Well this will probably be the last post on this blog. I have retired from working on buses and will not be getting information to make it interesting. If anyone is interested in bus work, please scan through it and if you can drop me a line and say hello.
So from an old retired bus man of many years, I wish all my friends old and new good luck in the industry that has given me a lifetime of work.
Wednesday, 2 March 2016
Wednesday, 3 December 2014
Moving on.
I have just viewed this blog and realized that I have not updated it for two years or so.
So, National Express. I worked for them via Edwards coaches for two years. It is quite hard work, with the worst being the Heathrow run. The case loading on that it heavy. It was worked out by someone that you can load and unload up to seven tons of cases a day! It got a bis to much and my back was giving in. I had to come off that.
I now work for the same company, but on the local bus side. These are just the smaller type buses that you would see in any town or countryside. There is not much pressure on the whole and of course no cases to lift! With only two basic routes it gets a bit boring, but it is work and Edwards are fair employers.
I do help out if required on the National Express routes if they get caught out with staff going sick etc. I don't mind because it makes a change now and again.
I guess not that many have read this, but if you do, drop me a line to say hello.
So, National Express. I worked for them via Edwards coaches for two years. It is quite hard work, with the worst being the Heathrow run. The case loading on that it heavy. It was worked out by someone that you can load and unload up to seven tons of cases a day! It got a bis to much and my back was giving in. I had to come off that.
I now work for the same company, but on the local bus side. These are just the smaller type buses that you would see in any town or countryside. There is not much pressure on the whole and of course no cases to lift! With only two basic routes it gets a bit boring, but it is work and Edwards are fair employers.
I do help out if required on the National Express routes if they get caught out with staff going sick etc. I don't mind because it makes a change now and again.
I guess not that many have read this, but if you do, drop me a line to say hello.
Friday, 22 June 2012
New Job
It has been months since I posted on here, but I thought that it was time to catch up with things. I have now moved jobs to work as a coach driver with National Express. I started last August so that has been nearly ten months on it now.
It is a complete change from my other work, driving up to 100,000 miles a year. My employer is Edwards Coaches of Llantwit Fardre in South Wales. They run a franchise for the service and we operate to London Victoria, Heathrow airport, and Aberdare to Bradford. Next month we have picked up work for Gatwick airport and from Haverfordwest to London.
It is a complete change from my other work, driving up to 100,000 miles a year. My employer is Edwards Coaches of Llantwit Fardre in South Wales. They run a franchise for the service and we operate to London Victoria, Heathrow airport, and Aberdare to Bradford. Next month we have picked up work for Gatwick airport and from Haverfordwest to London.
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
The new office
After the introduction of Grampian 2, the office that we worked in was very small anyway and really not in the right place to work with. So another new office space was put forward and that would be the last one that I would work in.
This office is in the 'admin' part of the workplace so that all the supervisory staff would be in one place. In fact it has worked out very well with more work space and places for privacy etc.
And of course along with that we had to have a name change. A new manager had been put in place and it was decided, much against my and others better wishes that we would have a name change for the group.
The office and group I worked with had been known as 'Allocations' for more years than I can remember. As far as I was concerned that was good enough for all, and everybody knew when the word Allocations was used, what was meant.
But of course that was not good enough for the modern management style was it? Much of the rest of the operational part of the company has been converted to ' Service Delivery'. For instance instead of simple words like 'radio operator' they were now 'Service delivery Controllers'.
So our office had to join in this nonsense. We were now designated 'Service Delivery resources' and my new title was a 'Service delivery resources officer'. What a load of old bollocks! I made it clear at the time what I thought of it, but eventually got used to the new title. Nothing else really changed though.
We still worked hard and we were still short staffed most of the time. That never seemed to change as the more staff that were employed, just replaced those that left.
In the next blog I will start to wind up my time with Cardiff Bus and the time was fast coming when I would have to retire.
This office is in the 'admin' part of the workplace so that all the supervisory staff would be in one place. In fact it has worked out very well with more work space and places for privacy etc.
And of course along with that we had to have a name change. A new manager had been put in place and it was decided, much against my and others better wishes that we would have a name change for the group.
The office and group I worked with had been known as 'Allocations' for more years than I can remember. As far as I was concerned that was good enough for all, and everybody knew when the word Allocations was used, what was meant.
But of course that was not good enough for the modern management style was it? Much of the rest of the operational part of the company has been converted to ' Service Delivery'. For instance instead of simple words like 'radio operator' they were now 'Service delivery Controllers'.
So our office had to join in this nonsense. We were now designated 'Service Delivery resources' and my new title was a 'Service delivery resources officer'. What a load of old bollocks! I made it clear at the time what I thought of it, but eventually got used to the new title. Nothing else really changed though.
We still worked hard and we were still short staffed most of the time. That never seemed to change as the more staff that were employed, just replaced those that left.
In the next blog I will start to wind up my time with Cardiff Bus and the time was fast coming when I would have to retire.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Grampian 2
Well by this time we had been working well with Grampian for a few years and had all bedded into the system. As I have said in the last blog there were faults with it and frustrations but I guess there is with all computer systems. Is there one that works perfectly?
But the system was creaking at the knees and Grampian had decided that they were going to stop updating it and a Grampian 2 was already in many companies. It was time for us to move on as well. The new system would bring other parts of the company into it as well, including the payroll.
This was another learning curve and one that I was to learn and then forget as I had to have an operation in the middle of the input. We all learned the operation of the system and once again a two part learning curve was put in place with both the old and new systems running at the same time until they both worked and the new one could take the place of the old.
In the middle of that I had my operation and was off for about nine weeks. I have had a hiatus hernia for years and it had been playing up more and more. The doctors eventually decided that a big operation was needed and I would be in hospital for a week with several weeks recovery after that. So that took nine weeks and in the middle of that the new system was put in place and I had to go back and learn it all again when I went back to work.
But the system was creaking at the knees and Grampian had decided that they were going to stop updating it and a Grampian 2 was already in many companies. It was time for us to move on as well. The new system would bring other parts of the company into it as well, including the payroll.
This was another learning curve and one that I was to learn and then forget as I had to have an operation in the middle of the input. We all learned the operation of the system and once again a two part learning curve was put in place with both the old and new systems running at the same time until they both worked and the new one could take the place of the old.
In the middle of that I had my operation and was off for about nine weeks. I have had a hiatus hernia for years and it had been playing up more and more. The doctors eventually decided that a big operation was needed and I would be in hospital for a week with several weeks recovery after that. So that took nine weeks and in the middle of that the new system was put in place and I had to go back and learn it all again when I went back to work.
Friday, 2 April 2010
Grampian
Well, for those who have never used the Grampian system it is the one that is most used in the bus and staff allocation system. There is no point explaining to much here, as if you have used it you will know and if not well it would just take up to much time.
Suffice to say that all details of the duties the staff worked and the driver details, pay numbers, holidays, days taken off sick and many other details were put in the system. It was a steep learning curve and I was involved right at the beginning of it. Two men who were experts on the computer side were bought in, but they knew nothing of the day to day running of the Allocation side of the company.
As the supervisor who was my senior was on holidays I was there to input the details of the working side of it. This took a lot longer than was first thought as our job is very complicated and many changes took place over months before it was ready to go. Then there was a trial run were the computer system and the manual system were worked together for a few weeks until they were sure that everything was as it could be.
Eventually of course it went on-line and we were off. As with all changes, some took to it better than others. I enjoyed it from the start and had no problem. Others were not so keen and could not take to it. Two friends left the company partly due to this I think.
But the work went on as usual with others bought into the team. As with all large companies, the work goes on no matter who leaves.
We used this system for a few years and although there were faults and frustrating things with it we got used to it. And then Grampian 2 came in. More about that and the changes that came with it later.
Suffice to say that all details of the duties the staff worked and the driver details, pay numbers, holidays, days taken off sick and many other details were put in the system. It was a steep learning curve and I was involved right at the beginning of it. Two men who were experts on the computer side were bought in, but they knew nothing of the day to day running of the Allocation side of the company.
As the supervisor who was my senior was on holidays I was there to input the details of the working side of it. This took a lot longer than was first thought as our job is very complicated and many changes took place over months before it was ready to go. Then there was a trial run were the computer system and the manual system were worked together for a few weeks until they were sure that everything was as it could be.
Eventually of course it went on-line and we were off. As with all changes, some took to it better than others. I enjoyed it from the start and had no problem. Others were not so keen and could not take to it. Two friends left the company partly due to this I think.
But the work went on as usual with others bought into the team. As with all large companies, the work goes on no matter who leaves.
We used this system for a few years and although there were faults and frustrating things with it we got used to it. And then Grampian 2 came in. More about that and the changes that came with it later.
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Into the 20th century
Well the time now is in the late 90's and at home I had gotten my first computer. My son had nagged me into it and I found soon that I quite liked it and soon got my first email address and found out was spam was!
Cardiff Bus was taking it's first faltering steps into the brave new world and had not even got an email address. But that was about to alter and some computers appeared in the offices. Of course I wanted one but that was a while away.
I nagged them as often as I could and the I.T. section were sick of hearing me. Eventually to shut me up they gave us an old computer stuck in a corner. I did get an office package and an email address. If this seems strange now, back then it was considered a big deal.
Pretty soon I adapted the way I worked to work on the computer. I printed out my work sheets and emailed the stuff to town that needed to go there. I will never consider myself THAT clever on computers but for my age I was not to bad. I think that I was probably the best for the work that I needed to do at that time.
Moving in to the new century and the company bought in more and more computerisation. We soon all were using them, some more than others. I have enjoyed computers ever since the days I first used one to print out my first Christmas card and had no problems. Others were not so used to them and we had major problems now and again.
Then they decided that the job that I do could be automated a lot with a comuter program called Grampian. This was a huge deal and would change the way that I worked for good. Computer specialised were bought in from other parts of the company and a major training update was put in place.
The shifts that I worked were considered at last to be useless as by the time we had worked the first eight hours really we were not fit as we had been up since 2.30 am. So they were changed again to more or less the was I work today with a weekend off once a month and days off in the week other times. We were given a new supervisor, one that was an expert on this new system and the job changed for good.
Next blog, Grampian takes over my working life.
Cardiff Bus was taking it's first faltering steps into the brave new world and had not even got an email address. But that was about to alter and some computers appeared in the offices. Of course I wanted one but that was a while away.
I nagged them as often as I could and the I.T. section were sick of hearing me. Eventually to shut me up they gave us an old computer stuck in a corner. I did get an office package and an email address. If this seems strange now, back then it was considered a big deal.
Pretty soon I adapted the way I worked to work on the computer. I printed out my work sheets and emailed the stuff to town that needed to go there. I will never consider myself THAT clever on computers but for my age I was not to bad. I think that I was probably the best for the work that I needed to do at that time.
Moving in to the new century and the company bought in more and more computerisation. We soon all were using them, some more than others. I have enjoyed computers ever since the days I first used one to print out my first Christmas card and had no problems. Others were not so used to them and we had major problems now and again.
Then they decided that the job that I do could be automated a lot with a comuter program called Grampian. This was a huge deal and would change the way that I worked for good. Computer specialised were bought in from other parts of the company and a major training update was put in place.
The shifts that I worked were considered at last to be useless as by the time we had worked the first eight hours really we were not fit as we had been up since 2.30 am. So they were changed again to more or less the was I work today with a weekend off once a month and days off in the week other times. We were given a new supervisor, one that was an expert on this new system and the job changed for good.
Next blog, Grampian takes over my working life.
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