A private collection of material focusing on the never ending joys of the Trimet industrial complex-Follow the Twitter feed for complete coverage and trimet scanner calls
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Trimess
Sunday, April 24, 2022
This blog has now passed 3,000,000 views
I DON'T LOOK AT MY STATISTICS VERY OFTER, WHEN I DID TODAY I FOUND THIS OUT
Al, I'm the one who several years ago related the story on this BLOG of applying for a bus driving job at TriMet in 1975 and was turned down because I failed the MMPI-type of test they gave at the time. I flunked it and they told me that I didn't have the personality to drive a transit bus as they didn't think I had the temperament to deal with hundreds of people a day. They said I most probably could drive a Greyhound but didn't think I would make a good candidate for a city transit driver.
I called bull-shit to that at the time. How could they determine by a fu****-up test like that whether I could handle driving a bus???
Several months later, I applied at Metro in Seattle and was immediately hired as they gave an old and dated test from the Seattle Transit System days. It had to do with a few simple rules of the road and how to make change, etc. I passed with flying colors and was hired.
The first few years, I loved being a bus driver but years 2 through 30, it became evident that TriMet was right when they told me that I didn't have the personality to drive a city bus. But I stuck it out and retired with a bit over 30 years on a PERS I pension so I'm thankful and grateful to those who talked me out of quitting the dozens times through those 30+ years when I seriously thought about going back and driving a truck OTR.
But thank you for this BLOG and for continuing to publish Trimet's radio calls. I listen every day and it just reinforces my relief that I no longer am driving a city bus. Things sure have changed since the mid-1970s --or even in the almost 17 years it's been since I retired-- and there's no way I could tolerate the job today knowing what I hear being described by the TriMet radio traffic. A former colleague told me it's as bad or worse in the Seattle area --drugs on the bus, assaults on drivers and riders alike, mentally unstable clientele, and the biohazard incidences both with people and what they leave on the bus (it has to be 50 times worse today as I can think of only two times of people puking on the bus and only one incident of feces left in my career) and he kept telling me that we have to be thankful not to be doing the job today.
Kudos to those who are doing the job during these days. More power to you. You are certainly a special breed. Please be safe, do the best you can, and hang in there.
Please keep posting that radio traffic, Al. It provides not only entertainment but as said, puts a smile of relief on my face that I'm no longer maneuvering transit buses through today's urban environment.
1 comment:
Al, I'm the one who several years ago related the story on this BLOG of applying for a bus driving job at TriMet in 1975 and was turned down because I failed the MMPI-type of test they gave at the time. I flunked it and they told me that I didn't have the personality to drive a transit bus as they didn't think I had the temperament to deal with hundreds of people a day. They said I most probably could drive a Greyhound but didn't think I would make a good candidate for a city transit driver.
I called bull-shit to that at the time. How could they determine by a fu****-up test like that whether I could handle driving a bus???
Several months later, I applied at Metro in Seattle and was immediately hired as they gave an old and dated test from the Seattle Transit System days. It had to do with a few simple rules of the road and how to make change, etc. I passed with flying colors and was hired.
The first few years, I loved being a bus driver but years 2 through 30, it became evident that TriMet was right when they told me that I didn't have the personality to drive a city bus. But I stuck it out and retired with a bit over 30 years on a PERS I pension so I'm thankful and grateful to those who talked me out of quitting the dozens times through those 30+ years when I seriously thought about going back and driving a truck OTR.
But thank you for this BLOG and for continuing to publish Trimet's radio calls. I listen every day and it just reinforces my relief that I no longer am driving a city bus. Things sure have changed since the mid-1970s --or even in the almost 17 years it's been since I retired-- and there's no way I could tolerate the job today knowing what I hear being described by the TriMet radio traffic. A former colleague told me it's as bad or worse in the Seattle area --drugs on the bus, assaults on drivers and riders alike, mentally unstable clientele, and the biohazard incidences both with people and what they leave on the bus (it has to be 50 times worse today as I can think of only two times of people puking on the bus and only one incident of feces left in my career) and he kept telling me that we have to be thankful not to be doing the job today.
Kudos to those who are doing the job during these days. More power to you. You are certainly a special breed. Please be safe, do the best you can, and hang in there.
Please keep posting that radio traffic, Al. It provides not only entertainment but as said, puts a smile of relief on my face that I'm no longer maneuvering transit buses through today's urban environment.
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