(08 Nov 2022, 9:08 am)Bazza wrote Up there with the worst. 

In no particular order:

- high proportion of split weekly rest days
- not uncommon to finish after midnight on the day before a rest day, then start before 6am on the day after your one rest day
- start a set of shifts on a late and work down to finish the set on an early so that the hours off between shifts are always reducing 
- not unusual to have an early(ish) shift in the middle of a late week and likewise a lat(ish) shift in the middle of an early week.
- no consistency.  An early shift can start at anytime between  4am and 9am (depending on depot) and so you could start at any of those times on an early week, try getting into a sleep routine for a week with shifts that have such a varying start time. 
- stupidly long shifts ( yes they may be legal, doesn’t make them acceptable) offset with stupidly short shifts.  I sometimes drive people to work then take them home after there working day has finished. 

These are off the top of my head.   I’m sure other drivers on here could come up with a few more.

You are never going to please 100% of people 100% of the time but bus companies seem intent on pissing off 100% of drivers 100% of the time.

Add to this the current staff shortages, which mean it’s harder to get time off when you want it.  

I hope you noted there was no moaning about working weekends. I agree that bus drivers complaining about working weekends or indeed unsociable hours are probably in the wrong job.   I’m actually in the camp that bus services on Sunday and Public Holidays should be more extensive.  Just as certain routes on an evening should have better frequencies and there should be an extensive night service offered. 

It seems to me that the people who think shift workers are moaning for the sake of it, work 9-5 Monday to Friday. And you can bet managers (especially those in commercial departments) and schedulers aren’t working the shift patterns they seem to think are acceptable. 

To suggest that rather than improve the working conditions of current employees it is easier to just recruit, recruit, recruit is extremely disrespectful and speaks volumes of the management ethos embedded in the organisation.

There seems to be constant "we will look into these issues" not only from management but also the union. From memory, the last rota survey, they even used an external agency to sort the issue but nothing came of it.

Personally and as a previous manager (not within the bus industry) I don't see the logic in focusing on recruitment (and associated costs including adverts) rather than improving what's on offer at the moment. 

A lot of drivers also get annoyed that management don't do weekends/latest whereas a driver does. At our depot we have drivers on permanent latest and night bus duties too. 

I made a jump around a year ago where I dropped to term time only (taking a substantial hit on pay and conditions) but that has improved my work life balance which beforehand was non existent. 

As for holidays, Arriva when I was there and GNE both allocate holidays in blocks and drivers normally can't  choose when their holidays are (not great for family life). Obviously with so many drivers there are limited ways this can be managed but surely there must be a better way? I cannot comment on Stagecoach or smaller operators for holiday entitlement and how it works.