More Fun on the Coaches

Sunday was a normal day, that is I took a group of guests home to the West Midlands and stayed the night in a hotel next to Walsall football ground. Next morning was slightly trickier in that instead of picking up locally I was up at 4:45 and away from the hotel at 5:15 heading for Wigston 40 miles away in Leicester. Here two people were waiting for me. I was lucky to get there as the satnav provided by the company suddenly decided to send me back to where I had come from and I got lost in South Leicester. As I sat in the coach wondering if I should switch the engine off and walk away the satnav began to work again. Following the direction on a satnav can bring it's own problems. Today's problem was a railway bridge with a 2 Tonne limit. I am not exactly sure what the coach does weight but I have a strong feeling it is more than 2 tonnes. From Wigston to Leicester to pick 3 people up and then Hinckley for two more. Then fallowed a mad dash along the A5, the M42 and the M6 back to Wednesbury for 9 o'clock. So far so good. At Wednesbury an other driver was going to drive the coach down to Torquay. We should have left at 9:15 but finally manager to get going at 9:45 arriving at the next pick up point 10 minutes late. We left 35 minutes late, God knows how getting 10 people and their cases onto a coach can take so long but some people obviously practice their skills to the highest degree.

Long experience of motorway driving have taught me that when you see those overhead lights flashing nastily telling you there are long delays ahead you done not leave the motorway, the side roads you are heading for just can not take the volume of traffic and if you are going to sit in as traffic jam you may as well do it on the motorway. My driver saw the flashing sign and was off the M5 and into hell before I could say NO!, 45 minutes, 5 miles and shattered nerves later we rejoined a free flowing motorway. Eventually at 3 pm we go down to Torquay where we quickly unloaded the coach then loaded it again with those going home and I headed north arriving back at the hotel in Walsall at 8pm, 14 and three quarter hours after I had left it that morning. Not better than bus driving.

Cabbie, was a taxi driver once and have been there, you could try going up to the depot in Regent Close and asking for an application form. I am not sure if the training school in Exeter is excepting new recruits at the moment. Worth a try.

Some of the Crazy Things Coach Drivers Get To Do That Bus Drivers Don’t.

Normally I work on a Monday, usually up to Gordano services and back but last Monday a driver was down from the Midland depot for a few days to give me a rest. I had been working hard recently. He was bringing a coach load of people down from the Walsall area for a few days holiday here in beautiful Torquay. But the coach made it as far as Frankley services and refused to start. The fitter came out and got it going but then turned the engine off just to make sure it would start again. It didn’t. So he crawled back into the engine compartment and crossed a few wires while the passengers crossed their fingers. It started but needed some leisure time in the Garage in Tipton. So it was decided to ring me and get me to drive the spare coach that was parked at the hotel up to Gordano and get the passengers down to Torquay while the sick coach went back to the W.Midlands for repairs and recuperation. I got the phone call at 12:09 and was requested to get to Gordano as fast as legally possible. I was just on my way out to the pub, an hour and two pints later and we would have been in big trouble. At 2:30 I pulled into Gordano and loaded 40 passengers and their cases and headed to Torquay. Job well done. Not quite.
The coach that came down to Torquay went back on Tuesday with the intention of bringing some passengers back on Thursday. However the coach was enjoying sitting in the garage so much it refused to start. Fortunately there weren’t too many passengers heading for Torquay and it was possible to bring them in one of our luxury minibuses. There was a problem, there always is. First there were 26 guests wanting to go to the Theatre on Thursday night (two trips for the minibus). The second problem was bigger. Forty guests were expecting to go home on a coach on Friday morning and there wasn’t a coach in Torquay, it was in the garage in Tipton, W. Midlands. I would have to go up and get it using the minibus, but remember what the minibus was doing Thursday evening. That’s right, going to the theatre and back, twice. So at 11:30 Thursday night I set off and got back at 7:20 the next morning. A shower, shave, tooth brush and breakfast and we set of for Gordano, me asleep on the back seat and someone else driving. A coach came down to meet us laden with 45 passenger and I drove them to Torquay and I got back at 2:00 and went home for a sleep.
Bus drivers don’t have that much fun, I’ll bet.