(07 Sep 2022, 4:54 am)omnicity4659 wrote There's a number of factors that affect allocations, it's not just a case of plucking the correct bus out of the depot and putting it on the right route.

At the moment there's a severe shortage in parts affecting the whole automotive sector, meaning it is taking longer for them to arrive and will keep buses off the road for longer. Even I'm being affected by this, I have a vehicle on order that currently has a 52 week lead time due to parts shortages.

You also have to take into consideration about if the driver who has been allocated to the route has been type trained on the vehicle, if not then it has to be swapped.

With allocations initially being set by the engineering team, which is currently under acute pressure due to staff shortages and spiralling workloads, they may not have enough time to sort out the allocations on a morning.

It also depends on where buses are parked in the depot. If you have a bad day with disruption the previous night, then it's likely that buses won't be able to park in the correct place and your Tyne Valley Tens may be hidden behind a couple of Angels. This would usually be solved by the shunter/yardperson correcting them, however this goes back to staff shortages - it may be a fitter assuming that role instead, for example.

And then sometimes, engineering may want certain vehicles to be kept local after major work, or if they have a potential fault that won't be easy to recover on it's usual route.

I imagine that the ongoing security incident is having an impact on processes surrounding allocations at the moment too.

But I want my bus to have the right picture on the side! Anything less is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE!

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