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Driver testing US v. UK Thinking of training makes me realise how many differences there are between the US and the UK. UK PSV (Passenger Service Vehicle) driver training was much more centred around the driving experience that the potential driver is going to give his passengers. In the US, a trainee driver has to spend fourteen and half hours in the classroom learning all the rules and regulations, then pass a test before he can start on-the-road training. I now have a manual some three inches thick of rules & regs that I have to work through with these trainees. I realise that UK drivers now have a CPC (Certificate of Professional Competency) that they have to obtain. Since it is not applicable to me I'm not sure how much relevance the CPC has to safety, although talk amongst coach and bus drivers suggests it is a somewhat watered down In addition, school bus drivers (and possibly even regular bus drivers) have to pass an agility test every two years. This involves safety related tasks such as dragging 125lbs the length of the bus in 30 secs, lifting 56lbs from chest height to ground and back up again, being able to evacuate from the bus by means other than the regular front entrance. This is something that has never even been suggested in the UK. I can see the merits of this type of testing, but I suspect that it exists more as a 'cover my back' reaction by the legislators. I cannot think of a single instance where these sort of actions have been required of me in 38 years of service. On-the-road training MUST be a minimum of 20 hours, so when I came here with my experience I still had to do the 20 hrs. With a trainer charging $20 per hour that's a lot of money for a company - was I a better DRIVER after it, probably not, so that was money wasted as the trainer and I wasted fuel and time logging up the required hours. We have to have six and half hours refresher training every 24 months, and we have to attend regular First Aid and CPR classes, all of which makes sense to me. It's very easy after 30 - 40 years on the job to think you have experienced it all, but there is always something new just around the corner waiting to catch you out!!! So, is the US better than the UK, the UK better than the US, or is there something to be taken from both sides.

The gap with no postings. It's been a long time with no entries - two surgeries and a bag stuck to my stomach were the signs of cancer. Fortunately with good doctoring and care, everything has returned to a 'close to normal' state. The cancer has gone, the bag has gone, so life has much that is good to offer. Having got myself back to health, I have extended my work to become the new Driver Trainer for our school - certified by the State of Arizona no less. The lady who undertook all of the training has decided to retire and enjoy life (not that she didn't enjoy her work), and that left an opening which I hope I can adequately fill. This is going to extend the hours that I work outside my regular day, but it is a challenge that I hope will be rewarding. After close to 40 years in the business of transporting people (now across two continents), I think that I might have the 'odd' (very odd?) pearl of wisdom to share. My mind does go back to the earlier years when, first at London Country, then later at other companies, I was involved in training - in the one case I was supposed to be training new drivers how to operate a bus service (as opposed to actually driving). The problem with this was that the new drivers were trained on one vehicle type, and then had to go out in service with a totally different vehicle type. They had different characteristics, and indeed types of gearbox. The result was that passengers got a rather jerky ride. This WAS NOT the trainees fault, but it did mean that for the sake of everyone's comfort, they had to be taught how to drive this new vehicle. The new vehicles coming in were fitted with Leyland's hydrocyclic gearbox which didn't have a clutch pedal, but did have a gearstick about three inches long. The problem was that when you put the gear selector into neutral (ready for the next gear), the gearbox didn't go into neutral for a couple of seconds. By this time the driver had selected the next gear, so the system changed gear with a jerk and a bang, which caused general discomfort all around. The secret was to drive the bus out of gear, i.e. Hold the power on the accelerator for a couple of seconds AFTER selecting neutral, wait another couple of seconds, then select the next gear. Generally speaking, this gave a silky smooth gear change, and relaxed passengers. Most buses now are fully automatic which takes some of the art of smooth driving out of the driver's hands, and into the hands of (usually) a computer. Now this is the antithesis of the saying ' what you put into a computer is what you get out'. Even the gentlest, smoothest driver can give a rough jerky ride if the computer isn't co-operating.

Considerable time has gone by without a post - 10 months (a busy 10 months), during which time work has progressed on the house and land. However, we did manage to get away this summer with a trip to the East Coast. The following entry shows just a little of our journey through hell (it was 100 or more degrees), and high water (as many of our campgrounds were close to water - quite a novelty for folks from Arizona!!!

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The weather here is now changing drastically, with the day-time temps down into the mid-60's. As this follows some weeks of WELL above average temps for the time of year, this is welcome relief - although the locals are walking around all wrapped up, and shivering - they don't know what a winter is here! It does make it much easier doing all the work outside - and there's plenty to do. The land hasn't been mowed for at least ten years - so that's slow going with the mower running at max height, and slowest speed for the first pass.

The land has old fencing around three sides, which has to be renovated, and then the fourth side fenced from scratch. None of this is cheap - and isn't something that can be done too quickly.

Then I am looking forward to getting my shed, so that I can finally get all my tools out of the house and more readily available - and gain brownie points from the wife at the same time (fellas, you know what that is all about!).

But now is not the time to be sitting on a computer - work calls.

The end - and the beginning

Well, the house was moved on June 1st, and now, more than 4 months later, the contractor has finally finished his work. It's hard to believe that about 3 weeks work can take this long. Is this the end for us - no chance. Now we have to build a deck on this side of the house. We bought the deck way back in the spring with the expectation of building it during the summer. Oh well, perhaps we will collect the wood from the woodyard soon, and get on with the building work - so it's still going to look like a construction site around the house!

Apart from the house it has been quite busy subbing on the buses. There is one particular route that is a headache - largely because the regular driver doesn't bother to control the kids. It makes life very difficult when you only drive the bus one day a week, particularly when I expect good behaviour from any kids that I drive. A few days of verbal warnings didn't seem to do the trick, so I went for the write-ups to their principals. This seemed to have the desired effect - for the time being anyway. In this country it seems to be the norm to carry all ages of students on the buses (and I can understand why - but that's another story). Strangely, it's the young ones that are the biggest problem - they completely ignore the driver - but as I say, that is largely the fault of the regular driver.

A Home at LAST

Well, the house is in position, and the contractors have NEARLY finished - after 3 months, so they might manage to get all the shimming and trim finished sometime in the next month!!! Not bad for a job which should have been done and dusted in 3 weeks. The air conditioning has been connected up, so we can now live in the house, and start getting some order both inside and out. I have to say that whilst the work done by the concreting guy is really neat and tidy, he has to be the most untidy slob there ever was - his litter just left on the ground to blow around, the same with the empty cement sacks - not weighted down or thrown away. I guess we just have to bite the bullet and live with it!!!