Phase II--Trainees and Trannies

Welcome one and all to my newest venture into the world of blogging. I must, right away, give credit where credit is due: my brother mentioned some months ago that it would be interesting for me to blog about my new life as a mass-transit professional. So, here it is--the blog wherein I will recount the stories (hopefully more exciting than mundane) about what life is like behind the wheel of a 43-passenger city bus.

In December of last year, I was hired by a subset of The Ohio State University Department of Transportation and Parking Services, namely the Campus Area Bus Service (CABS). Like all new-hires at CABS, I began my time as a member of the Service Crew which does, well, exactly what it might sound like. All during the previous academic quarter, I worked 2-4 nights a week, from 6-11pm, in the CABS garage located just to the northwest of campus. My hours were filled with scrubbing, sweeping, mopping, squeegee-ing, refueling, and refillilng. I've learned a great deal about the workings of a diesel engine (and I am aware of just how little I still actually know). I can tell you if your engine oil or transmission fluid is bad (more on this later). And I have found that a majority of Ohio State students feel they need to redecorate the interior of every bus every day--as roughly 100 copies of the campus newspaper "The Lantern" are collected off the floors of the busses as they travel through the garage to be refuled.

While working on the Service Crew, I was spending a few hours of the week behind the wheel of a bus doing on-the-road training throughout campus and the surrounding area with my trainer Jarrod. While training, I drove the many on-campus routes that are operated by CABS, along with time spent in Downtown Columbus, on the myriad expressways, and out to the two main airports--so as to familiarize myself with their layouts when the time comes to run Coach Tressel and the boys out for an away game.

My training began to wind down last week as I took my State CDL test. This was made up of a pre-trip inspection of the bus (to make sure all lights are working, tires are full, hoses are secure, etc.), a skills test (that's right, I can parallel park a bus as easily as my Chevy Aveo!), and a road test (which involved merging across four lanes of expressway traffic at 9am). I passed the test and exchanged my regular driver's license for my new CDL. All that was left, then, was the final step in the OSU training module: the Phase II shift.

Phase II consists of driving a shift with passengers just as if I was a regular driver. However, Jarrod rode shotgun throughout to answer questions, give tips, and take some notes. The afternoon started well, very rainy, but well. On my first trip around, a high school friend of mine got on my bus. Sadly, she was deep in conversation and did not recognize me when she boarded. Oh well--still, what a small world (even on a campus of 55,000). My first two circuits around the Campus Loop South route went off without major incident (apologies to any passengers I frightened in front of Mack Hall when I caught the curb...) and I was quicky approaching my break loop--when an assigned driver took my bus for one loop's worth of time so I could have a breather. As my break ended and my bus returned, my break driver reported that the bus would not shift out of first gear.

Oh goodie...

Well, we took the bus around through a few stops and then decided to shut her down, recycle the battery, start her back up and see what would happen. After slightly confusing the passengers, we got the bus back up and running normally, without any issue going from first to second. For about 10 minutes. After a few more stops, I attempted to leave an intersection without success. No longer in any gear, the bus just kind of revved at me. So, I shut it down, started it up, and kicked it through the intersection (all of this happening at 5pm in front of the OSU Medical Center). At this point Jarrod (who is a little gun-shy with transmission issues right now--stay tuned for that story) decided to take our bus 8-6 and off-load our passengers. Going 8-6 means that you are going out of service and returning to base. Every bus does this at some point...just usually not 70 minutes ahead of schedule. Nevertheless, the problems were radioed in, the remaining drivers on the route were alerted, the passengers were deposited, and the bus was returned to the garage.

Where we found the transmission fluid bearing a lovely black-ish hue.

Thankfully, Jarrod told me I passed Phase II without any issues and am now officially a student vehicle operator for CABS. It looks as though a couple of weeks will pass before I get my own route; but I should have one by mid-quarter. In the mean time, I will work on the Service Crew--however, now I will be moving the busses around the garage, and hopefully doing much less mopping!

As the stories come, I will post them here. (And, as a discipline, I am going to try to write something once a week.) So check back as you can--this experience promises to be quite interesting.

Until next time...mind the curbs, watch your mirrors, and maybe check that transmission fluid before you leave the garage.