Oh Man!!! more BS, from First Student of course!
Now we have to wear rubber spiky things on our boots or shoes for the winter, supposedly to stop us from slipping.
They are poor quality and break easily. Several drivers have already reported, lost spikes and broken rubber and we have had them only a couple weeks.
The tread on my own boots is better than this safety equipment, but this junk is now mandatory to be worn around the bus, and in the yards.
However because of the spikes and possible damage to floors, you cannot go into schools or offices with them on, so must remove them... this is a major hassle when they are cold and wet.
I would like to know how many are now are being forces to wear these rubber spiky things on you feet for the winter., and please share your opinion on the pros and cons of these things.
Maybe our branch is just over reacting to all of this, as most drivers in our branch are disgusted with most everything coming out these days.
Our branch has been reduced to nothing but a parking lot with a storage shed. No hydro to plug in buses, no plumbing, no nothing..
A run at my school was lost... sort of .... it actually got split between myself and another driver, more time, more distance but not enough distance to get more money.
I work an extra hour a day but get nothing for it, and this is the sort of thing that is going on around this company constantly.
WOW!!! what did First Student say when they first came here " don't worry things won't hardly change at all".... what a load of BS that was ... it sucks when you work for a nameless entity, no one is responsible for anything, complaints or problems just pass up the line to the nameless no-where, where policies are created without any actual thought to the process or to the people they effect.
Everyone knows that different areas have different needs or standards, and common sense is usually best, but.... Policy and procedure, are the catch phrases of a share holder run company, follow these rules, no matter how ridiculous they may be, or lose your job.
Man I think I need another coffee ... a strong one!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
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8 comments:
Today I "discovered" your blog and this is a great post. It raises a few questions in my ind: Where are you (somewhere that it gets cold in the winter, I gather)? Are you union or not? How can you 'work an hour extra' and not get paid; are you working on the clock? I worked for a school district in Ann Arbor, Michigan until June. They considered privatizing last year (and got a bid from First Student) but drivers and parents fought that pretty hard. Instead, they 'consolidated' our district's transportation department with several other school districts' under the county level school district. I lost my job at that point, because they wanted to get rid of troublemakers. But their making plenty of trouble for themselves, badly managing the whole thing. Please check out my blog and let me know what you think. Good luck with your efforts!
Hi Chai, glad you found us. We are located in Ontario Canada.
We get paid by the run, not by the hour, and the run is calculated by milage, so this year I drive a longer run but not getting enough milage to move up to the next pay level.
I did look at your blogs. The company you worked for really sucks, and they did a rotten thing to you and the others they laid off.
I wish you luck in your fight and hope you can succeed in getting your jobs back, but it dosen't look very hopeful to me.
Sue
Hi Sue
Good post. You tell it like it is. I worked for this company when it was Laidlaw. It was a good place to work but now that First Student has taken over it's a joke. They treat you like a dumb monkey and pay you peanuts. I had enough, told them what they could do with there job yesterday. I don't know about yours but drivers are dropping like flies at this branch. If anyone is looking for a job I would strongly advise them to take a pass on this company. In my opinion it's not a good place to work.
I've started training with First Student, I live in Kansas (USA). I'm so glad to have found your blog, it's informative, yet funny. We also have to wear the spikes - I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. Everyone here seems to like them (not to say that won't change). They do wear them in the office and into schools. So I'm not sure why they make you guys take them off there. =(
I have to agree with Anonymous. I've been "training" with FS since Jan. The place is a joke, it's March and I'm still training, not because I'm not catching on, or aren't willing to put in the time, but because they don't have time to train me (and 8 other people that were in my training class), yet they are short (supposedly) 10 drivers. There is never a schedule made until the day before, and I'm always on "standby". By the way training isn't paid, so I've been jacking around for the last 3 months at their mercy! I was told training would be 3 weeks. The safety manger doesn't know down from up, most incompetent company I've ever seen. I've worked in HR the last 10 years, and wanted out of cubical hell. Sadly, I'm rethinking my new career decision!
A Nonny Mous in Canada.
The whole discussion around the disgusting wages paid to school bus drivers is very simple really when you consider the following:
1. The Ontario School Bus Association is a consortium of student transport company owners who effectively operate a loose but actual monopoly. They set the so called "industry standards", which always favour their interests over those of their employees.
The local District School Board sets the manner, and value,which is paid to the provider for their services. This is set by a simple formula that applies to each route.
This formula when coupled to the time taken to drive the route allows us to calculate the Hourly rate of pay. The maths shows that on a short route the Hourly rate can be as high as Cdn. $13.00 per hour. On a longer route, or on a sliding scale which is the result of the School Board formula, this rate rapidly reduces to below Cdn $10.00 per hour.
School bus drivers must work in the only industry in the world where the harder you work and the more hours you put in your efforts are paid substantially less. This also begs the question as to why, if a short route is profitable to the provider at a higher rate of pay, the longer routes sould also be profitable at the same higher rate of pay.
Here again the answer is simple - gouging of the employee. The same argument applies to the varying, usually less than the route hourly rate of pay, rates paid for safety workshops, charter runs, extra field work etc.
It is in the interests of the owners to have a revolving door of employees as new workers who need the job badly enough are less likely to complain and would probably not support work action or disruption for fear of losing their jobs.
The present system is carefully orchestrated and controlled by the owners in their own self centred interests and there is very little employees can do to change their conditions of employment due to the OSBA consortium.
There is only one recourse to drivers - like it or leave it.
They may be mandatory, but this only means that they will not pay if you get injured. If you feel they are unsafe and your boots are safer, don't wear them! Or, do like I did and get your own, better shoe chains. YakTrax are good in loose and packed snow, but they also break somewhat easliy. I found another pair (forget the name tho, unfortunately) that work well in snow AND ice. I need them to snow blow my driveway, so I just wear them at work, too. Makes me feel more secure when the snow in the lot becomes glare ice.
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