Switching Steering Wheels

I can't think of a better place to ask these questions than here on this forum. There are enough people that would have useful information to share.

I started out my most recent driving adventures last September (2013) when I started driving a school bus. Back in April of this year, I changed to driving motorcoaches for a charter company since I was about to lose my school bus job for a few months over summer break. Driving a school bus really didn't pay all that great anyway (around $1400 a month, 10 month out of the year). I don't mind driving motorcoach (anyone that thinks it is bad having to deal with a dispatcher has never had 50 people behind you complaining) but there are a few things that I have reservations about and wanted to see if it was the same in the trucking industry as well from the people that know it. If there are enough difference to favor one or the other then that will greatly influence what I do.

First off, our schedules are all over the place, and it can change day to day, or hour to hour. As an example, I will put my schedule from last week (what they called last week) below so you can see what I am talking about. We work at all hours of the day and night. Before anyone asks, everything on this schedule is legal as our 15-hour on-duty stops when we are off-duty. Technically, we could go for days and days without getting our 8-hour break and resetting our 15-hour on-duty time. (Passenger HOS rules are 10-hour driving, 15-hour on-duty, 8-hour off-duty to reset other clock (most coaches don't have sleeper berth for good reason, I can show you if you are curious), 70-hour weeks with no 34-hour restarts)

27JUN .::. 02:15 - 14:30
28JUN .::. 07:30 - 17:55
29JUN .::. 09:00 - 23:00
30JUN .::. Off
01JUL .::. 04:30 - 17:15
02JUL .::. 12:30 - 19:45
03JUL .::. 14:30 - Midnight
04JUL .::. Midnight - 01:30 & 10:30 - 18:00
05JUL .::. 11:30 - Midnight
06JUL .::. Midnight - 01:15
07JUL .::. Off
08JUL .::. TBD
09JUL .::. TBD
10JUL .::. 03:30 - 15:00

As you can see, there is no rhyme or reason to the schedule and we have no semblance of a routine that we can do. On top of that, most of this was local so I had an hour and a half commute getting home and back. Those nights get interesting when you go off-duty at 22:00, come back at 06:00, and have 1.5 hours of paperwork before you can leave and 3 hours of commuting.

Sometimes the trips themselves can be overwhelming. My first trip out was one of them. The first two of the three days was uneventful overall, but the third was a what have I gotten into kind of day. We got to the coaches, pretripped them, and started loading luggage at 07:00 and dropped them off at a theme park by 09:00. They were done there and started loading back up at 16:30, we stopped for a meal break from 18:00 to 19:00 and then dropped them back off at the school at 23:45. At 00:15, we start driving back to our lot and parked at 02:00, then came back in to do another run at 15:00. We had a lot of downtime that day, but the coaches were on standby as there was a chance of rain and we had to be ready to start loading passengers in 10 minutes, so we were sitting in a giant oven (enclosed box with glass sides) in the middle of a theme park parking lot surrounded by other buses trying to stay cool as we can't idle for more than 30 minutes. There was no way we could rest like that, especially with the group checking in every 30-45 minutes.

Now that you have made it through all my history, I have some questions. I wanted to give you an example of our day-to-day so you have something to compare to, which is why I went into so much detail.

First off, is the schedules as random as we have it? I know there is set appointments but you have some freedom between pick-up and delivery times where we are given to the minute schedules, god forbid someone takes too long at a rest stop. One thing I can think of for example is able to stop for a few minutes if you need to (even take a short power nap if you are getting really fatigued) where we can't do that.

Next, we don't have assigned equipment and can get assigned anything and even have to change in the middle of your run (I have had the shop bring a bus to me and make me move passengers to it and post-trip/pre-trip during the middle of my run). A lot of drivers don't check them over and just sign the DVIR, but there are a few like me that run out of space to write-up problems when I turn it in. Then our shop looks at them, says there is too much fit in with there no going to do anything schedule and just sign the book that it is fixed and the next driver just takes off with it. Another thing that we have a big problem with is people having "accidents" and not reporting them. Every coach actually has a laminated sheet we use for a walk-around that has pictures of all four sides with all damage marked, anything that isn't marked we take pictures and send it to the safety guy to "investigate" so we don't get blamed for causing the damage.

I know there is some variation from company to company, and have a short list of places I would apply to, but wanted to get a comparison to see if I would be in the same thing or if there are advantages to either. I'm sure other things will come up through replies and further thought on my part, but appreciate any insight that could be provided.

 

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4116546]Hi sfoe, 1st, I've got to say, I've always had the utmost respect for motor coach drivers. They are responsible for 40+ lives, and basically on their own. 2nd, most companies assign you a truck, and very little "slip seating", and while the schedule is unpredictable at times, it sure is better than a motor coach, pretty much, load and go with a truck. I'm not sure what you make, but I had thought of driving a coach, and was appalled to find out they wanted to start new drivers at $10/hour! I think as a coach driver, you would be accepted with open arms at any trucking company, because of what you do. While you may not make a heck of a lot right away, it's not unheard of for OTR drivers to make $50K/year or more. Best of luck to you.[/QUOTE]

I appreciate it, and a lot of people, even other professional drivers, will cut us off or treat us as we aren't doing the same thing. Our coaches weigh 56k lbs and have all the same thing as a truck (like air brakes) and we have more stuff on our license. You should see some of the looks we get at truck stops, especially when we take up a fuel island. Most of the time we have to wait for the last truck to leave as they pull out enough for another truck, but not enough for us since our fuel tank is closer to the back.

I don't want to get specific on pay, but I can give the pay range we have. If we are local where we can clock in and out at the office, we will make between $11 and $15 an hour for the entire day, driving or not. If we are out of town either at the beginning or end of the day, then they pay us day rate for every day we are on assignment and responsible for a company vehicle (coach or rental car). The day rate is somewhere between $115 and $145 per day.

As for rental cars, we have to take one of them, logging the hos in it, to another destination as a boost driver because a group on a long trip won't stop and we have to change drivers. I recently had a trip that was 26 hours for the passengers with three different drivers. We changed in Illinois and Arkansas on a bus going from Michigan to Texas.

The companies get away with paying lower rates as you will get tips from the group, supposedly. Only about half of my trips have given tips and only 4 or 5 were over $20.