(07 Mar 2015, 11:29 pm)DaveyBowyer wrote Dan, I'm not picking at any drivers here and this is only a small minority but do you notice some a VERY SMALL number of drivers who drive very slowly and I don't mean by sticking to the speed limit and driving to to conditions, I mean doing 20 in a 30 and doing 40 on a 50+ dual carriageway. Here's my instances:
- 7524 on the X22 from Brunton Pk to Newcastle due turned up 5 mins late and ended up getting into Haymarket just before 15:55 when he was supposed to be heading back out to Newbiggin as service X21. Driver was driving very slowly to the lights after blue house then floored it from there.
- 7608 on the 308 turned up 5 minutes late and ended up arriving at Haymarket by 07:15 9 minutes late having been overtaken by the following 306, 309 and even the 310 which was due in at 07:15. Bus wasn't busy at all. Driver never got above 30 on the Coast Road.
- Several instances on the 43 and 1 driver never or very rarely got above 20 on a journey that normally runs on time. Same driver was ahead on a preceeding 45 a few weeks later and we followed him all the way to Wideopen behind on the 43.
I know GNE don't tolerate it (road, vehicle, statutory, high loads, operational and conditions permitting) and I've heard that if any drivers are found, they get sent to CLS for training. I don't know what stance Arriva take but unless them six conditions in the brackets above are preventing the service running to time, there's no excuse particularly driving deliberately slowly and it should be nipped in the bud. Even saw several complaints on FB about this issue.
Used to be a massive problem 10-15 years ago, but it shouldn't be a problem at all now, with the introduction of AVL. I don't know if the system works it out automatically, but it'd be easy enough to work out based on distance travelled between two points.