Not sure where to post this so I'll make a new thread but something that's had me curious. If you're set on a board which is meant to be a minibus but instead it's ran by a full size bus, do you get the minibus wage as it's what it's rota'd for or do you get the full wage for that shift?

If so it's not exactly in the driver's best interest for the Solo's, which they don't like to drive anyway, to actually be on the road. I'm not suggesting they do it, but to break a bus and get a reward seems rather counter productive.

(02 Aug 2023, 10:52 pm)Storx wrote Not sure where to post this so I'll make a new thread but something that's had me curious. If you're set on a board which is meant to be a minibus but instead it's ran by a full size bus, do you get the minibus wage as it's what it's rota'd for or do you get the full wage for that shift?

If so it's not exactly in the driver's best interest for the Solo's, which they don't like to drive anyway, to actually be on the road. I'm not suggesting they do it, but to break a bus and get a reward seems rather counter productive.

So when I was at Arriva I did my training at Ashington even though I was working out of Durham. I was told at that time the minibus rotas were paid on the size of the vehicle e.g. an MPD on the 2 in Blyth (correct allocation at the time) was minibus rate but if you had a decker you got 'big bus rate.' Unsure if this is still the case as going back about 6/7 years now. I think this only applied to the Northumbria division too as Durham didn't have that rule.

(02 Aug 2023, 10:52 pm)Storx wrote Not sure where to post this so I'll make a new thread but something that's had me curious. If you're set on a board which is meant to be a minibus but instead it's ran by a full size bus, do you get the minibus wage as it's what it's rota'd for or do you get the full wage for that shift?

If so it's not exactly in the driver's best interest for the Solo's, which they don't like to drive anyway, to actually be on the road. I'm not suggesting they do it, but to break a bus and get a reward seems rather counter productive.

Just to confirm what morritt89 has said, this is still the case as far as I know. 

I believe how it works is that for the portion of the shift that a conventional vehicle is driven, the driver will be paid conventional driving rate for that section. The thing is, majority of drivers on the minibus rota will simply be the newest drivers at the company, so the difference between their rate on minibus and the starting conventional rate isn't huge - and almost definitely not in their thinking when a potential issue comes up, because for all they know another minibus could be sent to replace it. 

I'd imagine also, that if drivers are found to be routinely refusing to drive buses which engineering find to then be perfectly serviceable, that there'd likely be disciplinary action taken.

Midibus driver driving a midibus = Midibus rate
Midibus driver driving a conventional bus = Conventional rate
Conventional driver driving a midibus = Conventional rate

That is how it works. No such arrangement south of the Tyne, as all of those depots are on a standard pay scale based on length of service.

Thanks answered my question was curious how it worked.

One last question as I'm also curious what's the break point for midibus / conventional.

For example hypothetically could they get a bunch of 10.8m Enviro 200 MMC's and downgrade the rotas for all new starters to save money. I believe the capacity difference is only 6 people anyway 40 vs 46.

(10.8m being the longest length for a SB120 which is definitely a midibus on paper at least).

(03 Aug 2023, 11:59 am)Storx wrote Thanks answered my question was curious how it worked.

One last question as I'm also curious what's the break point for midibus / conventional.

For example hypothetically could they get a bunch of 10.8m Enviro 200 MMC's and downgrade the rotas for all new starters to save money. I believe the capacity difference is only 6 people anyway 40 vs 46.

(10.8m being the longest length for a SB120 which is definitely a midibus on paper at least).

31 passenger seats or less, acquires Midibus rate. Anything bigger is conventional.

(03 Aug 2023, 2:18 pm)RobinHood wrote 31 passenger seats or less, acquires Midibus rate. Anything bigger is conventional.

Thanks for that, had a feeling it might've been a lower number than the government midibus number which I believe is 40 off the top of my head.

When MetroRider 937 (L700BUS) came to Ashington, that caused some issues due to it having 32 seats instead of the normal 31, it had a single side seat at the front in place of the luggage rack.

The single side seat can be seen in this photo with the light reflecting off the metal handrail at the top of it. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photogenic/6427452667

(04 Aug 2023, 11:11 pm)Rapidsnap wrote When MetroRider 937 (L700BUS) came to Ashington, that caused some issues due to it having 32 seats instead of the normal 31, it had a single side seat at the front in place of the luggage rack.

The single side seat can be seen in this photo with the light reflecting off the metal handrail at the top of it. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photogenic/6427452667

Yeah could see how that would be a problem. It's kind of answered something I never understood why they done with the bizarre single seat and the luggage rack on the current ones which neither really have any purpose but it's to keep the number down otherwise they'd be 33 seats which I believe is the standard seating

Was no room for them to put a double seat facing forward, the luggage pen in this location was very narrow.

(05 Aug 2023, 4:19 pm)Rapidsnap wrote Was no room for them to put a double seat facing forward, the luggage pen in this location was very narrow.

Apologies, I meant on the current Solo's. Generally the layout is usually 2 at the front left (Arriva's are a single seat) and then a single seat on the right where they have a tiny unused luggage bay. Obviously those 2 seats would cause bother with Ashington and, no doubt, other areas aswell.