Transit Operator - Job Change - Advice needed

[dc5typeS]

Been driving transit for 19 yrs

Great Job.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

$50000 pension a year is only 5% on a $1m portfolio.

To get there, $90000 start, $1000 mth contribution, 25y at 6% = $1,062,557.33 total contributions $300,000.

So is it worth it to work another 25y? Or find other hustles to grind higher income to invest. I'm not sure how I feel about pensions. I feel like it's a bad thing, do you really want to work till 65? How's your health? How many good years would you have left? As I see pension + cpp + oas as a bad thing as you're forced to have really high income even during retirement = taxes and claw backs. Vs if you can invest you can control your payouts for your income?

Defined benefit pensions like this are indexed to inflation, they also last a lifetime, and when you die your spouse gets survivor benefits so a $50k pension is worth far more than $1m portfolio (assuming you live long enough). You can also income split these pensions to minimise your taxes so that $50k can be $25k per spouse. A $50k pension, IMO, should be treated more like a $1.5-2m portfolio as a result.

[RabidRat]

What happens if you get sleepy? What do you do if the droopy eyes are getting really dire?

Can you take the bus home for the night, so long as it's gassed up and ready on the route the next morning?

What decides who gets to drive a nicer newer buses, vs an older one for the day? Can I assume that if I see a driver in a newer bus, then they're probably one of the higher ups?

Is there some kind of tiered bonus, based on how accurately you time your stops?

Is there special training for the accordion buses?

Is there special training for the ones with electrical pole thingies?

...Do you guys talk about us passengers, in the staff room?

[whitev70r]

^ then you also get CPP and OAS on top of that, right?

[noclue]

Originally Posted by RabidRat

Can you take the bus home for the night, so long as it's gassed up and ready on the route the next morning?

“Yeah bro I park the 60ft bus in my driveway that takes 300+ liters of diesel or CNG, boss let me take it so I can load a sofa from costco”

[TypeRNammer]

Originally Posted by noclue

This is the chillest job, just chill and sweep the station, manually take over the train if it breaks down or bad weather.

Do bus drivers have a mandatory retirement age or can you keep going until you slump over the wheel?

SkyTrain attendant may be a chill job, that's one side of the extreme spectrum, on the other side you might to attend to a scene with a dead or partially alive person stuck under a train

Way back in the day there used to be a mandatory retirement age but the courts ruled it as discriminatory.

One of my classmates was 62 when he started, he's 72 and still working.

[SSM_DC5]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

^ then you also get CPP and OAS on top of that, right?

Say bye bye to the benefits for being low or no income if get a pension. Government will take it all back when you do your taxes.

[TypeRNammer]

Originally Posted by RabidRat

What happens if you get sleepy? What do you do if the droopy eyes are getting really dire?

Can you take the bus home for the night, so long as it's gassed up and ready on the route the next morning?

What decides who gets to drive a nicer newer buses, vs an older one for the day? Can I assume that if I see a driver in a newer bus, then they're probably one of the higher ups?

Is there some kind of tiered bonus, based on how accurately you time your stops?

Is there special training for the accordion buses?

Is there special training for the ones with electrical pole thingies?

...Do you guys talk about us passengers, in the staff room?

If you are on the road and feeling unfit to operate a bus, you need to call control to inform them of the situation. They will most likely to ask you to park and secure the bus wherever you are on route. From then on you either transit home or a supervisor will pick you up depending on the severity of your wellness

No you cannot take the bus home as it is company property

The decision on new vs old bus is dependant on dispatch from the mechanic side of things. Bus operators don't get to decide on that. For example, if you do the same route for the early morning shift, buses are assigned based on what's parked first in the track. Sometimes you get a new bus, sometimes you get an old bus.

No bonuses on timed stops, you are paid to drive safely from point a and point b, and if you are delayed from driving your regular route due to traffic or passenger load, it's paid by the minute at 1.5x

In training you are trained to drive the regular 40 foot diesel, 40 foot trolley, and 60 foot trolley. Once you graduate you have the basic jist on the various equipments. But once you venture out to different garages, some may have different equipment such as compressed natural gas buses or double decker buses which you will get additional training

[TypeRNammer]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

Ohhh I got some more questions too

- can you listen to a radio or podcast ? Can you wear headphones at all ?
- what if you have to take a dump ? You just bail on route ?
- how much is that bus ? Can you request to keep using the same old girl everyday ?
- how long are the shifts ? What about breaks ?

No electronic devices while operating a bus as per policy

If you really need to take a dump on route, just go, but be reasonable about it, inform passengers and control.

Different bus everyday as it is dispatched and assigned from the mechanics side.

Shifts you are guaranteed 7.5 hours of pay per day, but some shifts have longer duty time which will attract built in over time

Breaks are dependent on the bus schedule itself

[whitev70r]

They are building a huge ass bus depot at the foot of the Canada Line pedestrian bridge. There is also a massive depot in Marpole already ... seems close to have 2 big depots.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

^ then you also get CPP and OAS on top of that, right?

Yep.

Originally Posted by SSM_DC5

Say bye bye to the benefits for being low or no income if get a pension. Government will take it all back when you do your taxes.

Clawback doesn't start till you have $93k of net income and with income splitting it won't hit someone like Dark and generally won't hit most people who get a DB pension - you'd have to have 35 years of service and/or grossed over $150k/yr or so.

[TypeRNammer]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

They are building a huge ass bus depot at the foot of the Canada Line pedestrian bridge. There is also a massive depot in Marpole already ... seems close to have 2 big depots.

Lease is up on some of the land at the Vancouver garage where the diesel buses are parked

So some time in the distant future, Vancouver garage will be exclusively trolley buses, Marpole will be a mixed fleet of diesel and battery electric buses

That's what I've been hearing

[whitev70r]

In this day and age with EV buses coming on line, why do cities still use trolley buses with electrical wires overhead? Once in a while you see a bus pull over cuz it's connector disconnected. Seems like 1970 tech.

[radeonboy]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

In this day and age with EV buses coming on line, why do cities still use trolley buses with electrical wires overhead? Once in a while you see a bus pull over cuz it's connector disconnected. Seems like 1970 tech.

I imagine it's because the current buses have been paid for and the existing infrastructure is already there. Plus, the old buses don't need downtime to recharge like an EV bus would (before even figuring out the whole logistics of charging the buses).

[bcrdukes]

Cities like Toronto still use trolleys with wires. The tracks are built into the ground so the infrastructure is there. May as well continue using them, I guess?

[JDMDreams]

Bro were poor as fuck probably use the same shit for the next 50 years.

[OriginalJC]

Good luck Dark. You gotta do, what you gotta do for your family and your future.

[trollface]

A pension is nice, but you live in abject poverty until you get to 65 unless you happen to get a decent base wage. Meanwhile, COL will 100% outpace govt wage increases.

So you get a "safe" retirement, but you'll have no fun up until then. There are some pretty sick defined pensions, but they were closed up right after i was a fetus.

Current pensions are great for folks that already have a roof over their heads waiting to die.

[trollface]

Btw, I was on the bus once and this badhobz looking guy gets on and goes straight to the back. He take s ball of tinfoil out of his pocket and solowly unravels it, smoothing out all the creases.

He lays the foil on the floor, squats over it and takes a huge waterly dump. The driver started screaming at him about shitting on his bus. We all had to get off.

The PNE is weird.

[RabidRat]

I don't understand why the driver would be upset. That's paid time off.

He should be asking all his passengers to take shits in his bus.

[trollface]

Can i come shit in your office?

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by trollface

Btw, I was on the bus once and this badhobz looking guy gets on and goes straight to the back.

lol

[Badhobz]

dats not me facetroll! i wouldnt move to the back.... id take a shit on your face.

[Scotsman]

Originally Posted by SSM_DC5

Say bye bye to the benefits for being low or no income if get a pension. Government will take it all back when you do your taxes.

To add to what Supa said, you shouldn't be worried or complain if you're hitting OAS clawback especially as a couple where the pension and RRIF can be income split.

The clawback threshold is also tied to inflation so it has grown every year. The clawback is also a percentage of every dollar above the threshold so you don't lose it all once you hit the threshold amount. It's 15% of every $1 over.

2025 starts at $93,454 and you don't lose it all until you hit $151,668 income per person. So as a couple with income splitting you're going to have about $180k combined income up to $300k combined income before you lose 100% of your OAS.

I think you'll be enjoying your retired life with that type of income and not be worried about the lost OAS.

You also get an OAS payment bump of 10% at age 75 so that takes you from $151,668 to $157,490 before you've lost 100% OAS and again that's per person.

However if the government fucks with the threshold in the future then the game will change. There are groups lobbying to get the threshold amount lowered.

There is already GIS for those who need more income support so not sure if any political party wants to lower the OAS threshold (affects middle and upper middle (?) class so a major voting block).

Good luck on the new career Dark!

[Badhobz]

No electronic devices seems insane. If I was driving the no 20 bus I’d wanna listen to something…. I mean it’s basically inhumane to not provide some sort of entertainment while driving that mindless bus route. Each stops is like 500 meters or something! Ugh every few minutes. Ding stop. Ding stop. Ding stop.