Castanet

If the guy is so lazy he doesn't want to wait for his next driver to show up (effortless duty that requires sitting in a comfy chair munching on his lunch bag goodies and watching goofy videos on Youtube) and he abandons his passengers, risking their lives and health...What else he's too lazy to do?

Putting up chains before a snow hill? Probably makes up some BS excuse not to do it - he's late, it's too hard, he's too warm to get out outside. Performing pre-trip checks - too much paperwork for his liking, who cares if all the tires are inflated properly, it's not his job.

Good riddance to this *bleep*. Hope he enjoys flipping burgers.

Captain Awesome wrote: and he abandons his passengers, risking their lives and health...What else he's too lazy to do?

I'm curious as to how these passengers lives were at risk.

They were parked at the Chevron station. It's open 24 hours.

*straps myself in for a ride*

Then what makes anyone think the passengers were stuck on the bus?

Dizzy1 wrote:... and click on the first CA on the top (Greyhound Canada CBA 2011-2014). Wage info starts at page 55.

Interesting, if I read that correctly, a top level (A-7) driver would be expected to drive 300 miles a day at .8314 cents a mile, so rounded off $250 a day, and that works out to $31hr. That's really not a bad rate of compensation for a bus driver, particularly when you factor in all the other benefits that are part of the package.

Fancy wrote:Then what makes anyone think the passengers were stuck on the bus?

I'm going by memory now, but as I recall from what I heard on CHBC regarding that incident, I was under the impression the bus was left at a Greyhound transfer point that was closed and not due to open for several hours.

ETA: Here's the CHBC news video....... http://www.chbcnews.ca/video/abandoned+ ... 20stranded

I'm confused - the bus station was open at 7 and the bus got there about 5 am and now the bus station is located at a Chevron that was opened all night whch doesn't mean anything but all I saw was a Super Save. The relief driver didn't get there until 9 (the four hours they were left "abandoned"). So were the passengers able to get inside the station and grab a coffee or no?

I'm sure that there was confusion between responsibilities, policies, common sense, duties, communication, and perception. This sort of thing is not uncommon in companies that expect employees to follow their rules, but do not have rules to cover a particular situation. I do however find it laughable that a busload of people could not manage to close that door.

Fancy wrote:I'm confused - the bus station was open at 7 and the bus got there about 5 am and now the bus station is located at a Chevron that was opened all night whch doesn't mean anything but all I saw was a Super Save. The relief driver didn't get there until 9 (the four hours they were left "abandoned"). So were the passengers able to get inside the station and grab a coffee or no?

I'm with you on that confusion, it's clearly a Super Save shown in the video, not a Chevron, and it certainly sounded to me like the guy complaining suggested that the station was closed when they got there, thus his saying he'd asked the driver to drop them at a Tim Horton's or something where they could at least grab a coffee, which wouldn't really make much sense if they were at a place with amenities, unless of course all it was was a gasbar counter that was open.


ETA: Just was listening to CHBC news, and wouldn't you know it Greyhound was back in the news. Seems they are cutting routes in BC, as apparently they are bleeding red ink to the tune of 14 million bucks. I guess all this negative publicity isn't going to help matters any, and they shouldn't be surprised if people aren't too keen on using the bus, when they run the risk of being left unattended for hours in no mans land.

I have taken that 'overnight' trip from Calgary at least a couple of times, and I recall that the gas station was open. Typical convenience store setup, including a coffee machine. I don't know - maybe it wasn't open because of the weather or something but I find that hard to believe, also can't believe the passengers actually had to sit on the bus for 4 hours. What I do believe is that if any of them actually tried to call Greyhound on a cell or something that they wouldn't be able to get an answer that way.

No question the bus driver did not do the right thing - but CHBC news does like to take a story and 'embellish' or only tell part of it sometimes - like any media outlet, I guess. I doubt that anybody's life was at risk.

Nooby wrote: I doubt that anybody's life was at risk.

I'm definitely inclined to agree with you, because for one thing there's safety in numbers, and it sounds like the bus was quite loaded.

On the other hand, I was thinking more along the lines of, who's supposed to address it if heaven forbid some mechanical malfunction struck the bus while it was idling, and it caught fire or something? The driver would be trained as to where his emergency items are, passengers not so much.

SurplusElect wrote:
I assume this would be a "charter" bus.
Your first 6 weeks (training wage?) - 9.05/hour
First year - 13.57/hour
Anything under 2 years - 15.38/hour

Did you even read the rate schedule. No it is not for charter buses only. That was only one wage catagory. All the others were listed and you could have just clicked on the link to see it is right from their collective agreement in 2008 so they are most likely making even more now. And what is so wrong with having to work two years to attain the top rate of 22/hr....5 yrs ago to drive a bus!

Nooby wrote:What I do believe is that if any of them actually tried to call Greyhound on a cell or something that they wouldn't be able to get an answer that way.

They had to wait 2 hours for the office to open and the agent then tried to get answers and couldn't get through to dispatch.

"Nothing was open" was what the passenger said but it didn't look like that gas station had room for 50 passengers to sit.

SurplusElect wrote: Right. What I do know is a guy just walked away from his job - why?



I say when someone does something they know they are going to be fired for - they most likely were not happy.

I say the guy effed up by assuming the relief driver would be there shortly and just left. He wasn't pizzed at his job. Just stupid and lazy and why he was fired.

SurplusElect wrote:
Also, leaving the bus running is actually responsible. It's a diesel.

Running with the door wide open to potentially monoxide the passegers. Besides that, do you have any idea what it takes to restart a diesel that has run out of fuel? It's not pretty.

Fancy wrote:They had to wait 2 hours for the office to open and the agent then tried to get answers and couldn't get through to dispatch.

"Nothing was open" was what the passenger said but it didn't look like that gas station had room for 50 passengers to sit.

Correct - that gas station definitely does not have room for 50 people to sit. But I would think some of them would have left the bus to go in for awhile at least (if it was open). I can only imagine the confusion - normally the driver makes an announcement about how long the stop will be, tells them another driver will be taking over, etc. How long would you sit there after than announcement (if it was in fact made) before you wondered what the heck was going on? I'm a pretty calm, logical person but I know I'd be pretty freaked out if another driver didn't come on the bus. But - after a short time I definitely would have called the RCMP - but that's just me.

And what I meant about the cell phone - IF any of them actually tried to call one of the Greyhound 'support' phone numbers from a cell phone before the office opened - well, good luck with that. Even during normal hours you either get put through to Texas or to someone who can't speak intelligible English.

Fancy wrote:They had to wait 2 hours for the office to open and the agent then tried to get answers and couldn't get through to dispatch.

"Nothing was open" was what the passenger said but it didn't look like that gas station had room for 50 passengers to sit.

Nooby wrote:Correct - that gas station definitely does not have room for 50 people to sit. But I would think some of them would have left the bus to go in for awhile at least (if it was open). I can only imagine the confusion - normally the driver makes an announcement about how long the stop will be, tells them another driver will be taking over, etc. How long would you sit there after than announcement (if it was in fact made) before you wondered what the heck was going on? I'm a pretty calm, logical person but I know I'd be pretty freaked out if another driver didn't come on the bus. But - after a short time I definitely would have called the RCMP - but that's just me.

And what I meant about the cell phone - IF any of them actually tried to call one of the Greyhound 'support' phone numbers from a cell phone before the office opened - well, good luck with that. Even during normal hours you either get put through to Texas or to someone who can't speak intelligible English.

As I mentioned on page 3 of this thread... within 1/2 a Km was a Denny's which are open 24Hrs.