bus driver

apprentice mechanic

truck driver

driver

journeyperson

Southland Transportation

Hi Guys!
If you need a class 2 with "S" endorsement for free. Get hired! there is not much job to do. 
If you need Class 1 - check for government schools. you may find few with government paid training. 

The wage is very poor and responsibility is very high. i would prefer to cook some hotdogs then be responsible for a bus of people for the same wage.

If you are regular guy from the street, you will never get a good route with a good wage. 
For example, charter manager gave me a one day route to drive employees from a party home. I was supposed to work 6 hours. Offer was accepted i took the bus, then i got a message that there was a mistake and you gonne work 3 hours. I came to that place and saw another bus instead
working over two years now, I see often same employees who are getting good routes, heard lots of same situation like "mistake" from charters and suddenly pop up same FAVORITE drivers with good routes.
 Attitude in Charter department is very bad. In general management attitude is bad!

Mechanics are nice guys, always willing to help and fix  old buses desperately.
Often buses are dirty with lots of technical/mechanical issues. 


"Once was asked to drive a bus from one yard to another without coolant. I asked dispatcher to confirm that she is fine to be responsible with all the issues which may happen. suddenly another bus was found for me" :)

Negative: being a new driver, you will be like ping pong ball jumping from one bus to another. most all of them need to be fixed. Heaters usually are not inspected and not fixed before winter. Be really very warm dressed with really warm boots!!!

Positive: the trainers are really good, very professional. after school bus training you will be almost confident bus driver. You do not pay a penny for your Class 2, even in the registry when you exchange your driving license, of course you need to do you best to pass tests from the very first time. 

Conclusion: if you have connections inside the company, that make sense to work. you will get good routes=good wage for those routes and nice bus, and may be grow a career. You may benefit if you become a favorite guy, but I do not know what should you do, as there are so many drivers, I believe connections is mandatory

Advise: try to get "S" endorsement as soon as possible, it should be free as well.

Overall, I would recommend you this job as a survival or extra income job, but not as a career or main job. It is not steady. lots of fights among drivers for routes and management has very bad attitude

Nice company to start your career as a driver. you get really good driver education, skills and experience

There are few other companies on the market check them all!

STS Driver Runs start anywhere from 0630 am to 0745 am pre-trip takes 15-30 minutes prior to run leaving yard.  Pickups are tightly scheduled by Access and not realistic as they do not include traffic, accidents, weather issues to be at pickup for time required for each pickup.  Unrealistic goals for drivers to attain prompt on time door to door service.  Long hours on road anywhere from 10-16 hours with unpaid breaks in between ranging from 30 mins to 3 hours.  Sometimes you can't go home on breaks you end up in a parking lot sitting in your bus for break to finish.  Told initially you will have to work 1 day of month on weekend but realistically you end up working and are scheduled every weekend as a new driver while on probation and after probation you work weekends even with a regular run as you are sometimes taken off your run to cover.  Not fully honest with how they will schedule you and they don't really explain in detail the amount of time and hours you will spend working.  Must attend meetings monthly on top of regular  run schedules on days of meetings.  Run schedules are not passed on to you until the end of the day around 7-8 pm and you usually have to be up by 4 am depending on your run schedule. Monthly meetings can last until 9 pm after you have driven your full run for the day.  They will schedule you to work 7-8 days only so if you are looking for a 8-4 job mondays to fridays this is not the job for you.  Hard physical work involved, you deal with clients in wheelchairs, with canes, with walkers and other physical or mental aspects.  Customers are usually great co-workers are good, management could be much better.  Lack of organization in upper and administrative areas.  Cannot plan for anything outside of work.  You have to clean your buses usually on days off but do get paid for the time.  Too many proverbial hands in the kitchen or irons in the pot in administrative area.  Buses are classified as safe to drive, but many of them need quite a bit of work rather than a bandage fix.  No room for any advancement.  If you want a life after work this is not the job for you, if you don't mind working long hard hours doing a physical job this is the job for you.  Wouldn't recommend it to people who have familys as you are never home and will never see your kids or spouse.  If you are a workaholic this would be the perfect job for you.

Being a school bus driver has been a very fulfilling job for me. You have a sense of pride at the end of each day knowing that you transported children to and from school safely. Training is intense but it gets better as you learn more and get more comfortable while applying/practicing the training you receive. For the level of responsibility of the job, you do not feel like you have to take it on alone. Through radios in the bus and communication with your dispatchers and supervisors, you feel like you have a plethora of support and always have guidance for every circumstance you encounter. Southland transportation has done very well with establishing the system of support it provides. 

I've learned that the most important part of the job is to establish and enforce rules on your bus. If you are unable to do that, there will be more work for you. More cleaning the bus, paperwork writing incident reports to provide to the school, and also distractions from having to remind the children of appropriate behaviour and expectations on the bus. 

The best part of the job is getting to know the kids you are driving and their families. Watching them grow and discover themselves is such a wonderful event to experience. As well as getting to know your co-workers that evolve into wonderful friends.

For the level of responsibility we take on as bus drivers, we are not appropriately compensated (much like many others working in education). Also, Southland isn't always forthcoming in telling employees when to submit time sheets to be paid for additional work (i.e additional time spent cleaning your bus (inside and out), when you have to work late due to circumstance out of your control (parents late picking up kids), or when you need to drive your bus to have regular maintenance and inspections done. Many employees work for free because they do not realize that they are able to submit time sheets for the additional work they do. Also, there are occasions where time sheets are submitted and questioned by supervisors. As an employee, you must keep track and continue to monitor if you actually receive compensation from the time sheets submitted. Many times, I've had to contact my supervisor and payroll to get paid months after the work was done and the timesheet submitted. It would be nice if there was better organization and communication to help remedy these issues.

A typical workday begins at 6:45, the bus is thoroughly checked to be roadworthy, dispatcher is called, and leave the first stop is at 7:15 with happy children looking forward to another day of Junior high. The second stop is for timid Kindergarten and public school children. These are brought to sister schools in Acadia. Then I drive all the way to Walden and Bridlewood to pick up Junior High kids for another school. I have several hours to do things at home, then check in again at 14:00 hours, taking all the children from three schools back home.
I have learned to organize my time so that I am consistently at each stop well in advance; also to utilize the off-hours in between morning and afternoon runs. I have learned to interact with a host of different personalities, many of them new to our country. I also learned the extreme importance of safe equipment.
It is always important to realize that anyone in management is also a person, and that a kind and gentle spirit goes a long way.
Interaction with co-workers has been very interesting over the years. Many of them looked forward to the small talk when waiting at the school, fun interaction with their toddlers, they take with them. I strongly believe that encouragement and genuine interest is very important.
The hardest part of this job has been misunderstanding of poorly informed parents that have jumped to conclusions to protect their "cubs". The movement from "misunderstanding" to "truth" can take patience, and extra effort, but is very rewarding in the end.
The most enjoyable part of this job, is a School principal saying, "Good, you're back" or some child in the mall or church hallway yelling to their mom, "There's our bus driver!"
I believe that going beyond the call of duty, rather than just "performing" what's in the job description or frame of reference is very important and gives lasting satisfaction in the end.

During the interview you'll hear platitudes like "split shifts," and "paid benefits." What they don't mention is the shift is indeed split, into a bunch of small pieces, and the benefits paid are paid all right, by you, the employee, at a $2k per year rate!

Your typical day will begin at 530-730am and finished 12 hours later, but you'll only be paid for 8. You see, Southland won't pay you for time not driving to pickup a client, and won't pay you after you've dropped off your last client and gone on "break." 

During the interview it was explained that you "work for four hours, get a four hour break, and work for another four hours. A split shift!"  
It shakes out like this once or twice a  month. Typically, you start your day, work for an hour or two, get a two hour "break" (stuck in the far-flung reaches of the city of course), work another hour or two, then get another break. No slack pay, and no travel time paid. It's assumed the second you wheel off your last chair at the airport you can kick back and relax for two hours.

It's unbearable, but what makes it worse is the way management frames the problem. First, they harp on about collisions and safety problems while ignoring the obvious fatigue management issues inherent to such a shift structure, and second, they pass the blame over to Access Calgary. They'll claim the break scheduling is "unacceptable," but of course they have no incentive to change it, other than driver complaints, so they enter a lengthy "review" process with nothing ever getting serious attention. It's pitiful, and it's putting the public at risk. 

The hiring packaged specifies "40 hours per week within 5 days over a 7 day period," but as a new employee you might get 3 or 4 full days per week. They don't mention the three hour floater shifts, and the dreaded, unpaid "on-call" block. 

I could go on forever. Southland doesn't tolerate unions or other driver organization, and it shows. They stuff as many slobs into a training session as they can because they know the turnover rate is so high. It's a testament to the economic desperation felt by so many that such practices are tolerated.

I enjoyed driving the students to and from school each day and the split shift that allowed me to do other things during the day.  
However, everyday there seemed to be a problem, especially with communication - communication was always dreadful.  Everyday we inspect our busses and everyday we hope to not find anything wrong with them because that could cause problems being on time with your route or having a bus to drive at all. Even when the bus IS fixed, it can be assigned to someone else without notice to you, so we learn to never leave anything of ours on the bus, especially if it needs maintenance. 
Drivers come and go all the time, so turn over is very high and they're constantly training.  Much of the practical things, though (like where to pick up students at a school, or the idiosyncrasies of a particular bus), you learn on your own or from another driver.  
As a driver you're paid @ 4 hours a day, but can do more work than 4 hours - especially if the bus you're assigned is dirty, needs fueling, or has problems, or another driver needs help with something. 
Only working on school days is both a plus and a minus, because while you have lots of days off, they're all unpaid, and most drivers are "laid off" over summer and other breaks. As a result, you have to go through the hiring process every year, including background checks.
The company advertises flexible hours, but it is the driver who has to be flexible - you're constantly expected to help out with other routes because other drivers aren't available or had bus problems.  Even when they're told ahead, management cannot seem to plan ahead because they're always scrambling last minute to find drivers for student pick up.  It's not unusual for a route to be more than 1 hour behind and then the parents blame the driver who picks the student up because their child is now late for school.  

Worked with them for a parkland run to muir lake school for about 1.5 weeks. In the later 4 days, I rejected SEVEN buses for safety issues ranging from warning lights all over the dash, both orange and red, cracked and gouged tires, inability to wash the windshield, inability to start, and no tail lights. They also don`t have any means of communication; nobody answers the phone or the radio after 5:30am.

The last bus wouldn`t start reliably the last morning, but got it going. But it failed to start several times throughout the day for various lengths of time. Finally at the end of the day the bus broke down completely at the school when I picked up the kids and I sat for over an hour trying to get hold of anyone at southland. The only way I could was by contacting the regional school board to have them try. The only reason I took this bus out is because it was the very last bus available for the region. It was the spare`s spare`s spare`s.... spare. This was the SEVENTH and LAST bus in the area as all others were either rejected already or being driven by others (whom by the way also reported multiple issues with those buses to me that I saw for myself). 

That morning I rejected the second last bus because it had no tail lights at all. And since it was before 5:30 I was able to let southland know about it. And they ASKED ME TO DRIVE IT! They asked me to drive a bus with no tail lights in pitch darkness because "It`s fine". Needles to say I said no to that and it`s a darn good thing I did as I inquired about it later that day and was informed that I was correct; it is not legal to drive without tail lights at night.

Great people to work with don`t get me wrong, even the people responsible for this mess are a pleasure to talk to in person and of good temperament and they do provide adequate driver training to new class 2 drivers; but they have no concept of proper or preventative maintenance and no regard for the safety of the drivers or children riding as a result.

Be prepared for all types of weather with a very early start. The bus itself is completely your responsibility: cleanliness, maintenance and attending maintenance/certification appointments. You will be given a spare bus which will require cleaning, fueling and likely fluids prior to your next route. This is all done on your time.
Parents expect a clean bus and presentable driver, promptly on the job daily.  Many have difficulty being on time and their child missing the bus is an inconvenience. The driver needs to impress upon the kids their role in making mornings easier, reducing lateness. 
Kids come to you each day and look forward to a positive, smiling driver. You must be that person consistently, daily. Update kids on days off. Remind them it is their stop and not to leave items on the bus.
Respect for the kids in your attitude and ability to keep the peace on long routes in very important. Post the rules: seated safely, quiet, respectful of other riders and the driver is in charge on the bus. Regularly hold safety meetings with the kids, impressing the safety aspect of the ridership.
As a driver plan to spend more time than you expected servicing and cleaning the bus. Yards without fluids and fuel will require more of your unpaid time. You will wait in line for bus wash, many drivers opt to clean the bus at local car washes. These items are the basic tools to make you successful. 
Training is thorough. Once you hit the yard and your bus, be prepared to be on your own. Ask intelligent questions of your peers. Most will help out. Ignore those who don’t.
I will admit that some drivers have their ‘clicks’ and you may find yourself left out. There are others who don’t subscribe to this behaviour. Make sure you obey all the rules stipulated by the yard supervisor. Read the weekly newsletter. Read and review the handbook. 
Driving daily and avoiding drivers not driving well for road conditions is the reality of the job. Always come with your A game.

What they say does not match what they do. They hold these things called Raise the Bar. And then nothing happens with the results. Nothing changes.

They also have a new thing with GPS in the bus and they use it to threaten drivers with speeding. If you speed management will be advised! But they do not prove the speedometers are correct in the bus and show the right speed. Also many do not work properly. 

They use it as a threat not as a useful tool to assist in your job. Fear rules a lot of what they do.
Also they say the door is always open but nothing happens. You can file reports and no feedback ever happens. If something happens you have to attend a meeting on your own time even if you were not at fault at all. 

There is always some excuse as to why things are not happening as they said they would. The new GM is trying hard but he is up against a lot of old school thinking in the company.

Rather than admit a mistake was made they lie to you and when logs prove them wrong they lie to you.

Other drivers are great to work with for the most part and take the responsibility very seriously. 

If they had to pay for all the work they expect for free the company would not be in business or management salaries would have to be reduced to cover costs. It is really a who you know company rather than a what you know and do company. They show no appreciation for those who go above and beyond in the job. 

My best advice is to just stick to doing exactly what the job needs and do not do extras. It will get you nowhere.

I would like a manager to show how to keep the bus as clean as they expect it to be in the few minutes they say it will take.

Job Overview:
Working as a Charter Administrator involved managing charter bus requests submitted through an online form and responding via a general email inbox, as well as answering calls to assist with inquiries about bus charters and bookings. The role required calculating costs, booking charters, and coordinating between schedules.

The team consisted of 3–4 Charter Administrators and 2 Schedulers/Dispatchers. We all worked in the same office. Some days were extremely busy, requiring heavy multitasking to handle nonstop phone calls and incoming email requests, while other days were more laid-back, allowing time to catch up on pending tasks. We took turns managing phone calls. We shared rotational responsibility for the company phone after office hours, alongside Schedulers/Dispatchers. Company phone  is for emergencies and dispatch-related work. 

Pros:
I truly enjoyed working with the team. They were helpful, supportive, and willing to answer questions.  Tasks could be delogated to them.


Cons:
-Crash course training. Minimal training and expected to learn on the job, often under pressure. Lack of clear policies and procedures.
- Management lacked effective leadership and often prioritized high-paying clients over employee support. Rules would be bent for them.
- Employees were sometimes expected to take responsibility for management’s errors and unpreparedness.
-Management was not actively engaged with the Charter team’s concerns and feedback.
- Certain individuals in management (not all) engaged in gossip about former employees, which created discomfort about how current employees might be treated after leaving the company.
- We did not receive benefits.  
- Company phone  duties were  not well-compensated. 


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