap.
That's because they slam the cost from your income taxes.
Then they charge a nominal fare and you think they are running to please YOU.

In other markets, the bus companies may be "private" like a few companies here in Denver.
These companies receive all their profits and operating costs, etc from the Fares.
So the cost to ride may be higher.
Denver is a bit fuzzy since the public pays to support the private sector companies through supplies, vehicles, etc.

The only reason RTD raised the Fares this time is because the Economy is so ripped that they knew you, the tax payer would not vote to approve a fee/tax hike to cover expenses so they mandated a Fare increase knowing that so very few of you would actually come to the meetings in a show of force against the increases.

So at the moment, the cost to ride RTD's "The Ride" is going to be a bit higher than other markets.
Overall, you end up paying the same as these other markets because what you pay up front in fares, they pay behind the scenes in taxes and fees.
What's the saying?
"Six of one - half dozen of the other..."

Anywho, don't fret about the higher prices.
This hike will make the public shy of another increase for a few more years and RTD isn't going broke any time soon.
Whether they are running at a loss each year, they still get paid through taxes, fees and grants, etc.
If it gets bad enough, they'll start to actually make cuts, start running more efficiently and stop spending money like obama in a liberal Congress!
They're not going anywhere.
Too many Coloradoans rely on the bus to get around and "privatizing" the District would cost the Passenger far more than the economy can afford.

By the way, did you see RTD's FaceBook post recently?
They pointed out that the top three routes combined in 2009 accrued close to 9 million "boardings".

Were you one of those 9 million?
As always, "Welcome aboard, find your seats, be one of the 9 million - Let's Roll!"

Private Eyes Are Watching You...

It's early morning, you know when it's not light yet but not exactly dark.
You can't really see who is at the stop but you can see folks running outta the corner of your eye.

I am coming to a busy stop and after everybody loads in, I sit for a moment longer.
Two gals coming running to the door at the last minute and thank me for waiting.
I saw them running about a block up, trying to cross busy traffic and I wanted them to see the bus stopped so that they'd be safe and not dart out into traffic, etc etc etc.

They sit right next to me, in "those" seats and just sit there quietly.
That's odd enough for gals their ages but I notice after a couple of miles that they are watching me too!

I got enough to do while Driving already than to be creeped out by a couple of kiddos eye ballin me so I just keep on doing my thing.

At one point I randomly pulled over far in between two stops.
Another passenger wannabe darts across the street and thank you thank you thank you thanks me for stopping like that.
That's when the two gals ask me how I knew the new passenger wanted the bus.
One of the gals said, "I noticed you stare at everything and everybody."
Her friend said, "It was kinda creepy at first."

After I figured out what they were talking about and realized what they were asking and saying (I had one of those "A-Ha" moments) I explained to them what was going on.

Drivers aren't being creepy or stalkerish, we're being responsible and safe.
Passengers don't always know what they want right away and don't always tell us what they want when they realize what it is they want.
So we need to be prepared and predictive.

For example:
That random stop between two other stops - I saw the passenger across the street, staring at me but not waving at the bus. She gave out a huge sigh when it looked like she wasn't going to make it across the street to a stop.
She didn't wave but flopped her arms down and started to get that panicked look like she was about to dart into traffic to catch me.
Drivers have to be looking around at traffic, around at our mirrors and around at pedestrians all the time, over and over and over.
We need to look out for everybody's safety and we learn from experience what to recognize as danger.
I saw the look, her expression and posture and reacted by stopping.
Traffic permitted it, it was safe and it was far safer for her if I stopped and waited rather than her trying to catch me.
We weren't late or behind schedule for waiting so I made the call.
That's what RTD pays me to do: make those decisions.

I have to pull up to a bus stop that more than one Route services.
There are a ton of Passengers but not everybody wants my bus.
I have to read faces, body language and traffic to know when to stop, what's safe, etc.

We as Drivers learn how to read not just the conditions and the traffic but the people.
I'm learning that and while those gals watched me I seemed to have made a ton of those calls.
Several passengers behind us said, "I wish my other Drivers stopped for me like that..." or other comments like that.
That surprises me because I'm a new Driver still, within my first year.
If I'm learning to do this already, I know the Senior Drivers already do this.

But we're not being creepy, we're not being stalkers:
We have to watch, look, see, analyze, decide and react.
I have to stare at you in the eye, whether you're a guy or a gal - as I pull up to a stop and you just sit there without giving me any other sign that you're going to get up.
I have to decide whether to keep going because you're waiting for another bus or whether you're just making up your mind to wait until I stop to stand up.

Yeah, I'm watching you but it's for your benefit, my benefit and the other 63 Passengers already on the Bus.

We all have the same destination: Safety

Oh My God that sounded cheezy!

LOL, whatever - I'm just Driving, doing my job.
Don't freak out but I'm watching you too.

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