Abandoned Greyhound bus

[Nooby]

Greyhound Canada has one of the worst customer service models I've ever encountered. News update this morning says the driver was fired (rightly so) - in my opinion the company president/CEO is the one who needs to go. Unfortunately there is no real competition in this country and thousands of people rely on them for transportation.

Note - I've luckily never had a problem with a driver/actual trip, but try to get help on the phone for ticketing issues and the like? Good luck - even if you can get someone you can actually understand, they have no idea how to help. I usually give a company the benefit of the doubt if this happens once, but with them it's consistently bad (in my experience, anyway).

[LoneWolf_53]

Greyhound Canada has one of the worst customer service models I've ever encountered. News update this morning says the driver was fired (rightly so) - in my opinion the company president/CEO is the one who needs to go. Unfortunately there is no real competition in this country and thousands of people rely on them for transportation.

I figured that would be the outcome, but I do have to wonder if they'd have done the same if this hadn't made the front page news?

I think you are quite right in that this company more or less does what it wants as it has no competitors in this type of travel.

I have had bad experiences with their package delivery service as well, and found their attitude to be rather indifferent when confronted with an issue.

Time for some sort of watchdog for these guys.

[Fancy]

However, their trip took a turn toward the bizarre when the driver of the bus stopped at a gas station in Revelstoke at 4:40 a.m.
Watt says that’s when the driver decided to call it quits.
“He leaves the door of the coach open, the bus running and he disappears,” Watt said. “Nobody knows what’s going on.”
Watt says the driver’s parting words were few.
“The reason he said he was leaving was that he logged so many hours in, which is understandable, but he just took off,” Watt said.
“I asked the driver, ‘Can you take us to Tim Horton’s or someplace warm so we can be safe?’ He said ‘No, I can’t drive anymore’,” Watt said.
The gas station in Revelstoke is a routine stop for Greyhound but the agent’s office does not open until 7 a.m.
When the office did open, however, there were no answers about why the bus and its passengers had been abandoned.
“The agent from Greyhound showed up. She didn’t know what was going on,” Watt said.
A relief driver finally showed up at 9 a.m., more than four hours after the first driver parked his bus and walked away.

Read it on Global News: Global BC | Greyhound bus passengers abandoned by driver

I doubt even a cell phone would help in getting help at 5 in the morning. I wonder if there is an emergency number posted on the office doors.

Under the Passenger Transportation Act, Greyhound as a licensee must retain care and control of commercial passenger vehicles operated under its licence.
Licensees are expected to abide by the Act and regulations, and if there is a violation, the ministry works with the company to ensure it performs within the expectations of its license.

Read it on Global News: Global BC | B.C. Ministry officials respond to abandoned bus incident

I wonder if this particular driver thinks rules were made to be broken.

[theyeti]

well good he deserved to get fired obviously he didnt care much for his job or his passengers under his care anyhow

[simnut]

One off or not, it defies logic, and common sense, to abandon a 200K vehicle loaded with strangers, with the keys in the ignition.

Talk about a liability nightmare had something happened.

Thats a pretty "cheap" bus......try tripling that number! And, just for your info, these coaches don't have keys....

[Piecemaker]

And I'm guessing the driver would say there's a law saying that he can't be in care and control of a bus if he has gone a certain number of hours without sleep!


No, he should not have abandoned the bus...unless he was being carted off to the ER! He could have taken the passengers to some place that was open 24 hours and taken over the front seat to doze. Would there not be a protocol/policy in place for bus drivers to follow in situations like this? This can't be the very first time a relief driver was delayed.

[Fancy]

The driver is not allowed to leave the bus unattended.

[LoneWolf_53]

Thats a pretty "cheap" bus......try tripling that number!

Greyhound uses a variety of buses in their fleet, so without knowing which model it was, your guess is as good as mine.

Wasn't a G4500, so a Prevost, or some lesser model?

This was a bus, not a luxury coach.

[MAPearce]

How does one close the door of a greyhound bus?

On the MCI model of bus , there's a switch.

It says "DOOR"..On a Prevost ,a Canadian built coach , it may say "PORTE"..

[simnut]

Greyhound uses a variety of buses in their fleet, so without knowing which model it was, your guess is as good as mine.

Wasn't a G4500, so a Prevost, or some lesser model?

This was a bus, not a luxury coach.

Well, let's put it this way...the Dart transit buses still being used in BC are valued at 250,000...or there abouts. A Greyhound "bus" is worth considerably more......my guess.....

[LoneWolf_53]

Well, let's put it this way...the Dart transit buses still being used in BC are valued at 250,000...or there abouts. A Greyhound "bus" is worth considerably more......my guess.....

Well I didn't know for sure so to get a rough figure I googled, and that gave me this... http://www.nwbus.com/products/product_v ... 0145699304

That's an RV model and a plain passenger bus is less money, plus Greyhound's buses aren't all new so it seemed like a reasonable figure.

[SurplusElect]

My friend signed up to be a Greyhound driver. He quit before the training was over.

The pay is ridiculously low (you start at 17 a hour) and you are responsible for 20-50 peoples lives driving through snowy mountain passes in older poorly maintained vehicles. My friend would get electrocuted by touching some of the switches on the console of the bus.

You don't get overtime and are constantly having to do all sorts of "free work", loading/unloading, waiting for late drivers to show up and dealing with the worst type of travelers. Assaults are common.

The turnover rate is very high as you would imagine. I would imagine the company is more at fault here than the "bad driver".

[Fancy]

They know what they are signing up for. Anyone with integrity wouldn't abandon their passengers the way this driver did.

[SurplusElect]

They know what they are signing up for. Anyone with integrity wouldn't abandon their passengers the way this driver did.

And by your acknowledging its a very poor job with poor pay and insane responsibilities is it that much of a surprise they guy walked away?

He quit a crappy job and screwed the company into a public relations nightmare by the sounds of it.

I wont ride a greyhound knowing the driver is being paid as much as KFC chicken friers....lots of greyhound buses in the ditch lately it seems!

[Fancy]

He was fired - did he actually quit or was he intending to return to drive another day? The driver is at fault 100% - no way of getting around that.