Bus driver shift patterns

[PTR 444]

Having spoken recently with my former work supervisor who is now a bus driver, I’m keen to delve further into how shifts are allocated for the role. I know that the job involves a lot of unsociable hours with weekend working, early starts, late finishes and split shifts the norm, but would be interested to know if there is any specific routine or structure to the role, for example:

• Do drivers tend to work a set of earlies one week, then mids the next and lates the week after, or are shifts allocated completely randomly?
• Is there a likely chance of a driver starting an early shift the day after finishing a late? If so, how often would this usually occur?
• For depots with limited or no evening/Sunday work, are the shift patterns more akin to a normal working week?
• In terms of the working week, is there a set pattern, albeit not in line with the usual weekday pattern (for example 4 days on then 2 days off and repeat)?
• In terms of holiday, is this allocated at even intervals throughout the year, and do any drivers get a period of 2 or more weeks off in a row?
• Are there any depots that let drivers choose when to take their annual leave?
• How far in advance do operators publish their driving rotas, and how far in advance would a driver generally be able to plan their life around work?
• Bus driving is generally considered to be a highly unsociable job, but are there drivers who manage to fit in social activities around their work, even if on an irregular basis?
• Can drivers earn more regular shift patterns and flexible working as a privilege for a certain number of years’ service?

I’d be interested to hear from some current bus drivers on this forum to find out what the rotas are like for different operators and depots, particularly in larger towns/cities with more evening and Sunday work.

 

[greenline712]

Blimey . . . you've opened a door there!! I suspect you'll get a huge number of replies, most of which will contradict each other! I was last a driver in the 1990s, then becoming a scheduler, but the basic principles will be much the same:

Rotas . . . generally drivers will work a week of lates and a week of earlies, with a week of middles or splits worked in as necessary. Some rotas work to a "block" system, whereby the same duty is worked all week (with variations at weekends); some work a different duty each day, which helps to balance earnings and driving hours.

Rest hours: domestic drivers hours state that a daily rest must be not less than 10 hours, although 8.5 hours is possible up to three times a week . . . so a 2200 finish can be followed by a 0630 start. However, most company rotas will work to 10 or even 12 hours between duties; any reduction only by agreement.

No Sunday / evening work: generally, duties will start around 0500 at the earliest and finish at around 2000 on lates (with specific variations depending on the work). If no Sunday work at all, then the rota will take account of this.

Working week: this will depend on the amount of Sunday work, but assuming a reasonable amount, then expect to work something like the following rota:
WEEK SAT SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI
1 R R W W W W W
2 W R R W W W W
3 W W W R R W W
4 W W W W W R R
and repeat. Note that every 4 weeks there is a long weekend of four consecutive days off. Note also that there are no "split" rest days . . . if there is no or very little Sunday work, then most (or all) weeks will have a Sunday rest day, with other rest days taken individually through the week.

If there is a low amount of Sunday work, then extra weeks (like week 1 above) would be inserted into the rota. Really and truly, there is no such thing as a standard rota . . . a scheduler will compile a rota based on work to be covered and local agreements (early before a long weekend, late after, for example). HOWEVER . . . if the week comprises four long duties, then the rota will look quite different!!

Holidays: are usually taken by allocation, often to a huge (maybe 20 year) rota, so that all drivers will have equal chance of a holiday at school times as each other. Depending on the company, a summer holiday could be taken in May-September, and would comprise 2 or 3 weeks, with additional weeks taken in January-April and October-December.
Some garages may permit drivers to choose holiday dates, but I'd say this was very rare indeed.

Rotas: are usually published 2-3 weeks in advance, and may stay in operation for many months. However, daily alterations may only appear 1-2 days in advance.

Unsocial?: maybe, although I always managed to have a decent life outside work . . . but then I wasn't someone who needed to be in the pub every night (and a driver REALLY shouldn't do that, anyway). You do have to accept (and so does your family) that it won't always be possible to attend every family event . . . but I had an understanding wife, who would attend such functions without me.

Special rosters: always possible, but should never be expected . . . for every driver that has a "cream" duty every day, another driver will be getting rubbish every day!

I'm going to be interested in how this thread develops . . .

 

[Flange Squeal]

An independent I have experience of do Mon-Sat daytime work only, operating hours of roughly 0600-1900. The roster is typically 4 days a week on a three week pattern, that repeats for however long the roster needs to be to cover all the duties (but obviously needs to be a multiple of three to make the pattern work). It’s simple to do as there are the same number of duties on a Saturday as there are Mon-Fri there. Shifts are typically around 10 hours paid so an average 40 hour week, although they might be either side of 12 hours from start to finish before unpaid breaks are removed. The pattern is (X marks working day):



So you work Mon-Thu, long weekend Fri-Tue, work Wed-Sat, Sun off, work Mon/Tue, off Wed/Thu, work Fri/Sat, off Sun…. Then repeat every three weeks.

So every three weeks your days off consist of a 5 day long weekend, a two day Wed/Thu off, and two single Sundays off.

 

[Roger1973]

In answer to all of the above, it depends.

The basic drivers hours law is not negotiable (although there are varying interpretations of some of the fuzzier bits of it)

Different operators have widely varying local conditions - and within one operator, different garages / depots may have different conditions (possibly because what's now one company has its roots in more than one historic operator, or because separate deals have been reached at different depots.) Or different 'custom and practice'. Or there may be different rotas at the same garage compiled on different principles - for example, some London operators have a basic 38 hour working week, but a few rotas (going on to them is voluntary) based on 42 - 45 hours a week for those who want to work longer hours on a regular basis but maybe without working a rest day. (This can work to everyone's advantage - there are some routes where, because of the length of a round trip and where the garage / relief point is, it's difficult to get duties out that come to 7 and a bit hours.)

The rota pattern that @greenline712 has illustrated is not uncommon in London where there's plenty of Sunday work, some operators don't do Sundays at all, so most weeks will be Sunday plus one other day off, with the chance of a 3 day weekend (Saturday rest day one week, Monday the next) coming round maybe every 6 weeks. Some operators have an agreement of 1 Sunday in 3 or 4.

The actual number of duties across the week often doesn't divide exactly by 5, so some duties will be left out as 'to cover' or 'to be covered' as rest days - these can often be Sundays. Historically, some operators didn't include Sundays on the rota at all, and they were all covered as rest day work - I think that's a rarity now.

Some drivers like rotas with the maximum number of 4 day weekends, but that comes at the price of is working 7 consecutive days twice in each 4 week cycle, so some rotas may not include either.

Where there's no evening / Sunday work, some operators have moved towards a pattern of 4 longer days a week (anything up to 10 hours' driving in a spreadover of 12 hours or so) so there can be rest days Friday to Tuesday inclusive fairly often, as @Flange Squeal said.

A very few operators do patterns like a 9 day fortnight - although that can get complicated when it comes to weekly pay and deciding what counts as a day's holiday and how many hours' pay you get for it.

At some operators the practice is to work the same duty for a working week (or the bit between two rest days), some operators it's tradition not to work the same duty two consecutive days. The tradition in London was that you would work the same Monday - Friday duty all week, and would only change duty after a rest day. This has tended to get more flexible in recent years, but maybe only as far as doing a different duty Thursday and Friday. (Although some routes have a different duty schedule on Friday because of how it feeds in to a night service which needs more night duties.)

Larger companies tend to allocate duties 2 - 3 weeks in advance, although in theory if you're on the rota you can see what to expect well in advance, so long as there isn't a schedule change before then.

Senior drivers having a regular shift is not unknown - I'm aware one or two operators offer this, or have offered it, but it tends to be a rarity. It's also not unknown for some drivers to be on a regular shift (or on a short rota that's similar shifts) by special agreement on medical / family care grounds.

How many rotas there are also depends. The London tradition (on buses, if not trams / trolleybuses) has always been one route, one rota (although as ever there have always been exceptions, as well as some odd duties on another route being included to balance out the weekend work.) Some places have a small number of large rotas, some have a lot of small rotas. The smallest of operators often work on each duty having a regular driver.

Rotas can be a strict hierarchy in terms of pay grades (post deregulation, there were often significant pay gaps between mini, midi and 'big' bus drivers although that's less common now that 'mini' buses have largely disappeared) or can be individuals' choice, although that often ends up as an informal hierarchy based on seniority, with some rotas having a long waiting list, so tending to be the most senior drivers.

In London, senior crews tended to end up on a relatively quiet suburban route (or if you go far enough back to when single deck buses were two-person operated, the single deck route/s tended to be 'the old mens rota') although the suburban routes gradually going OPO ended this.

As regards holidays, it tends to be allocated, but there's usually options to (try and) swap with colleagues - some people will want school holidays off, or time off round a particular religious holiday, others won't, or have a different religion. Some operators allow longer periods of leave in the winter - some offer the chance to bank a bit of holiday from one year, take a bit from the next year, and have a week or two of unpaid leave as 'overseas leave' every few years.

 

[MotCO]

One local bus company (really a coach company with a single bus M-F bus route) has the same driver working all week, every week, with presumably a coach driver covering annual leave.

I've often wondered how coach companies schedule drivers if they have a mix of tours, school buses, one-off hires etc. I've started a new thread for this. https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/coach-drivers-rotas.288829/

 

[asb]

With rotas, I've worked with some depots that alternate early and late/middle weeks, and others where the work tends to get earlier as the week progresses (so something like L M E E). I've also seen short turnarounds rostered from Saturday lates to Sunday earlies to protect Saturday nights out for the largest number of drivers.

 

[TheSel]

Just to add in to the mix, some of the larger companies have a number of drivers on three- or four- day a week rosters, which can make the job more appealing to those who, for whatever reason, wish to work fewer than 35/40 hours a week, or who may wish to work basically 4 x 10 hour days rather than 5 x 8 hour days. [and yes, I'm aware that this is an over-simplification of the actual hours worked in each shift, but the principle is still valid].

 

[greenline712]

And something else to throw into the mix ... "social" rotas!!
In London, on big routes with 20+ PVR, many garages have these rotas; where the drivers work permanent earlies; middles or lates.
In general, (example) a 14 line early rota will begat a 7 line middle rota and a 7 line late rota. In most cases, a "regular (ie traditional) rota" will also be available for those drivers who actually prefer such a rota.
It is possible to expand the concept to have "early" and "early early" rotas as well ... in many such instances, the preference of the drivers and the garage management will guide the rotas supplied.
Is this purely a London thing, or do operators outwith London also have them??

 

[Lewisham2221]

And something else to throw into the mix ... "social" rotas!!
In London, on big routes with 20+ PVR, many garages have these rotas; where the drivers work permanent earlies; middles or lates.
In general, (example) a 14 line early rota will begat a 7 line middle rota and a 7 line late rota. In most cases, a "regular (ie traditional) rota" will also be available for those drivers who actually prefer such a rota.
It is possible to expand the concept to have "early" and "early early" rotas as well ... in many such instances, the preference of the drivers and the garage management will guide the rotas supplied.
Is this purely a London thing, or do operators outwith London also have them??

Permanent late rotas (or middle/latest) certainly exist outside of London. Where I've worked, there's been no such thing as permanent early rotas - the waiting list to get on such a rota would've been ridiculous - although mutual swaps aren't uncommon.

 

[Roger1973]

Just to add in to the mix, some of the larger companies have a number of drivers on three- or four- day a week rosters, which can make the job more appealing to those who, for whatever reason, wish to work fewer than 35/40 hours a week, or who may wish to work basically 4 x 10 hour days rather than 5 x 8 hour days. [and yes, I'm aware that this is an over-simplification of the actual hours worked in each shift, but the principle is still valid].

Yes - I've encountered a 3 day week rota (largely a semi-retirement rota in practice)

And a few operator/s who have part time drivers who do a single spell duty in either morning or afternoon / evening peak, Monday to Friday (which cuts down the number of split / spreadover duties) - again can be a semi retirement thing, but can fit round child care or studying.

Weekend only drivers are a thing at some operators, and I think some operators have at least trialled evening only drivers (I have an idea one or two have tried recruiting students for this.)

And then (depending on operation) some operators have school term only drivers (often part time, and again in practice often a semi retirement thing) or university term only drivers - and others (mainly on the coast) take on summer season drivers.

The idea of flexible or part time working has taken a while to take hold in the industry, but it's gradually spreading.

Is this purely a London thing, or do operators outwith London also have them??

I'm aware of some others that do. I'm aware of operators with separate 'late' rotas, and the main rota/s don't do late shifts, then there can be 'early early' and 'middle' rotas outside London as well. In one case I know, the 'early early' rota started off to include driving the early morning staff bus/es, but expanded a bit so that some public services could start a bit earlier than before.

One difficulty in having a lot of small rotas is it can be harder to make it work if the local agreement has a rigid maximum for the rota average (working hours per week) - sometimes the trade-off for 'social' rotas is that the rota average week can go slightly over the agreed maximum.

And night shifts (where they exist) tend to be a separate rota, although if there's more night duties on Friday and Saturday than other nights, the rota may include the latest of the late shifts on other days of the week.

Night shifts were traditionally a separate rota in London (as ever, with some exceptions) and these also tended to attract senior drivers / crews who appreciated a regular week, and higher pay (traditionally, it wasn't a separate pay grade, but the whole duty got the 'unsocial hours' percentages added.) At one time it was (again with a few exceptions) a regular 6 day (or night) working week with Saturday night off, as most London 'nighters' didn't run Saturday nights until the early 80s.

others where the work tends to get earlier as the week progresses (so something like L M E E)

frankly, ugh. i've never encountered that.

what's the reasoning behind that?

doesn't strike me as good for avoiding excessive driver fatigue.

 

[greenline712]

In LCBS days, CY (Crawley) garage worked a LMSEE [late, middle, spreadover, early) pattern every week, complicated by there being only 4 Sunday duties in a 70-line all-in rota!! Split rest days, with effectively every Sunday as a rest day, made compiling the rota 'interesting'!. To be fair, lates were finished by about 2330, and there were only about 6 or 7 of them, so it was more of a MMSEE rota.
And yes ... ugh indeed!! I never understood why, but the Union was insistent .... nothing else would do!!

 

[Statto]

One thing schedulers don't want to do is put drivers on late shifts one week, were the driver finishes after 11pm, driver has a couple of rest days, then put them on early shifts, driver starts before 6am, drivers end up exhausted because of the extreme shift changes because the body is not used to the sleep pattens.

 

[asb]

Referring back to the comment on LMEE, as greenline712 said, it was a union thing, in fact they compiled the roster themselves. I think it was to maximise the time off for every rest day pair, and not just long weekends. It also shared the late work around a lot more, so you did 1 or 2 every week, rather than a batch of them.

 

[greenline712]

One thing schedulers don't want to do is put drivers on late shifts one week, were the driver finishes after 11pm, driver has a couple of rest days, then put them on early shifts, driver starts before 6am, drivers end up exhausted because of the extreme shift changes because the body is not used to the sleep pattens.

Quite right .... dead late, rest, rest, dead early is not good ... three sleeps in 48 hours!!
There are ways to mitigate this, though ... middle, rest, rest, early; or late, rest, rest, middle are two of them.
Sometimes, though, to maximise time off with an early, rest, rest, late sequence .... there has to be an early late, rest, rest, later early sequence!! It all comes down to what drivers reckon is more important for "their" lives.
I always told Union representatives they could (within reason) have whatever rota(s) they wanted .... the cost of the schedule was within the duties themselves.

 

[philthetube]

Yes - I've encountered a 3 day week rota (largely a semi-retirement rota in practice)

And a few operator/s who have part time drivers who do a single spell duty in either morning or afternoon / evening peak, Monday to Friday (which cuts down the number of split / spreadover duties) - again can be a semi retirement thing, but can fit round child care or studying.

Weekend only drivers are a thing at some operators, and I think some operators have at least trialled evening only drivers (I have an idea one or two have tried recruiting students for this.)

And then (depending on operation) some operators have school term only drivers (often part time, and again in practice often a semi retirement thing) or university term only drivers - and others (mainly on the coast) take on summer season drivers.

The idea of flexible or part time working has taken a while to take hold in the industry, but it's gradually spreading.




I'm aware of some others that do. I'm aware of operators with separate 'late' rotas, and the main rota/s don't do late shifts, then there can be 'early early' and 'middle' rotas outside London as well. In one case I know, the 'early early' rota started off to include driving the early morning staff bus/es, but expanded a bit so that some public services could start a bit earlier than before.

One difficulty in having a lot of small rotas is it can be harder to make it work if the local agreement has a rigid maximum for the rota average (working hours per week) - sometimes the trade-off for 'social' rotas is that the rota average week can go slightly over the agreed maximum.

And night shifts (where they exist) tend to be a separate rota, although if there's more night duties on Friday and Saturday than other nights, the rota may include the latest of the late shifts on other days of the week.

Night shifts were traditionally a separate rota in London (as ever, with some exceptions) and these also tended to attract senior drivers / crews who appreciated a regular week, and higher pay (traditionally, it wasn't a separate pay grade, but the whole duty got the 'unsocial hours' percentages added.) At one time it was (again with a few exceptions) a regular 6 day (or night) working week with Saturday night off, as most London 'nighters' didn't run Saturday nights until the early 80s.



frankly, ugh. i've never encountered that.

what's the reasoning behind that?

doesn't strike me as good for avoiding excessive driver fatigue.

I used to work this pattern, loved it, rest days following early shift and starting back after rest to a late, always 10.5 hours between shifts so it worked well for me.

The least fatiguing shift pattern I ever worked.

I couldn't cope with late, rest early, Just could not get my sleep pattern to work.

 

[nw1]

Years ago, so probably merely for historical interest: but I remember my local Alder Valley (post-privatisation) route in the late 80s (a 10-mile route on a generally hourly headway, with a return trip on the route around 55 mins so could in theory be worked with one vehicle) always had the same two drivers permanently. One of them was particularly friendly, the other slightly less so. Each seemed to do something like one week on, one week off, though maybe they also did other workings when they weren't doing my route.

The shift seemed quite a long one; it began at around 0900 and continued until around 1300, then an hour's break, then resumed around 1400 and continued to around 1830 but with a 45-min or so break within this time as there was a gap in the schedule around 1600 but the preceding journey required extra time for school-related reasons.

The round-trip around 1300 was covered by another driver and another vehicle, while the regular two drivers swapped vehicles a couple of times during the day (as journeys with school traffic needed double-deckers). One of these swaps was following the lunch break.

Presumably the rationale was to give passengers a pair of familiar drivers.
Not sure if this kind of practice is still common?

 

[Simon75]

Years ago, so probably merely for historical interest: but I remember my local Alder Valley (post-privatisation) route in the late 80s (a 10-mile route on a generally hourly headway, with a return trip on the route around 55 mins so could in theory be worked with one vehicle) always had the same two drivers permanently. One of them was particularly friendly, the other slightly less so. Each seemed to do something like one week on, one week off, though maybe they also did other workings when they weren't doing my route.

The shift seemed quite a long one; it began at around 0900 and continued until around 1300, then an hour's break, then resumed around 1400 and continued to around 1830 but with a 45-min or so break within this time as there was a gap in the schedule around 1600 but the preceding journey required extra time for school-related reasons.

The round-trip around 1300 was covered by another driver and another vehicle, while the regular two drivers swapped vehicles a couple of times during the day (as journeys with school traffic needed double-deckers). One of these swaps was following the lunch break.

Presumably the rationale was to give passengers a pair of familiar drivers.
Not sure if this kind of practice is still common?

Trentbarton have regular drivers on most routes i believe.
D&G have generally the same drives on the 94/94A/94B

 

[greenline712]

Years ago, so probably merely for historical interest: but I remember my local Alder Valley (post-privatisation) route in the late 80s (a 10-mile route on a generally hourly headway, with a return trip on the route around 55 mins so could in theory be worked with one vehicle) always had the same two drivers permanently. One of them was particularly friendly, the other slightly less so. Each seemed to do something like one week on, one week off, though maybe they also did other workings when they weren't doing my route.

The shift seemed quite a long one; it began at around 0900 and continued until around 1300, then an hour's break, then resumed around 1400 and continued to around 1830 but with a 45-min or so break within this time as there was a gap in the schedule around 1600 but the preceding journey required extra time for school-related reasons.

The round-trip around 1300 was covered by another driver and another vehicle, while the regular two drivers swapped vehicles a couple of times during the day (as journeys with school traffic needed double-deckers). One of these swaps was following the lunch break.

Presumably the rationale was to give passengers a pair of familiar drivers.
Not sure if this kind of practice is still common?

Not common, no . . . but it will still exist in places. I ran a town bus service like this around 10-15 years ago . . . every 30 minutes during the day with two buses, but one bus started at 0700 and finished at 1700; the other worked from 0930 to 1930. Two drivers working long duties, but with an hours break each (when the service became hourly for two periods). The drivers kept to their own bus and duty times, and both became almost part of the local community, and built the route up from not much to commercially viable in a year or so. In fact, when one of the drivers had an accident (not at work), we had to issue almost daily briefings to let his regular passengers know of his medical progress!!

If I could have bottled what they had, I'd be rich and famous!!

 

[Roger1973]

I used to work this pattern, loved it, rest days following early shift and starting back after rest to a late, always 10.5 hours between shifts so it worked well for me.

The least fatiguing shift pattern I ever worked.

Ultimately, there's no such thing as an 'ideal' rota, as everyone is different. Personally, I don't think I'd want to be in a position where work days were just get up - go to work - come home - go straight to bed and repeat, even if that did mean a bit more time on rest days.

There's always going to be some shortish rests somewhere, but in an age when the housing market means that an increasing number of drivers live some distance from their garage / depot (especially in london and the south east where it's by no means uncommon for bus drivers to do a car journey of an hour or more at each end of their shift) it doesn't sound a good idea.

Each seemed to do something like one week on, one week off, though maybe they also did other workings when they weren't doing my route.

I think it's unlikely that they would have got enough hours in during one week not to have any work the following week - would expect they did something else the other week, even if the agreement / pay arrangements then allowed more hours one week and one less hours the next. Having said that, I briefly worked with someone ex Alder Valley, and remember him saying something about one route that needed two drivers and they more or less sorted out between themselves what they did in practice, irrespective of what was 'on paper'.

Presumably the rationale was to give passengers a pair of familiar drivers.
Not sure if this kind of practice is still common?

Some operators like small rotas so that drivers stay on one route (or one group of routes), and the smallest operators may be more flexible in that.

Some of the smaller / shorter routes in London have a dedicated rota and presumably there must be some drivers who are happy with doing the same route every half hour every day. Conversely, I've known some places where there's an agreement that drivers aren't expected to do both halves of a duty on one short 'town service' type route.

It's all a bit swings and roundabouts. Drivers dedicated to particular routes allows drivers to build relationships with passengers, but there are potential down-sides. From a purely scheduling point of view, the most efficient duty schedule / rota will involve as many routes and duties as possible, and longer / shorter duties will balance out more evenly. Although that means if one route has a timetable change, it can drag every other route in to the schedule change.

And regular drivers can develop their own ways of doing things. I have known situations where a different driver has done a route because of holiday / sickness etc, and passengers have complained because the driver has done what it says on paper (in terms of route / stops) rather that what the regular driver does. Or they have done something unexpected like checking school-childrens' passes and charging a fare to the ones who don't have them, which can start upsetting parents, or cause questions to be asked when that driver pays more cash in than the regular driver...

 

[Whisky Papa]

In pre-deregulation Greater Manchester Transport days, the classic Manchester and Salford rota pattern was based on a four week pattern that covered within it one late and one early every day, a split Mon-Fri and a 'day duty' on Saturdays. Some garages (Northenden I recall) split up the late week so you weren't doing the same duty all week, but Princess Road retained the true pattern.

The attached image from Princess Road in June 1985 is of the last few weeks of what was then a 316 week rota - or link in railway parlance - which covered all regular day services. There were a few other short rotas - one did just split turns, one did only 0900-1700, one covered their share of the Centreline route, and there were two 'conventional' rotas ie with a conductor/conductress, one for all-night services and one for normal services for the remaining handful of crew who couldn't be forced to go OPO.

The rest days are shown in the column to the left. Additional sheets showing Saturday and Sunday duties were displayed alongside, but sadly I don't have any copies of these.

Key:
Gar = Princess Road Garage
Hitchens = the stop in Piccadilly near Market Street for Oldham Road services
OT = Old Trafford canteen
Parking Ground = also Old Trafford, just S of White City on the A56
Park 3 Bay = an area inside Princess Road garage where buses were brought off-service just to change drivers but were not considered as a 'proper' return to garage. Used to be used for 76/7, 123 and later for buses terminating at Chorlton.
PR = the stop on Princess Road outside the garage (in or out)
PX = Phoenix, near Manchester University, for services to/from Chorlton until the next rota change would replace it with running back to '3 Bay'

 

[43055]

Presumably the rationale was to give passengers a pair of familiar drivers.
Not sure if this kind of practice is still common?

Trentbarton have regular drivers on most routes i believe.
D&G have generally the same drives on the 94/94A/94B

Trentbarton do have regular drivers allocated to a or a group of routes. I believe they will try to allocate based on the route you live near to as well unless you have a preference.

 

[YX73OUB]

Trentbarton do have regular drivers allocated to a or a group of routes. I believe they will try to allocate based on the route you live near to as well unless you have a preference.

Not quite it's now really based on depot requirements - rather than choice.

You choose later by asking to go on a rota waiting list

Then there's as required rotas and spare rotas for those that prefer variety - this is what I used to do and enjoyed it.

It's only when you get into a role like allocating that you see the other side of rotas... then when you spend time in the commercial department with the scheduler that you see yet another side, too.

 

[Simon75]

Not quite it's now really based on depot requirements - rather than choice.

You choose later by asking to go on a rota waiting list

Then there's as required rotas and spare rotas for those that prefer variety - this is what I used to do and enjoyed it.

It's only when you get into a role like allocating that you see the other side of rotas... then when you spend time in the commercial department with the scheduler that you see yet another side, too.

Although I occasionally use 'Swift' doesn't the Ashbourne outstation has allocated drivers?

 

[RJ]

At my company, the shift pattern tends to be 3 hours on Monday - Thursday evenings then either an early or a late on Sunday. 36 hours guaranteed pay.

There’s also an ongoing shift between 2045 and 0515 on Thursday and Friday nights.

 

[YX73OUB]

Although I occasionally use 'Swift' doesn't the Ashbourne outstation has allocated drivers?

Yes obviously it depends on the depot requirements

Occasionally you'll see derby based depot drivers covering Ashbourne duties and these will be paid travelling time to accommodate

What's less likely (but not impossible) is Ashbourne based drivers covering derby duties (or Belper or Matlock as further examples)

 

[43055]

Not quite it's now really based on depot requirements - rather than choice.

You choose later by asking to go on a rota waiting list

Then there's as required rotas and spare rotas for those that prefer variety - this is what I used to do and enjoyed it.

It's only when you get into a role like allocating that you see the other side of rotas... then when you spend time in the commercial department with the scheduler that you see yet another side, too.

Thanks for your reply. I was just going off what I have seen at the recent try drive day and it sounded like your will be put on your local route or once you have been in a bit ask to move routes if you wish.

 

[YX73OUB]

Thanks for your reply. I was just going off what I have seen at the recent try drive day and it sounded like your will be put on your local route or once you have been in a bit ask to move routes if you wish.

It can be requested, don't get me wrong! But realistically and sadly it isn't always possible so you'll 9/10 join where the biggest rota gaps are and change from there.

What sometimes (not always don't get me wrong) happens is people's local route becomes perhaps boring or it might be a good route but the rota not so so it comes down to preferences, the depot requirements and experience!

 

[greenline712]

I worked with a driver in London who worked on Route 32 for over 30 years. This route departed Kilburn Park, turned left onto the Edgware Road, turned right into Edgware and terminated.
Every working day tor 30 years ... it would have driven me crackers!!! Frank loved it ... he said he always knew when he'd be home, and there were no surprises!!
It takes all sorts ....

 

[YX73OUB]

I worked with a driver in London who worked on Route 32 for over 30 years. This route departed Kilburn Park, turned left onto the Edgware Road, turned right into Edgware and terminated.
Every working day tor 30 years ... it would have driven me crackers!!! Frank loved it ... he said he always knew when he'd be home, and there were no surprises!!
It takes all sorts ....

Can't think of anything worse, unless it suited family life. I loved the life of a driver who got variety of routes, shift types and even going on loan to the other depots to help out.