Various Updates
Sep. 21st, 2010 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppet1) Taking a break from The List in my previous post for a little while. All that horrible misogyny can really wear a person down.
2) So! How 'bout them new Pokémon 8Db Anyone wanna geek over 'em with me? Talk about potential teams? Discuss the cuteness merits of various shiny versions? Hopes and disappointments for things that did/did not show up? Anyone? Anything?
3) Pretty Cure! I am so loving HeartCatch, but I feel sometimes like I am the only one shipping Pink Hair and Bifauxnen. (Yes, I know their names, I'm just being deliberately obtuse.) Tell me I am not the only one, circle/f'list ;_; I've got fanfic kicking around in my brain and everything, just tell me I am not alooooone D:
(On a not entirely unrelated Pretty Cure note, I completely forgot to mention that Futari wa Pretty Cure premiered on Canal 5 de mexico today, whoops ._.a No idea what language it's in, but I still should've posted sooner. Still, maybe a few people still caught it...? [/faint hopes] I mean, the episodes are available for free (Japanese w/English subs) on both Funi's website and CrunchyRoll, but that's not quite the same as being broadcast on television, yanno? Still, if you missed the first episode and want to keep up with television releases, that could work pretty well?)
4) Speaking of fanfic, I'm about 500 words away from having the next part of Communications done. If anyone still remembers it or cares, I am still working on it! Just. Very, very slowly. At this rate, I might have it done by its eighteenth birthday, too ^^a (Yeah. I. I fail at updating this thing.)
2) So! How 'bout them new Pokémon 8Db Anyone wanna geek over 'em with me? Talk about potential teams? Discuss the cuteness merits of various shiny versions? Hopes and disappointments for things that did/did not show up? Anyone? Anything?
3) Pretty Cure! I am so loving HeartCatch, but I feel sometimes like I am the only one shipping Pink Hair and Bifauxnen. (Yes, I know their names, I'm just being deliberately obtuse.) Tell me I am not the only one, circle/f'list ;_; I've got fanfic kicking around in my brain and everything, just tell me I am not alooooone D:
(On a not entirely unrelated Pretty Cure note, I completely forgot to mention that Futari wa Pretty Cure premiered on Canal 5 de mexico today, whoops ._.a No idea what language it's in, but I still should've posted sooner. Still, maybe a few people still caught it...? [/faint hopes] I mean, the episodes are available for free (Japanese w/English subs) on both Funi's website and CrunchyRoll, but that's not quite the same as being broadcast on television, yanno? Still, if you missed the first episode and want to keep up with television releases, that could work pretty well?)
4) Speaking of fanfic, I'm about 500 words away from having the next part of Communications done. If anyone still remembers it or cares, I am still working on it! Just. Very, very slowly. At this rate, I might have it done by its eighteenth birthday, too ^^a (Yeah. I. I fail at updating this thing.)
Re: Random question of randomness :D
Date: 2010-09-22 07:33 am (UTC)These are just from the Iowa office, so I don't know if they change much from state to state or not. There's probably at least minor differences.
Up here, you need to be at least 21 years old (which, as I recall, is not a problem for you). A clean driving record (or at least mostly clean), particularly over the past three years, is very helpful. A history with interacting with kids is probably nice, but not necessary; I didn't exactly have one, and I made the cut. Certainly not absolutely loathing kids is important ;)
If they aren't hiring school bus drivers right at this minute, they may be hiring associates (who ride along with special needs kids), and may be interested in training you to be a driver when a position opens.
Training takes about two weeks, give or take. One of the first things they'll do is ask you to get a Commercial Driver's License permit. Up here, they wanted you to be covered for four categories specifically: Bus, Passengers, School Bus, and something I can't remember but I think started with a "U" ^^a They'll tell you what you need to study, though, so it shouldn't be a problem.
The Smith System was emphasized in my training, and is a pretty good system for driving safely in general, IMO. You should be able to find it online if you need to look at it more, or just want to see what it's all about. When a light changes from red to green - around here, at least - we're also encouraged to wait a second or two before entering the intersection, because we've got a lot of traffic that tries to make it through on the last second.
School buses do not turn right on red (unless there's a police officer or a construction worker waving you on or something). This can make controlled right turns a pain in the butt, IMO, but since buses in general make wide right turns, I get why it's a rule.
The actual training will probably have videos, written quizzes, and actual work with the bus. It'll usually be with the most "common" bus in the fleet, though if you finish a lot of stuff quickly, they may train you for the "rarer" bus types as well.
You won't need to know a lot of maintainence stuff, aside from knowing when things go wrong. Most of that you should eventually be able to recognize practically at a glance. IIRC, the first part of the actual driving test is the walk-around, where you point to all the different parts of the bus, name what they are and what they're supposed to do, both inside and out. The engine is included in that. All of that should be part of your training.
For actual training, they'll teach you how to go around corners without hitting the curb, what to do when crossing railroad tracks, how to back the bus, when and where to stop in relation to a traffic light, etc. My test had the name the things part, a basic driving skills part where I had to back around a corner, back the bus up to a certain point and stop there, go around a corner without hitting the curb but without being too far away, and then a short "driving on the actual road" part that will include everything they want to test you for. Where I am, there's really only the one route they take for testing, and I got to drive it a couple of times before testing.
Where I am, we didn't have a uniform to speak of, and a really pretty lenient dress code: no clothing that promotes drugs or alcohol, no swear words on what you wear, tops need to have sleeves, shoes need to have closed toes and heels, and dress up a little more for driving trips/charters, but otherwise we were pretty okay. This might vary by employer and location, though.
We were allowed to bring music on the bus (some buses even had FM radios built in, in addition to the "communicate with base" radios), but no ear buds/headphones, and no cell phone use; the latter would result in instant termination where I work :|
If you get the job, bus driving has a pretty fantastic work environment - at least in my experience, and my friends who work for other bus companies agree. In general, everyone gets along really well and is really nice.
For actual driving/routes, you need to get to work and check in at least ten minutes early to finish your walk-around before you leave. Route direction sheets may not have the best information/the most accurate times, but do the best you can, and leave a little early if you have to; if you can get to your first stop on time, then base can pretty much explain away anything else. If you end up consistently late for long enough, base may send someone "official" with you for at least one circuit to do a time trial, see if what's on the directions sheet is accurate. Around here, we're allowed to be up to ten minutes late to a school and it'll still count as "on time"; any longer than that, and it's a good idea to radio in to base to let them know that you're running down. (On the first day of school, everyone is usually running down, so they usually change it to fifteen minutes.)
The thing I found that made the most impact on timing for me was rate of acceleration. Speeding is an absolute no-no (in fact, we were encouraged to drive a few miles under the speed limit if possible), so it can be easy to lose time and/or hard to catch up when you're running down. Safety is more important that speed, though, so if it makes you late to do something safely, pick being late; they'll probably arrange for the time trials if you're late enough for long enough, and it'll almost certainly go your way if it's for safety.
DO NOT BACK THE BUS UNLESS YOU HAVE TO. Where I worked, we did back our buses into our spots, but for the first year I was there or so we had people directing our backing; they stopped doing that the second year, but still sent people out the first few days after school started, just in case. Backing is one of the more dangerous things you can do with a bus, even with the half-window available on a lot of school buses.
When you've finished your route, ALWAYS check for sleeping children; walk to the back of the bus, look between and under every seat. School buses are typically set up with an alarm that goes off if you used the stop arm (the stop sign that swings out); switch your bus to "accessory", do your check, and at the back of the bus, open the emergency exit; an alarm will go off and the lights will flash, and if there's any kids sleeping that you missed while walking back, the idea is this'll help them wake up. If you forget to do this, an even louder and more obvious alarm will go off when you try to leave the bus. There's some variation depending on what type of bus it is, but that's the important part. If you do find a sleeping child, report that to base immediately.
That's all I can remember at the moment ^^a (Woo, essay!) Good luck :Db