Oops… What bus am I driving?

The old Scenicruiser was cranking south on Chicago’s Dan Ryan Expressway early one morning when the driver decided to turn on the AC. He reached to his left, and flipped a switch. At that point, the drive axle brakes locked up, and the bus came to a shuddering halt in the middle of (arguably) America’s busiest highway.

The driver was used to driving a GM PD4104 that had virtually the same dash. “Virtually” is the key word… the Scenic had an extra toggle that energized the high idle, while locking the brakes.

“Oops” (or another 4 letter word)

Coach operating and safety systems are evolving rapidly… more rapidly than the manufacturers redesign coaches. Bus builders are traditionally careful about changing models, striking a delicate balance between increasing curb appeal for passengers, while not altering appearance so frequently that it hurts resale value.

In order to enhance efficiency, many fleets have made an effort to standardize on a single brand, and even model, of coach. This simplifies maintenance, dispatch and driver training.

A combination of government mandates, and innovative technologies has created the potential for problems. Your fleet of identical looking coaches can offer a bewildering combination of features, and the way they are used can have dramatic consequences.

Boiled down… drivers can’t step on to a coach and know, by appearance alone, if it has such key features as ABS, adaptive cruise control, ASC, tire pressure monitoring or several other systems that should influence the way they drive.

When you’re skating on ice, there’s a world of difference between a bus with ABS and one without. If your coach insists on regenerating its particulate trap at an embarrassing moment, it pays to know how long that light can stay on without consequence, and where the exhaust exits the coach.

Two distinctly different transmissions are in use, If you don’t pay attention, one likes to sneak forward, while the other goes wherever gravity calls.

Procedures for things as mundane as jump starting a bus can vary, and the manufacturers’ secret torture program involves changing the entertainment system controls on what seems to be an hourly basis.

In addition to providing funny stories for future columns, the significant operational differences between seemingly identical coaches create liability concerns for drivers, operators and manufacturers.

Any strategy for dealing with this issue clearly involves training. Coach builders provide manuals, and part of a professional driver’s job should involve studying them. You might want to have them sign off on having read them.

You don’t want a situation where a driver’s response to an incident is “So THAT’S how it works…”

In addition, you’ll want some system for making sure that the driver is aware of what systems are on the particular bus they are driving. The ideal solution is to assign each driver to a specific coach. This is one of those great ideas.. that doesn’t often work in big fleets..

Some sort of placarding may help, or having you operations folks sort of “group” the coaches by significant features. Drivers qualified on school buses, in mixed fleets, aren’t automatically used on coaches. That principle might be applied to coaches with specific features. At the very least, you’ll want to make sure that drivers know what they’ve got.

A pilot doesn’t get to just leap into any aircraft, and take off. They’re “Type Rated”, and have demonstrated knowledge of the particular aircraft they’ll fly. That’s a ton more than we want to get into, but it shouldn’t be to much to ask that a professional driver understand the specific vehicle they are operating.

Some coaches have traction control, others spin merrily on ice… a 45’ coach may sweep outside on turns, while the 40’ version of the same coach doesn’t. You get it.

It’s easier to identify a problem, than to fix it. I’m doing OK with recognition here, but falling way short on solutions. If any of you have ideas, please let me know. I’ll steal them, take credit, and get them out there.

You’re probably thinking that I’m the dummy that threw the wrong switch on the Dan Ryan.

NOT SO... that was another dummy.

I’m the one who hydroplaned a coach in Kansas City. It was raining, and I forgot that I was driving the one Flxible in our fleet that HAD the Power Steering option.

The reward was a wild fishtailing experience for about a mile of elevated I70. We (my passengers and I) regained traction just in time to follow the interstate around a curve.

One shaken passenger asked “Do you always take curves that way?”