Originally Posted by dark0821
(Post 9200379)
To be honest, it is "hard" and "easy" at the same time. I have RS Translink GURUs at my disposal which I harassed them daily for like hours on end and be like.. what is this... how is that.... WTF do i do here.... how are the exams appointed... what are they looking for lololol
SUPER DUPER LONG READ (I cant write concise, lolol sorry guys, but I think its interesting)
****it is a long ass process to get hired though.... I guess it is the same for all public sectos....
1. I havn't been back to school for like 2 decades (but the amount of reading expected of you is absurd) (of course I didn't read the material, I uploaded the pdfs to various AIs and read summaries) and even then its a solid 45min to 60min of reading every single day (there is an online quiz every day, you have to keep up 80%)
- legit have somone fail on this part... which was... but I understand, some students kepts a second job during training which was crazy to me
2. written exams (mid term and final) to maintain 80% as well, you get a 2nd chance to take one big final exam if you fucked up the midterm + final
- one of our student did that as well... and honestly not his fault, English was like his 3rd language.... and the multiple choice answers are tricky (as in even if you knew the answer, they word it in a way where even I have to read it 5Xs over and be like... ahhh ok!)
3. driving in general... this is the "easy" or "hard" part... You are expected to 100% make mistakes, and LOTS of mistakes at that... they just want to see how you react to your mistakes.... there are A LOT OF POLICY AND PROCEDURES that are there to protect you, your passengers and other road users in a SAFETY FIRST manner. when you fuck up... and lemme tell you, during training i fucked up.... they want to see that you can
remaing calm. deep breath
do the proper PROCEDURES in the correct order to resolve the mistake
- this part of the program is also based on "lucK", you can have bright sunny days, with calm traffic, courtes drivers and easy going passengers, you can have a very "smooth" day... or you can have drivers trying to cut you off, pull out of parking without seeing you coming up to them at full speed (which I hate the most, you stomp on brake, you might send passengers flying and injure them) you lay on your horn, the car might freeze up and just cont to occupy the space which now you bus is gonna occupy in the next 2 seconds... yes they teach you defensive driving (which shameless plug here, it overlays the PRS class 6 motorcycle school pretty extensively) helped me alot since I already practice a lot of these things for the past few years), but yea, if you are unlucky, from what I heard from classmates, the "incidents" that occured which we are told "so and so" are no longer with the program, half of it is how they handled it once it happened, but also a portion of it being "lucky" it just so happens to happed to them in the first place
4. Road test... road test is easy, just like every other road test bascially the jest of it is "dont do stupid shit"... the only unconventional part of the road test is before driving, you are given 45 minutes to articulate your "pre-trip", ie checking the commercial vehicle over to make sure it is road worthy before putting the vehicle on public road. You are required to do this daily if you are the first driver of the bus brining the vehicle out of the yard. You need to tell your examiner during the test, ofc when you do it yourself in the future, you don't need to speak, but do make sure you still check. Because if the bus fucks up during your shift and it was something that should "have been found during your pre-trip".... get fucked...
5. Trolley... this is the part where alot of students gets fucked (I almost did as well, I just got lucky tbh).... so you are driving this large vehicle for probably about 20 hours in total (unlike other vehicles, you "cant" practice at home, so the 1 to 2 hours everyday is all you get). You are trying to keep your bus straight (even on the Oak/Granville skinny lanes), not to have poles wipe out your mirrors, look for other road users, traffic lights, bus stops, pedestrains, e-scooters, e-bikes, etc etc)... now you gotta look up at the wires in the sky... the trolley wires are from 1940's, they are "NOT" automated, there is a switch inside of the bus that you must control during "switches", and the switches are very sensitive to the angle/speed which your bus approaches them... for the longest time I can't do it, my eyes are so busy doing everything else (especially in downtown where there are a million delivery "silent" e scooters and bikers that likes to get in a few inches of your stupid bus) I just dont have the time to look up.. and sometimes the wires blends into the tree shadows... etc etc....
-we lost the bulk of our students here
6. Final evaluation drive on a trolley.... once again this comes down to luck... i got extremely lucky, in all the test routes, i got the easiest.... #41 bus.... its a straight line from Joyce to Crown and back... no routes to remember, just a few switches near the major intersections that I need to be careful of, nice wide lanes, nothing to "squeeze thru"... some of my classmates got the effed up routes with a million turns... or the nightmare.... a million turns in downtown that goes into DTES (nothing against DTES, but once again just one more factor that you can't control, they like to "hang out" on the street, and cross the road with 0 regards of what around them) etc etc.....
***oh and yes what dukes said, be humble, you are there to learn, once again they expect you to make mistakes, lots of them, as long as they are not super repeated, and you improve everytime you make the "same mistakes", if there are progress you are good, unless it is a blant dangerous action like running cyclist off the road or going thru a red light //// and yea.. the last thing you want is to start some shit with your instructor, they have a huge wait list of applicants, they are not here to cater to you, one of our classmates comes from a class 1 big rig background, not going into details, he argued that he has more "hours" driving large vehicles than the intructors, got into a heated argument and was escorted out the building and we never saw him ever again //// it could be down to personality, but I jivved with every instructor, all of them are easy going, thats why they are in the training department, if you dont bring an ego in, you will have a good time like I did //// did I think every note on my daily assesment is "fair", mayyyybbeee someone are a bit over critical, but I am not gonna start making excuses and defend myself /// let it go /// as long as it doesnt affect my graduation who gives a f
Now the real test starts.... probation is about 5 months, union basically told us, they are pretty much powerless to help us during probabtion, so dont fuck up.... once you pass probation, then the Union can fight for you going forward... so... wish me luck guys!!!!
I will bring the good new after Spring Break lololol
|
