chauffeur

bus driver

Winnipeg Transit

Transit is a great place to work if you are patient, like driving, and are organized enough to deal with split shifts with seemingly random start and end times at seemingly random locations. It’s both flexible, and inflexible in that you can organize you’re shifts around your life... as soon as you have enough seniority.

The beginning is stressful. 1 month class training, 1 month(ish) booked ahead (they give you random work the day before), then you’re ‘on Report’ meaning you’re sitting in the garage until they get you to move buses, help out other operators (filling in, trading broken buses, etc), or get full/part pieces of work. 

Once you’re seniority rises high enough you can ‘sign work’, which means you get a place in line to pick work. You won’t have many choices for at least a few years, so the work life balance sucks. Lots of split shifts, hard routes with no time so you’re late, and can be in sketchy areas.

You will not often have weekends off. There’s a complicated pattern of days off that you sign based on seniority. Until 15ish years in, you’ll be working 5 days on, 2 days off, 4 days on, 1 days off, 7 days on, 4 days off, 7 days on, 1 day off, repeat (for example).

Getting days off has been made very hard recently. You used to be able to just sell your work, but now you have to trade a shift for a shift. You’re very much tied to your schedule.


Transit pays well and has a pension and simple benefits, which you can extend out of pocket.

We’re negotiating a new contract now.

Transit is NOT for you if you:

- can’t help but get angry or upset when people are rude or don’t pay fare (yeah get used to that letting things go)
- are very nervous around unruly, drunk, high, and sometimes aggressive people
- are bad with time (are known to be late to events and such)
- want a 9-5 easy job
- want a simple uncomplicated job. It’s very challenging and will take up your life.
- don’t like people
- are bad at driving (duh), drive aggressively or impatiently, bad at directions, timing, safety, etc

Working for the city, the benefits and the union is pretty decent. Double pension sounds great and all but it's a matter of if you even make it there physically or mentally to even enjoy it. It's a high stress level job. The driving part is actually mostly enjoyable but everything else that comes with it is what makes you think if it's even worth it. When it comes to dealing with public, sometimes it can be tough. Sometimes you worry about your safety as well as the people riding your bus and wonder if the city/union are doing enough to ensure safe transportation for us all which I believe they are not. Schedules are becoming tighter then they've ever been meaning not many breaks if any. Starting at Transit, like anywhere else, you start at the bottom. The shift choices you get are seldom and likely time-wise are super inconvenient. I can't help but notice how all the senior workers reflect on how good it was to work at this service and how much has changed. For someone who has just started here or as someone who is looking for the right career to provide for their family, you have to seriously consider how much of your life you're willing to put into this work and if it fits into your lifestyle.

Because the turnaround is very high, if you can stick it out you move up in seniority fast. You meet many really good people but also some real jerks. The workplace is extremely toxic. Management does not have your back. It’s become a very stressful and unsafe job. The majority of the public are rude, lazy and overly demanding. It might have been a good career at one time, decades ago, but it’s a horrible place to work now. 

The pay and benefits keep most employees in the job, but work life balance is terrible with split shifts, weekend work, holiday work mandatory during the first years on job. stressful work environment with tight route schedules consistently tightened every year. Employee safety is a big concern as you are exposed to the riding public at all times even with a poorly designed safety shield it can be dangerous. Not much if any oversight from management and treated poorly overall as a result moral is very low in the workplace.... spent over 11yrs there and would not do it over again as it seems to get worse and worse year after year.  

What is the best part of working at the company?
A lot of flexibility when you gain seniority, great benefits, great pension plan
The six week training program is amazing with tremendous support.  If you have a lot of patience with traffic and the public, you will do great.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part is in the beginning. You have not much time to rest, and if you aren’t familiar with the city, that could be very stressful. Security concerns can be stressful to and not knowing who may be coming on your bus at any time especially at night.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Most of the new hires are very positive, but there are a lot of employees that are negative.

Training program is second to none. You will absolutely learn everything you need to in the 6 weeks they give you. Trainers are fantastic as well. Co-workers are also pretty great to get along with, and generally really easy to work with. Everyone seemed to be on the same page and was well organized. 

The problem is you don't get paid enough to deal with the verbal and physical abuse from passengers, and management and by extension the city, doesn't seem to care enough to take it seriously. They'll call you two days after getting assaulted and ask when you're coming back to work. 

Kinda wish I would've stayed sometimes, then every so often I see in the news why I didn't. 

The work itself is great, we work on everything that's on the vehicle and we rebuild most vehicle parts and assemblies in house so the work is very good experience for learning. Upper management and h.r. have created quite the toxic workplace in that they treat employees with condescension, with nonsense micromanaging and other disrespectful qualities. I do not recommend anyone getting a job here.

What is the best part of working at the company?
No help from management,  just drive the bus, no matter what is going on, can not say no or stop anything. Never get out of your seat. Horrible work life balance 


What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
No actual help. Can not say no to anyone or for anything.  Just shut up and drive the bus.


What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Toxic. Old world expectations with a veil of modern policies 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
14 hrs a day to get 7.5 hrs pay

What is the best part of working at the company?
They dont care about you and consider you as a numbet

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Bypass your seniority and too much work but less pay.cant use your sick days in a year and if you did they will review your attendance and write you up.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Good at first but when you start questioning their jugdement you are a mark man

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Always busy but fullfilling especially when you meet the work load expected of you.

There is little opportunity to advance unless you are a former bus driver. There are no career plans and office staff are treated like sentient furniture (opinions not valued, shuffled around, sit there and do your work quietly). That being said, there is job security and the job expectations and processes are clear. As a union member I'm never expected to work overtime without remuneration. It's a good place to work if you're in between jobs or starting a career but not one if you want to do anything other than shuffle (literal) paper around. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Chauffeur 11 salaries reported	$21.40 per hour
Bus driver 2 salaries reported	$21.64 per hour

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