Originally Posted By mousermerf Well, we should have seen this coming, considering how much bus drivers generally hate Magic in Motion. <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-disney-world-bus-accidents-20100416,0,1859270.story" target="_blank">http://www.orlandosentinel.com...70.story</a> It doesn't allow them to sleep on their route, it doesn't allow them to just pull off to the side, it doesn't allow them to drive very slowly in empty areas to avoid runs, it doesn't allow them to turn off their sign when they arrive at a plaza and not board passengers "just because." A lot of bus drivers were fired over blatant violations when MiM went into place and caught them doing all kinds of ridiculousness we've all known about for years. Sort of akin to the custodians sleeping in empty parts of Epcot - they got caught, got angry, and now they see the recent accidents as a way to get rid of the little black boxes that make sure they're actually working.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost The dirty truth is that bus drives have been doing that for years. When you drive a municipal route you are multi-tasking all the time. There's driving, there's answering passengers questions, there's setting up the on-board computers that record the passenger count (something they don't have a Disney) for the next route to run, there's changing the destination sign for the next run before you arrive at your current destination, there's monitoring passenger payments (another thing not burdening Disney), there's responding to radio calls, there's calling ahead to hold a bus for transfer (one more thing not likely to happen at Disney)and there's (did I mention) driving a large vehicle through massive traffic situations attempting to avoid contact with other vehicles operated by people that obviously got their drivers licenses out of cereal boxes. I did mention it? Well, it was worth repeating. The idea of an automated system seems like heaven to me. Catching useless employees is really just a perk with the GPS system...the real value comes in freeing up the driver from multi-multi tasking. This is not a bad thing folks. One thing I have noticed with Disney fans is that they insist on two things...safety and being entertained. Try and understand that the two are not compatible.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub It doesn't stop them from eating their lunch on route. I can't believe how irritated it makes me to see this in writing because it HAS been going on and still is. You can wait forever for a bus and then 2 pull up right behind each other for the same destination. It is as if the drivers cover each other(taking turns) so one has to deal with those guest tourists while the other coasts. Obviously they are realizing and trying to fix the problem. I noticed "official looking cars posted at the resorts giving each driver their "assignment" as they pulled up perhaps. ANd what looked like a "undercover tourist" on the bus and later "standing" in DD "acting" like she was using a cellphone. Man heaven help them if they would ever be brave enough to post a phone# for customer complaints.
Originally Posted By -em Slow news day? Axe to grind? I give kudos to the Bus drivers on a daily basis as I drive property and see how much bad driving goes on and would hate to do it in a bus, while trying to "plan people's vacations" But MiM at least to me while makes you do "something" it takes "something" away and from the article what gets "taken away" is a lot more than what gets "added"... and closes loopholes that were mentioned which I see as a good thing. I hate using the radio at work because it interrupts my course of day (and potential "nap time".) Wonder if I could fight to not use it? Even though it makes for better service because I can be found vs trying to track me down in passing. Yeah thin argument
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub I guess you have never waited almost an hour for a bus at DD only to have the driver pull up not change his sign until he pulls away from all of the people sitting at the bus stop. And then try to hail him down for it and have him just shrug at you as he continues on his way with an empty bus. Now I always "ask" every driver as they pull up and unload people. And yes the last visit at Easter the driver said under his breathe Oh yeah I forgot to change the sign!
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub The only time I have this problem is DD run. I will say I noticed the drivers being very careful and very friendly at Easter. And i know they do work under very stressful conditions with a lot of responsibility.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub When WDW went to Magic Express years ago a would guess a major reason to take on this expense was: to keep customers on property and to control traffic(thus eliminating many independent shuttle drivers with questionable auto insurance and driving records). This last trip I noticed many of the large busses picking up resort guests late at night did not have WDW or Mears on the logo. So the traffic is overloading itself once again. I even wonder if some of the recent "problems" have been caused by these types of busses officially working on prop but not as familiar w/WDW traffic flow. And yes the visiting family in the car not familiar with the land is probably the biggest hazard!
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 In my 13 trips to WDW I only remember one bad driver. But I've learned much from many of them.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Disney isn't the only transit operator that uses this system. SF Muni has something similar. I doubt if this has anything to do with the recent accidents. I get the feeling that some of these drivers would be happier if the buses just drove themselves. They'd probably still find something to complain about I bet.
Originally Posted By MPierce I'm wondering what the gliches are that keep holding up the fully automated system. With all the talent that Disney has, one would think these problems would have been resolved by now. For the most part Disney bus drivers seem excellent. If you can't deal with distractions, being a WDW bus driver is definetly not the job for you.
Originally Posted By -em One piece that I thought of is they are blaming GPS but none of the locations of the accidents seem to be places that the GPS "activation" would be occurring (at least IMO)so blaming that directly to me is a non-issue. I'm surprised they arn't blaming their new costumes. -em
Originally Posted By -em They are very utilitarian. Gray button down with thin red, white and black accent shirts with two large front pockets(very non-flattering for females due to pocket location and ribbon location on said pockets) Black pants with same color accents as shirt. The only thing "disney" about them is the logo D on the sleeve. Other than that they look like they were borrowed from some generic bus union.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Black?...in a place as hot as Florida? Obviously decided by someone that spends his or her day in an air conditioned office.
Originally Posted By -em basically.. You'd be amazed how much black is used across property. But in all honesty from a personal standpoint I'd rather wear black pants than white ones -em
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< The only thing "disney" about them is the logo D on the sleeve. Other than that they look like they were borrowed from some generic bus union. >>> They do look a bit more stylized than a generic bus driver's uniform, which is probably exactly the look they were trying for. If you saw one of those guys walking down the street in that costume (especially with the hat), you might just think "bus driver" - the old ones were very non-specific and didn't allude to any particular position.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< One piece that I thought of is they are blaming GPS but none of the locations of the accidents seem to be places that the GPS "activation" would be occurring (at least IMO)so blaming that directly to me is a non-issue. >>> It does seem to me that the union's real gripe is that it's too easy for "management" to keep track of and measure the job performance of the workers (heaven forbid that be the case!). It sounds like once the final integration piece is in place, which will eliminate the drivers having to input the new destination, the amount of driver distraction will be far less than it was before. But notice that instead of lobbying Disney to speed up the implementation of the final integration piece, the union seems to be complaining about the GPS system in general. But, removing it would undoubtedly result in more driver distractions if they had to go back to spieling. So what are they really getting at? Also, whether GPS is used or not, the notion that busses are dynamically assigned routes based on demand is certainly the way to go to increase service levels and guest satisfaction. Yet the union seems against this because it requires drivers to know more than one route. Again, heaven forbid that a union employee be required to learn something new in order to serve the customer better.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I thought the old uniforms had bling! >>> Note that I'm not saying I like the new ones. The grey colors don't seem to be quite the right fit for Florida, but having said that, they definitely work in terms of them identifying the work role of the wearer, which of course is one of the primary purposes of many uniforms.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>It does seem to me that the union's real gripe is that it's too easy for "management" to keep track of and measure the job performance of the workers (heaven forbid that be the case!).<<< We had somewhat that same issue with the union when we installed security camera's in all the buses. Their first reaction was...it's just a tool to monitor the drivers. As it turns out the cameras have saved the butts of many of them when they were falsely accused of something while driving, either saying something wrong or even driving by people and more. The complaints would come in and we could verify by going to the cameras. Low and behold about 90% of the time it vindicated the driver. They are starting to really like them now. That brings me ever so briefly to another topic. Public transit has turned me sour on people in general. What a bunch of whiny, lying, finger pointing dorks so many of them are. But that's another thread. Back to the originally scheduled topic.
