The one man operator

I had been driving buses now for about two years and the company were beginning to bring in modern buses. Basically the type you see around these days with the doors at the front which meant that you could speak to the conductor or the passengers as they came on instead of being stuck up the front on your own all day. They were of course easier to drive with the semi-automatic gearboxes that they had.

Of course they were the forerunner of the next phase that would be 'One Man Operation' and that soon became the buzz word of the day. Most of the younger drivers like myself were interested and as it would mean extra pay when you signed up and had been trained.

The older hands were not interested and they were plenty of arguments as they could see the job losses that would occur as it became more wide spread.

But for me it was the future of the bus industry and I could not wait to get on them. I was in fact on the second batch of drivers to get trained for one man operation. The buses were the new Leyland Swift type buses and would operate some of the quieter routes that we had. No-one really thought that the busy routes would go one man. How wrong we were as the future would tell!

But the buses were modern,fast and easy to drive with the power steering and semi-automatic gears. I could drive them and for overtime I could take one of the old buses and a conductor. It seemed the best option for me and the extra pay was very useful.

It must the said that the OMO stickers caused great hilarity at the time with the obvious 'homo' connotation that it bought in.

My son Mark was born in 1972 and working all hours meant that I did not see as much of that new baby as I would have liked.

As I have said in earlier blogs my time keeping was not the best and I had several 'bollockings' over my lateness. In fact my own father sent me home one day for being late! Being newly married and with a young son made me think of leaving and finding a job with less hours.

In the end I left in 1974 after four years and with a full licence that would enable me to drive any bus any where in the country. The company were not sorry to see my go and I will tell you just how not sorry in the next blog!