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crisis develop. “It’s horrific sometimes seeing the people out there. And it wouldn’t just be single men; it’s whole families out there now. You see them queuing outside the McVerry Trust for food parcels, and this is in modern Ireland. But it’s a part of the challenge. It’s something that we always deal with. We have to deal with it.”
On the other hand, working so closely with the public has been a very positive experience for Bernard. Driving the same route each day means it’s easy to build friendships with passengers. He recalls one lady in particular who he helped: “There was a lady on my bus one day who just sat there on my last stop. I thought she had missed where she was meant to get off or something so I asked if she was ok? She said ‘Ah yeah, I’m grand. Have you got a few minutes?’ I say yeah, no problem. So she says ‘These bags are heavy, can you give me a hand to carry them?’ I shut the bus down, secured the vehicle and I got out of the cab. There I am walking down the road in my high vis vest with these shopping bags, and people are going by wondering what a bus driver is doing walking down the road carrying this lady’s bags for. Bernard got to know the passengeroverthecomingmonths:“Everyweekonmyroute I met the same lady and we went through the same routine. We chatted and I learnt a bit about her family and she learnt a bit about mine. I never even got her name, I just knew her through our little walks, and then on Christmas week she turned up on my bus with a Christmas cake she made for me. This is the kind of nice story that sticks in your head as a driver.”
Bernard’s big focus right now is on his new recruits: “You get six recruits per class and your job is to turn them into the drivers they need to be. A lot of car drivers come in and they think they’re expert drivers; then when they get on the bus it’s a whole new story.” Safety is a key priority and new recruits must be twice as focused than any other driver on the road. “We teach them to scan the road ahead. A lot of car drivers just look at the car in front, we tell them to look up the road as far as they can see, scanning the whole time. So if they see brake lights ten cars ahead they have to gauge that, and be braking long before the car ahead of them does.
Bernard derives great satisfaction from helping new drivers progress. “It’s like a journey with them”, he says. “On week one you’re constantly talking to them and telling them what to do from the instructors seat, then all of a sudden it kind of clicks with them, and you're withdrawing more and more and letting them make their own decisions. Then by week three, before they go for their test on week four, you’re just tweaking them, you’re getting them right. It’s a lovely thing to see people maturing and getting into it.”
For anyone who wants to become a driver Bernard’s advice is simple: “If you want to get into this company, the first thing you’ve got to do is like driving, and like people, and you’ve got to like the challenge, because the city will throw up anything at you, on any given day.”
Dublin Bus Celebrates a New Class of Driver
On 5 December 2016 Dublin Bus celebrated the graduation of their first all-female class of new drivers. The graduation of Jennifer Dixon, Elizabeth Cummins, Tracy Sullivan, Rachel Dunne and Sinead Hilliard brings the total number of women drivers to 84, 3.3% of all drivers in the company. They join the company’s longest serving female driver who has been transporting customers to their destinations for 35 years.
Dublin Bus aims to have 125 women drivers on the payroll by the end of 2017, equating to 5% of all drivers. Company research shows that women drivers have fewer accidents and deliver a higher level of customer satisfaction.
Speaking about the graduation, Ray Coyne, CEO of Dublin Bus said, “Until 2014 Dublin Bus had not recruited drivers for a period of six years and during this time the number of women drivers fell. Therefore we decided to actively work to recruit more women to the role and it’s fantastic to celebrate the graduation today of our first all-female class from our training centre here in Phibsborough.”
New drivers receive world class training at the company’s dedicated training centre in Phibsborough, Dublin 7. Marie Beegan, CIÉ’s first female heavy vehicle apprentice motor mechanic, is in charge of training at the. She began her training with CIÉ in 1980, later going on to study transport management before beginning her current role in 2015.
Dublin Bus drivers attend the training centre to complete their Certificate of Professional Competency (CPC) and driving skills training. This is delivered by a team of qualified, experienced trainers. Most of the trainers still work as in-service bus drivers which ensures they remain in touch with the day-to-day issues facing drivers on the road. The initial training lasts six weeks; the first three and a half are
spent with driving instructors on D licence instruction and taking the driving test; then two weeks completing classroom based training on modules such as tickets and on bus technology, customer service, advanced driving standards, wellbeing, and policies and procedures. The last days of training include a driving skills assessment course and night driving.
38 The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport
A DAY IN THE LIFE