Diamond West Midlands - Tividale

[j789]

Even if diamond wages were slightly lower than nx wages I'd rather work for diamond given the type of customer diamond carries compared to nx and the routes it operates too. I'm sure most diamond drivers would agree with this.

A nice mellor working around Wednesbury or a horrible Dudley road corridor with non stop traffic and abusive passengers 🤔

Yeah but give it 2 weeks of doing that same route everyday with 3 passengers an hour on and you'll realise how mind numbingly boring that actually is.

Obviously suits some people doing that who don't want the hassle of lots of passengers, but the day and shift goes far faster if you are busy. And also, maybe 1 in every 500 passengers will be really problematic so it's not as bad as you make out.

Non-drivers/passengers never really understand this, you make one or two trips a day - if you see something bad happen then suddenly that must be the reality of every trip when of course it is not. And likewise, you say driving those minibuses round estates would be easy and trouble free? I guarantee those drivers get plenty of grief from car drivers who no doubt drive or park irresponsibly on said estates. 

I hope you do get to do the job one day, if you get through a couple of years you'll do it for life!

[metrocity]

Yeah but give it 2 weeks of doing that same route everyday with 3 passengers an hour on and you'll realise how mind numbingly boring that actually is.

Obviously suits some people doing that who don't want the hassle of lots of passengers, but the day and shift goes far faster if you are busy. And also, maybe 1 in every 500 passengers will be really problematic so it's not as bad as you make out.

Non-drivers/passengers never really understand this, you make one or two trips a day - if you see something bad happen then suddenly that must be the reality of every trip when of course it is not. And likewise, you say driving those minibuses round estates would be easy and trouble free? I guarantee those drivers get plenty of grief from car drivers who no doubt drive or park irresponsibly on said estates.

I hope you do get to do the job one day, if you get through a couple of years you'll do it for life!

1 in 500? In Worcester perhaps !

[MW]

Yeah because going up and down *insert trunk road here* isn't boring at all...

Talking rubbish as usual.

[j789]

Yeah because going up and down *insert trunk road here* isn't boring at all...

Talking rubbish as usual.

Rubbish? As usual no thought goes into your response at all. Just vitriol.

Said 'trunk road' route will see you interacting with probably 400-500 passengers on an average shift. You are busy, pretty much non-stop, the shift time (seems to) go far quicker than when you are driving routes seeing maybe 15-20 passengers an hour. It's common sense that time drags when you're not busy!

Worcester is no comparison to the West Mids obviously but having worked at other garages (like I do now!), including Sheffield, over a long period, what I am saying is true.

Driving round the posh suburbs of Solihull with few passengers on may be a great life achievement for you and full of personal fulfilment but to me it's bloody boring. I've done plenty of shifts in my driving time on tendered routes, where seeing hardly any passengers makes it so tedious. 

Fine if that appeals to you but I can't think of anything more boring than doing that for another 20 years (or until your company loses the contract at the next round of tenders and you end up back at Diamond driving these same routes!)

[Tony]

You wouldn't hack being a nx driver

Or Diamond?

[hlliwmai]

You wouldn't hack being a nx driver

Well you'd certainly put passengers straight on 4H @karl724223 plenty of people think it's a free for all on that route 

[Trident 4194]

Rubbish? As usual no thought goes into your response at all. Just vitriol.

Said 'trunk road' route will see you interacting with probably 400-500 passengers on an average shift. You are busy, pretty much non-stop, the shift time (seems to) go far quicker than when you are driving routes seeing maybe 15-20 passengers an hour. It's common sense that time drags when you're not busy!

Worcester is no comparison to the West Mids obviously but having worked at other garages (like I do now!), including Sheffield, over a long period, what I am saying is true.

Driving round the posh suburbs of Solihull with few passengers on may be a great life achievement for you and full of personal fulfilment but to me it's bloody boring. I've done plenty of shifts in my driving time on tendered routes, where seeing hardly any passengers makes it so tedious.

Fine if that appeals to you but I can't think of anything more boring than doing that for another 20 years (or until your company loses the contract at the next round of tenders and you end up back at Diamond driving these same routes!)

How much more stressful is it though? You end up coming off late to break you get abusive customers health and safety becomes a hazard. So you're telling me that you'd rather drive the 11A/11C (notorious for late running, antisocial behaviour) than a tendered diamond route such as the 142/142A. I've noticed one of PN best and most politest drivers is now driving the 142/142A. Interesting maybe he had enough of the rude passengers in Birmingham

[j789]

How much more stressful is it though? You end up coming off late to break you get abusive customers health and safety becomes a hazard. So you're telling me that you'd rather drive the 11A/11C (notorious for late running, antisocial behaviour) than a tendered diamond route such as the 142/142A. I've noticed one of PN best and most politest drivers is now driving the 142/142A. Interesting maybe he had enough of the rude passengers in Birmingham

Yes of course it can be stressful and there certainly are easier ways to earn a living but there are lots of benefits if you don't take things personally. Do the job, enjoy the nice passengers (of who there are many), don't let the odd t*** get you down, if you're late, you're late (not a reason to get stressed - unless you're the only bus running on a tendered route of course!!!), go home, end of!

I've given my reasons for preferring busier routes. I do get your point about things like the 142 but what you have to remember is that would be lovely doing that as a one off, or even maybe once every fortnight. However, the thought of doing those sort of routes day in day out would be so boring and tedious. The positives of having few passengers would wear thin very quickly and after a couple of weeks doing that I'd be absolutely done with driving. Each to their own though.

Another point is that those routes like the 142 have predominantly regular passengers that you WILL pretty much see every time you drive. No problem of course if you don't have any issues with them, but very much a problem if you do encounter a problem with one of them. You can't escape seeing them. Busier routes may have more of these antisocial type of passenger but you have a much lower chance of encountering that same person regularly on that busier service when there are 20 buses on the route compared to the 1/2 buses on a tendered route.

[hlliwmai]

I noticed 30926 on the 31 earlier in Bloxwich has had it's 31/32 branding removed I have noticed they have started removing branding off buses in the last few months I can only assume 30926 has been done as there's possibly a PVR reduction on the 31/32? I don't know I'm just guessing 

[winston]

I noticed 30926 on the 31 earlier in Bloxwich has had it's 31/32 branding removed I have noticed they have started removing branding off buses in the last few months I can only assume 30926 has been done as there's possibly a PVR reduction on the 31/32? I don't know I'm just guessing

30926 isn't Euro 6, which all buses operating within TfWM area will need to be by 1st May. 

[hlliwmai]

30926 isn't Euro 6, which all buses operating within TfWM area will need to be by 1st May.

Oh yeah I forgot about that coming into force so I assume this means that the remaining branded Volvo's and Streetlites (30169 & 30170) on the 31/32 and the 42 branded Volvo's will have branding removed in due course 

[winston]

Oh yeah I forgot about that coming into force so I assume this means that the remaining branded Volvo's and Streetlites (30169 & 30170) on the 31/32 and the 42 branded Volvo's will have branding removed in due course

I've since learnt that the 42/43 branding is being removed & will be replaced with updated branding with correct frequencies / destinations etc. Not sure if that also includes the 31/32 & 40 branding which have original now incorrect frequencies too. 

Also a quantity of the newer Volvo B7RLE will now be retrofitted to Euro 6 in due course. 

Not sure of the status of Streetlites 30169/70, as they're not Euro 6 & not currently expected to be upgraded to Euro 6. 

[Rachvince53]

Could they move to Diamond East Midlands where Euro 6 isn't yet required?

[winston]

Could they move to Diamond East Midlands where Euro 6 isn't yet required?

I assume some Tividale buses will move to Burton, my money would be on Versa's 30968-70 to join 30967. Burton doesn't currently have any Streetlites. 

I'd imagine Redditch or Kidderminster would be more likely for older Streetlites. 

[hlliwmai]

I assume some Tividale buses will move to Burton, my money would be on Versa's 30968-70 to join 30967. Burton doesn't currently have any Streetlites.

I'd imagine Redditch or Kidderminster would be more likely for older Streetlites.

I had heard that Redditch Streetlites (30165-68) and (32212-19) are transferring to Tividale at some point as I think *some* of those are actually Euro 6 so it would make sense if that were the case