Going hand in hand with a standardized curriculum should be a standardized way of documenting student performance. When putting pen to paper, be sure an instructor’s documentation can be clearly understood by others who may need to refer back to it at a future date. Proper documentation is critical in the case of a student operator who may attempt to dispute a dismissal and may want to protest and pursue some type of legal options to challenge an instructor’s final evaluation.
The "Training Bus Instructor" (TBI) spends hours diligently working with a new hire candidate to provide basic skills training. Through this process, the required skills and knowledge successfully transfers to the student operator and they are released to a "Route Familiarization Operator" (RFO) that will help them learn the routes.
Among the most difficult tasks for a new student bus operator to perform on the training bus is a “right turn into a bus stop.” On a scale of one to five, with five being most difficult, I rank it a five. Right turns, in general, rank at the top of the list, but having to successfully enter a bus stop “immediately” after a right turn comes as a result of several instructional steps — demonstrated properly by the trainer.
This topic builds on conversations I had with a variety of training professionals throughout 2013, so I hope this information helps those who were interested to know how to implement a simulator into an existing curriculum.
People from all over the world come to Florida, so Brian Scott, vice president of Escot Bus Lines, has to think far beyond his Tampa-Orlando service area.
Transit has its own version of Rock & Roll. I once read someone’s comment that, in the case of a bus operator, ‘Rocking & Rolling’ in the seat should not occur if their mirrors are set properly. I strongly disagree with that statement and regrettably say a statement like that will precede an increase in pedestrian knockdowns, especially when turning left and departing bus stops.
Curb jumping. Heavy braking. Excessive speed. Dangerous action. These words are sometimes utilized and documented by training bus instructors when evaluating a trainee. Having these words appear early on in a training program is not rare; it’s when the training nears its end and these words are still being used on the trainee’s evaluation forms that should cause concern.
In my last blog we discussed bus stop placement pros and cons. Last week I received an email regarding mid-block bus stops and how to make these stops as safe as possible. Servicing bus stops in mid-block and after right and left turns will be covered here. I will also review boarding and alighting of customers.
While at the coffee bar, I was approached by a transit professional who asked where I thought it was safer to place bus stops, at the nearside or farside of an intersection? We agreed that agencies, over the years for safety reasons, have been favoring the farside bus stops as opposed to the nearside stops.
Greetings! I would like to answer the following question sent to me and thank the transit professional for doing so:
"Just this week, we have had three bus accidents. One type of ‘repeater accident’ has been occurring in the garage involving the driver’s left rear side of our 45-foot [bus]. When turning right, the left rear driver’s side swings out and catches the roof support pole. The last two accidents took out the rear side glass. I need some preventive ideas.”
Understanding how to blend simulator supplemental training into an existing training curriculum will most definitely lead to favorable results and positive benefits to a training program. Attempting to build a curriculum around the simulator is a mistake.
National RTAP and its partner organizations, the FTA and the National Tribal Transit Association, will sponsor a national conference on March 18 to 21, 2012 at the Radisson, Fort McDowell Hotel near Scottsdale, Ariz.
When considering whether to make an exception in your bus operator training program to provide "extra training" (beyond what the training program offers) to a trainee who may have been close to qualifying but failed to, be warned that this can open the door to a flood of others who were terminated now demanding the same courtesy applied to them.
From the 'Bus Barn' this month arises two very important concerns regarding the use of bus simulator supplemental training: performance management and speed control. During the past year, I had the pleasure of visiting and conducting several train the trainer sessions at transit agencies in North America and Canada. I was pleased to see the passion among the trainers, as this is a necessary ingredient.
If you ever had the opportunity to be in Manhattan and attempt to navigate across 34th Street, especially during this time of year, you know it would take a miracle to accomplish in a reasonable amount of time. Normally, it is a very congested area, but during this time of year, it becomes a parking lot.