Anyone here familiar with driving a bus?

So my unit's sending me to go do a check ride on a school bus in the morning, and even though I've told my leadership that I don't have a passenger endorsement and I've never driven a bus in my life, they keep insisting I don't need to attend the full class prior to testing out to have it added to my military license, solely based on the fact that I hold a CDL, any CDL.

I respect the fact that a bus is a completely different story from a big truck, and I know I'm out of my depth here... but I have until the morning to learn enough not to wreck it during the check ride. So I'm humbly asking for help... if anyone here is familiar with handling a bus, be it motor coach or school bus, I'd greatly appreciate any advice and teachings you can offer. Looking to focus primarily on the differences in handling from a truck, and also the changes I need to make to my pretrip inspection (which they're also testing on tomorrow).

Thanks in advance!

 

Pre trip is mainly the same.
Verify all heaters function.
Verify all emergency exits function, and alarm sounds when opened (key must be in run or acc)
Make sure the door emergency release functions.

As for handling, need to square off your corners more, stick the nose out as far as you can and watch the inside mirror to ensure the inside drive tires don't ride the curb/lampost/pedestrian.

 

There is tail swing....

 

Yup, don't forget about the big a#$!

 

What he said. I say drive it like you stole it.
Seriously good luck.

 

most do

 

The ones that look like city buses with the flat face or the ones that look like moving trucks?
The truck based ones will be just like driving a box truck but with a longer tail.
The flat face transit type, remember that your steers are sitting behind you. You'll feel like you are pulling a lot further out into an intersection before you crank the wheel as opposed to a truck. (If you've ever driven a cabover or class A RV it's a lot like that) Also some of the fluid check points and other pretrip stuff may be hidden behind various access panels, especially on front engine buses with the grill in the front and the doghouse next to the driver's seat.
Relax, and remember there are literally thousands of AARP members with no trucking experience and random people who have never driven anything other than a Prius out there behind the wheel of RV's and rental trucks that are basically buses. You'll be fine, if you just study the pretrip.

ETA: There's some school bus specific knowledge and procedures as well. Mostly relates to procedures to keep passengers safe, how and when to use lights, the stop sign, and front crossing arm if equipped, how where and when to discharge passengers, what to to in an emergency, etc. Also, you must stop at all railroad crossings and I believe open the door to listen. But the "technical" part of driving like handling and maneuvering you should be fine.

 

@tarmadilo

 

thought yall didnt need anything

 

Not really sure what you mean by that... care to clarify?

Flat-face variety. They're your standard Bluebird 44-pax school bus