If you want to hire a business major, you can get one for $50,000 a year easy because there are thousands of them. If you want a skilled truck driver or city bus driver, you better start asking at $150,000 per annum. Why? Because no one wants to do it!
Many ask this question, and we driver’s know who you are. Someone who has never driven for a living before. There are many negatives to being a driver, but not usually what you may think if all you’ve ever known is an office. In almost all respects, an office job is a superior job, unless you are like most drivers, and don’t work well with office politics. Indeed, the life of a driver does involve politics to some degree, but only in a larger sense like city government’s rules and regulations such as parking tickets or moving violations. If you work for the government, as a civil service employee, then the politics of parking and fee violation threat are somewhat reduced, as you are driving city property on city streets, and the police are your coworkers.
No, the life of a driver is one more like that of a writer: interest in the people who cross your path. Tour bus driver guide, shuttle driver, taxi driver, and even in delivery services, we get in get out, and have command of our own ship, so to speak.
We learn the art of understanding dispatchers and how to get a signature. We know what paths not to take during certain times, and secrets about how to cut delays. We have a many times thankless job, but we still have our own independence and ability to keep to ourselves when all is quiet.
There is no age limit on being a driver. Very few companies discriminate against us because they need us more than we need them. There are so many avenues of approach for a job, that our warm body behind the seat is very valuable. I see this every time I learn a new short cut from an experienced driver who can get me to a destination five minutes faster and three dollars cheaper by the road less traveled. That’s what makes San Francisco so intriguing. There are so many ways to get from A to B.
I could not understand why many experienced bus drivers were getting the cold shoulder or disinterest in seeking other jobs with the city. It’s because Human Resources knows we are of most value to the city by keeping our job. A job title or job class number may seem higher or like a promotion, but the fact of the matter is, our experience is our gold. Not being fazed by the crazies, or knowing how or when to write a report becomes a key that can’t be entered into an hourly rate. We drivers are a class unto ourselves. Only those who have driven a bus before us understand the how and why of our thinking, and have compassion for our split second decision-making that can appear incorrect from the black and white on a desk.
As long as our vision is clear and our hearing is good, we are good to go. With blood sugar and blood pressure in a normal range, we can continue in service as long as we shall live, so help us God. We can stay behind the wheel for as long as we shall live. And, of course, stay within the health guidelines setup to make sure we don’t lose attention by low blood sugar, lack of rest, or have cholesterol levels in an unhealthy range. Stress on our bodies over the years, then, is our final enemy.
And when I (finally) see I am this enemy of my worst self, lest I think I have a new trick to try to keep and love as my own, the trolleybus of happy (or crappy) destiny awaits us at any corner and on any track!
The Dao of Doug: A Bus Driver's Perspective 