(27 Mar 2014, 7:49 pm)Marcus wrote I think I'm not quite on the same page as you. The drivers are the same on all of the runs I've stated but I do think the vehicle is attached to the board number it does in the daytime for the whole day. The case otherwise would be that the Pronto Presidents come to Chester for maintenance and end up being press ganged onto scholars, so say 6021 might appear on the 884 in the morning but the 871 and 888 may end up with 3878 because it's gone back to Crook, am I right?
Vehicles are usually attached to the running board number - I'm not sure whether drivers are confined to these interworking patterns (i.e. have a long break in the middle of the dedicated scholar boards) or not (later go onto commercial work after doing a scholar).
The interworking patterns I gave earlier are on separate boards, so in theory the vehicle allocated to service 884 (am) should be allocated to services 871 (pm) and 888 (pm) - it should not then appear on service 887 (pm) instead, but I am aware that 'split shifts' exist, though. This means that if the bus returns to the depot for a long break in the middle, it can easily be replaced by another vehicle to perform the afternoon duty. It's unusual for this to happen with the boards which perform commercial work in between.
However, in the case of a branded vehicle appearing on the route (such as a "Pronto"), it is not unusual for the vehicle to be replaced by another to allow that vehicle to go back to Crook. Much like branded vehicles appearing on a service for which they are not branded for, engineers/allocators should look to replace the vehicle as soon as possible to allow it to go back to where it should be.