On Sunday the Winter Timetables start. Which means a change of duties for us drivers. That means changes to the rota. Now I am on a middle rota, 12 Middles, which does not involve too many early or late starts. That is the theory anyway, during the summer, out of 20 duties spread over 4 weeks I had 5 early starts and 9 late finishes leaving 6 duties that were middle duties. Not desperately happy with that but summer is now over and the new rotas are better. Only two early starts and 3 late finishes. Big improvement. On the down side, I did have a Tuesday and Wednesday off together in week 3, that has been changed to Sunday and Wednesday, not so ecstatic about that. Two days off together is more relaxing than two separate days, you feel happier when you get back to work, more full of enthusiasm after two days away, more alert to the little problems we face on the road. Also I prefer days off in the week to weekends.
The really true test will come when we get to see the actual duties, How many school runs will there be (I prefer no school runs, I am not alone in this)? What percent of them will be on service 12A as against service 12, (I prefer service 12)? Will any of them have a 2 hour first half followed by 5 hrs 15 mins second half, (not nice)? How long will the meal breaks be, 30 mins is the minimum but 45 mins is better, no need to rush and if you are a couple of mins late you can still get the 30 minimum no problem. Management did offer us a 40 min unpaid break with an increase in the hourerly pay to make up the lost 3 hour 20 mins. This would have meant we would always have had a 40 min break and been paid if the break went over 40 mins. Now sometimes we get breaks as short as 32 mins. But the Union said NO! NO! NO!.................. They had a bee in their bonnet about unpaid breaks and once there it will buzz about for eternity.
To day the new duties should be out. They do start on Sunday so the should be ready by now, shouldn't they? Any way I shall go in 10 mins early today and hope they are there and I can see what the next 7 months will be like. Wish me luck!
4 comments:
7 MONTHS!!!! Our rosters and duties down here in Falmouth are changing on average once every three to four weeks, not minor changes but massive changes. At the moment we have only one long weekend in thirteen weeks and only two saturdays off in thirteen, one of them is included in the long weekend. It makes planning anything a real pain in the bottom. Amazing how management can cock things up and not give a stuff about it's staff.
Dear FirstbusdriverFalmouth - As a planner/scheduler with more than 30 years experience it sounds to me as if you're suffering from "County-Council-itis"...these are, in SOME cases, the b**stards that want us all to be re-regulated under County Council control, yet (a) generally know nothing whatever about what the majority of passengers want and (b)enjoy such privileged terms and conditions the rest of us would really envy and (c)change tendered bus services at short notice every two minutes (because of indecisiveness)whilst publicly blaming the evil bus companies that make it necessary...sorry if this sounds like a rant but honestly you really wouldn't believe the political bullsh*t behind a lot of what goes on...it makes most bus operators look like straight angels!
As a scheduer I can only say that an agreement which includes paid through breaks will ALWAYS ecourage the creation of SHORT breaks to minimise inefficiency...If you want longer breaks then you may well have to accept they'll be UNPAID (ie deducted, like most of us, even office workers)
I work for a transit district that mostly provides week day commute service. Consequently, it is fairly easy to get a Monday through Friday work schedule. On the other hand, we tend to have looonnngggg days because we have to cover the morning and the evening commute. I work out of the division that is furthest from San Francisco and some of our schedules are almost 4 hours long, one way. Most runs have some sort of partially paid break between morning and evening commute. The contract specifies that the first hour and 15 minutes of the break is unpaid. After that, there is a complicated formula that specifies what we are paid for the balance of the break. Before computers, the breaks were all one piece, fairly long and allowed drivers to take care of business between stretches of work. Unfortuately, almost none of the breaks are at the driver's home division. Many of us live in San Francisco, but sleep in the suburbs. That is, all of our business and errands take place in SF and then we go home at night to our houses. Now, with computers, they are finding ways to keep us busy at midday. Also they are now trying to claim that the unpaid hour and 15 minutes can be divided up to suit their purposes, so a driver might be at work for 14 hours, drive less than eight, but never have a break longer than an hour. All very complicated, and hard to explain, on balance still much much better than a "real" job.
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