First Buses

jim · Post by **jim** » Mon 28 May, 2012 11:20 pm

To be fair to the bus drivers, I suspect that a fair proportion of the general public are miserable ill-natured grumps - and bus drivers have to put up with rather more of the general public than the rest of us have to put up with bus drivers!

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Mon 28 May, 2012 11:58 pm

Phill_dvsn wrote: In all honesty I can recall three bus drivers in ten years who had a semblance of friendliness, or any signs of being human. Two said cheers, the third was really friendly, cheery, and actually quite funny. Passengers knew him as the guy who either looked like Rod Stewart, or the Mikes carpet guy. He used to do the Roundhay buses but I've not seen him about for a few years. Phill - one chap springs immediately to mind from your description - would he be reasonably built and of moderate height (if you ever saw him stood up) and mildly "craggy" looking ?? He is still happily working although must be around retirement age ?? - they can now go up to seventy on FirstBus. If so he is a real toff, and although its twenty six years since I worked there as a supervisor I always speak to him in the street even now and have a quick chat.

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Tue 29 May, 2012 12:04 am

[quotenick="BLAKEY"] Phill_dvsn wrote: Phill - one chap springs immediately to mind from your description - would he be reasonably built and of moderate height (if you ever saw him stood up) and mildly "craggy" looking ?? I guess early-mid 50's now Blakey, just looks like Rod Stewart!

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Tue 29 May, 2012 12:19 am

[quotenick="Phill_dvsn"] BLAKEY wrote: Phill_dvsn wrote: Phill - one chap springs immediately to mind from your description - would he be reasonably built and of moderate height (if you ever saw him stood up) and mildly "craggy" looking ?? I guess early-mid 50's now Blakey, just looks like Rod Stewart! Could easily be the same one Phill, but if so he is actually around sixty five - the cheery respectful attitude could "peel back the years" on a casual encounter.

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Tue 29 May, 2012 12:22 am

Could be so Blakey, I've not seen him for about 5 years now at least, cheery guy he was

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Tue 29 May, 2012 12:39 am

I appreciate that there are unpleasant passengers as well as unpleasant drivers. One thing though that really annoys me is when a young child is getting off and says 'bye bye' or 'thank you' to the driver that there are many drivers who cannot be bothered to respond. I've heard some mothers with the child try to console the child who cannot understand why the driver was not nice to them. It is surely a public relations thing that drivers should be nice when people are nice to them.

Caron · Post by **Caron** » Tue 29 May, 2012 2:04 am

Regardless of how bad mannered or miserable the driver's are I always say Hi with a smile and alight with a Thank You. The worse they are, the more I smile....

jim · Post by **jim** » Tue 29 May, 2012 10:23 am

Caron wrote: The worse they are, the more I smile.... They hate it.....................RESULT!

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Tue 29 May, 2012 10:48 am

Leodian wrote: It is surely a public relations thing that drivers should be nice when people are nice to them. I was always friendly to my customers whilst delivering the post, in all honesty I find it hard to understand why people have to be so ill mannered and rude. Even after trailing the streets weighed down with heavy bags in all weathers I always treated them with courtesy. It does seem bus drivers by default are miserable, if you get a friendly one it really makes an impression and you remember it because it's such a rarity, as Leo says a little bit of good customer relations isn't too much to ask really is it?I only made four 'enemies' whilst delivering the post in 10 years, one was the ill mannered bus driver I've mentioned earlier on this thread. Another was a miserable woman who ordered parcels nearly on a daily basis, yet was so rude when I woke her up one Saturday morning, right love I said, I'll not bring any more parcels out for you if that's your attitude, you'll get a collection card and go pick them up from the office yourself. That was her sorted, pun intended The young lad next door to me was a rather anti social little sod on a Friday night, he'd have mates round carry on with loud music all night, after a few nice words asking him to calm it down a bit didn't work. My next course of 'behaviour correction' was to stop him being anti social on the Saturday night. He got his giro every fortnight on a Saturday morning, every time he carried on, I shoved his giro straight back in the post box at the top of the street, it had to be collected and go all the way back through the system and he wouldn't get it till Monday morning. The result was-one very fed up and skint next door neighbour, a nice quiet weekend, and a very satisfying piece of Instant Karma! Another trick Posties would do to their less than than pleasant customers is, to pull off any loose stamps and put the offending letter in the surcharge box, they'd get charged £1.01 surcharge fee for the price of a stamp and handling fee, plus the three day delay in getting the letter delivered. The moral of the story is, treat people as you'd like to be treated yourself

Chrism · Post by **Chrism** » Tue 29 May, 2012 11:19 am

Jogon wrote: An unknown 3rd party has expertly inserted an s here. Clearly the unblinking eye of the Moderator is at work exercising the dark art of remediation of typos. 'twas I.