In Front Of The Yellow Line

By Shawn Wells

The Auxillary Instructor

     Whoa! Where'd Shawn go? Hey guys, I'm still around. But I needed to take a break from writing for awhile. I'll be honest, I got to a point where the job started wearing on me a bit. Grizzled me. I needed to regroup because I was struggling to push positivity into my messages. I took a breath and I'm back. The only problem with a long hiatus is that there's a lot to catch you up on. So, I present my first "historical blog." Lets rewind a couple of years...

July, 12, 2016

     So, I have a new job title. Don't worry, reader, I'm still a bus driver or Transit Operator if I want to sound pretentious. But now I can up the pretentiousness factor by stating that I am officially an "Auxillary Instructor". Pretty fancy sounding, right? It's kind of a promotion, but not really.

     When I say "job title" , I mean just that. Very little else has changed except that title. The fact is that for 99% of the time, my job description is exactly the same. Transit Operator. But that 1%... That sweet occasional shift... I become an Auxillary Instructor. But what, you may ask, IS an Auxillary Instructor?

     Basically, I'm the final step in a new hire's training process. That's right, I'm now part of the training department. An extended branch of it, but a part of it nonetheless. The people who grew up with me are probably terrified to know that I am considered qualified to be involved in such important decisions as to who is able to drive a bus in my city. 

     Ok... When I said I'm a branch of the training department, I might have embellished the importance. More like a twig. Basically, by the time the trainees get to me, they really should be ready. There should be no reason they've made it as far as my twig and not be officially hired.

      See, what happens with the training for our bus drivers is quite an involved process. Believe me, when you look at one of these people driving you around you should understand what it's taken to get there. Drivers have to have a clean driving abstract, take a road test and pass in a regular car (just because you have a clean abstract doesn't mean you can drive well), take a spin around the block in a bus, psych test, physical fitness test, map reading tests. And this is all during the interview process!

     Then they go into classroom training. They learn about and get certified on the use of air brakes. And then it's driver's education boot camp. There is a month worth of classroom and on road training ahead of them, but for now the focus is on the first week because by the end of it, the students need to have learned how to operate a bus (look back at my previous blogs to see the challenges of that), logged enough hours and take and pass a Class 3 driver's test. If they fail the first time, they get one more chance or they're removed from class and ineligible to reapply for 1 year. Many classes lose a person or 2 at this stage. (When I was in training, mine lost 4) Fun fact: yours truly got the maximum amount of demerits a person can get and still pass. But before you pass judgement and become terrified to see me driving your bus, 40/50 points taken off were for going too slow. I've sped up since then.

     So now, the students have gotten their new license. Time to learn about the policies, practices and procedures of our particular organization while also refining on road skills. A nice balance of classroom and on road practice (much like getting the license, they need a certain number of hours behind the wheel.) As their month comes to an end, the time has come to try some customers. There's always one day a month where all of a sudden there's extra buses on the road. The trainees are out there and just driving as regular routes to get the practice of stopping for and interacting with passengers. They've now worked their way through everything except keeping a proper schedule.

     This is where I come in. The Auxillary Instructor. The student now gets a week's worth of real world experience by driving my route for a day while I observe and report on the trainee. It's a day out of the seat, passing on my knowledge. I love it. The biggest reason? Nothing reinvigorates me more than to see a trainee struggle so much.  It really shows me how far I've come and how easy I find my job now, 

     There are of course different levels of student. The day 1 guys and the day 5 guys, with the obvious missing numbers in between. The trainees get different Auxiliary Instructors every day so they get to try different work at different time in different parts of the city. Each Auxiliary Instructor gets one trainee for one day per class. And not even that often. So, when I said that one "sweet occasional shift", it really is just one. There are a lot of twigs on this particular branch (a hundred and some) so the work is spread around. Making myself sound even less important now, eh? Anyway, back to the day 1/day 5 thing. You'd be impressed how far people come in that one week.

     See the thing is, the classroom instructors have to tell the students what HAS to be done. The OFFICIAL way of doing things. But in the real world, let's be honest... Some of the things taught just aren't practical. So, the day one guy comes straight out of the classroom, green as they come and you can tell it's going to be a long day. Frankly, I'm probably going to be getting an hour of overtime that day. (Actually, I don't think I've yet had a trainee that ended my day on time. This is 2019 Shawn talking.) Day one guys are definitely the most moldable. You give them tips and hints to save seconds on the road. Maybe demonstrate something. Every Auxilliary Instructor offers a unique perspective and stories. (I vividly remember a couple of my own that taught me tricks I use to this day.) The day one guys, although super slow and nervous usually show big improvements by the end of the day. They get the real shock of the real world of Transit. And you have to be big time alert with day one guys. The amount of wrong turns I've prevented, customers that almost get passed up, transfers that are set for the wrong time... Sometimes it feels like I'm doing the exact same job, just not from the driver's seat.

     But day 5 guys? Hell yeah! Give me a day 5 guy. They've already had 4 days to pick up tools of the trade. I can spend a day swapping stories. I can trust they know where they're going. Let down my guard and relax a bit. They've learned almost as much by being on the road for a week than they did in a month of classrooms.

     Now comes the part of my job where I get to sign off on the new hire so they graduate and fly off into the Transit world. I don't actually know how strong an impact my input actually has. I've never personally had a student I recommend as a no-hire. But oh, the feeling of power.

     But next time you feel annoyed at something your bus driver does, just think about how many steps and hurdles they've had to overcome to get in that seat. Including the final and most terrifying... Me. Bwahahaha! Beware my new job title!

     Maybe I should fail my next student just to see if this twig can build a wall.

From in front of the yellow line, that's how I see it.