bus driver

van driver

bus monitor

driver

diesel mechanic

Durham School Services

Training was ok, but the Safety Manager always acted "PUT OFF" when you asked a question. He likes to sit in his office. It's rare to see him out in the yard doing anything.

New Drivers (hired in August 2013 with no experience) are getting $14.50 to start. Older drivers with one or two years experience are getting $14.25 an hour. They have been promising a $0.25 raise since May 2013. So why are the new inexperienced drivers getting paid more than the experienced drivers?

Management plays favorites. Very clicky environment. WATCH YOUR BACK AT ALL TIMES! Older drivers that hate Management will try to help the newer drivers when they see Management start screwing with you. The older drivers have some insane stories about past Management screwups. Unbelievable!

Management also LIES about fringe benefits when they hire people, such as health insuranace that basically covers nothing. It only pays out about $1,500.00 a year - so dont get sick.

There are no values or culture. If you had past experience in Management and you're driving a bus because of the economy and cutbacks, you're in for a rude awakening. The Management here has no training in Management. IT'S ALWAYS THE BUS DRIVERS FAULT.

Expect big time errors in routes and missed stops. When you miss stops that are NOT even on your route sheets, YOU WILL BE BLAMED!

No chance for advancement. I've seen many try and ALL fail.

Management also lies about routes. They say that ALL routes were test driven. IT'S A LIE! When you show them a Yahoo run with all the stops that supports your recent times and not theirs, they try to blame Yahoo. MANAGEMENT IS NEVER WRONG!

Management also fires older workers that have been there for years because they are making more than $20.00 an hour. They can replace you with a new driver for $14.50 and save $5.50 for every driving hour. Safety and experience don't matter when it comes to the bottom line.

The General Manager is driven by his annual bonus for cutting costs. He would kill you off in a New York minute if it improved his bottom line.

The entire place is a pig stye. Garbage cans in the bus yard are overflowing with trash. They only get emptied once or twice a month. And since there are no lids on them, the trash blows out and it attracts raccons. It's interesting when you enter your bus at 6AM and find a raccoon. It's even better when you discover that the raccoon has gone everywhere and you have to clean it up.

The buses are old and dirty, and they break down all the time because they do patchwork repairs instead of replacing bad components. When they occasionally get rid of a bus, they strip parts to fix other broken ones. On some buses, you don't know what the switches are for until you try them. On one bus, I was trying to turn on a heater and hit a mislabeled switch and opened the service door by mistake. I was going 50 miles an hour at the time.

The fuel tanks fell out of two buses this past year while they were being driven. That's the Durham maintenance program at work.

They do push too hard for Driver Safety, and it's to overcompensate for the unsafe equipment and lack of proper maintenance.

● Work-life balance
This could be a great place to work if some changes were made.  The drivers are never backed by the company. They have a rotating door when it comes to drivers.  If you are in training to be a new driver, it is because you are someone's replacement. This location is the 2nd lowest paying in the valley.  Drivers get little to no help with buses carrying up to 50 students on multiple tier runs. It takes weeks or months for disciplinary action to be taken or to be addressed.  It can be dangerous to drive certain schools.  There have been stabbings and fights on multiple routes at this location.  Managment has nepotism issues; families are in management and create a hostile environment if a relative is questioned about behavior or safety.  No real job security and no advancement.  It is a non-union yard and probably would be better if a strong union came in to help employees fight management for rights they should have under labor laws.  Promotion is based on whether or not you are "friends" with management and not based on ability or knowledge.

● Pay & benefits
The insurance is not great only slightly better than state insurance.  The insurance company provides policies to companies with high turn over.  (This yard definitely has high turn over)

● Job security and advancement
Once you are finished with employee training you are basically done.  They do not have monthly safety meeting and do not recognize drivers who are safe drivers or exceed safety standards.  This yard is ranked the 3rd worst in the company district wide for following safety procedures and maintaining safety standards.

● Management
Durham school services offers incentives to their management staff (exclusively) for staying within budget and does not pay attention to how it effects the people (drivers and aides) who make their business possible. They will do whatever it takes to maintain their budget at the expense of their drivers and subordinates.

● Culture
The drivers of this yard work hard and for the most part work together.  It is an underfunded district and it shows. The drivers do the best they can with what they have and are given.  The issue with this yard lies within management not hearing the need for improvements or change that may cost them initially but, would stop the high turn over rate if a few of the request were provided to the drivers.

● Overall
LOW Pay, lack of change, and nepotism are the downfall of this yard.  It is a tough town to drive for and the more the company takes away the harder it will be to retain drivers.  If management were quicker to resolve student behavior issues they would not escalate the way they often do.  Nothing is provided to help maintain the cleanliness of the buses. Training is subpar.  Buses are overloaded because there are not enough drivers.  It is a difficult place to work but, the drivers are good people.

Things went great at first. I attended class and studied day and night as a trainee. I spent a lot of time and money on trying to get my CLP. When I finally got my CLP I began behind the wheel training. A month into this job during my training I had let them know that I was pregnant and I started to be treated completely different. I was belittled, my hours were cut, and I wasn't paid for two months, so I stopped showing up and began looking for another job. When I was told they would pay me again I went back and was told that if I were late at all that would be the final straw with them. I said okay no problem and went about my usual training. Immediately after I returned, they wanted me to prepare to take my three tests to complete my training and get my CDL. I failed the first time due to a miscommunication on my pre trip skills inspection. I was taught the pre trip one way, but the examiner told me that was wrong. I got sent home for a week and went back to take the test again and passed the pre trip and backing, but I failed the driving. I was yet again sent home and told I would be trained a little longer. I found out that even if I had passed I didn't have enough hours of behind the wheel training to get my CDL anyway, so I was basically set to fail from the start. I went back and got a few more days of behind the wheel training, and then, I came to work on an off day, tired and dealing with morning sickness. I was given a route sheet for the first time and only got to look at it for a few minutes before my trainer took it and expected me to memorize it. I explained that I wasn't familiar with the area we were going into, and they told me that's why I'm here. I went on with the training and I started missing turns and struggled to stay focused while my trainer was very clearly getting mad at me. When I got back to the yard my boss told me that we needed to talk and I would receive a call from them later. I was sent home early. I knew in my gut I had a bad feeling. I received the call and was told "We don't think that you are safe to drive children, you seem to be experiencing short term memory, and having some vision difficulties, likely due to your pregnancy. We think that it's best if you find something else in the meantime. You can come back after the baby is born though" do not recommend this company. Everyone is very two faced and they act supportive of you until you run out of the 80 paid hours they give you, then you're on your own. I no longer work here and finished getting my CDL with another company that actually believed in me. My current company is amazing and says that Durham lost a great employee... Their loss. 

Great starter job. They will train anybody with a clean record and over 21+ years of age.

Unfortunately only about 30hrs of work per week. So paychecks are small but you get paid well per hour and have a lot of free time throughout the mid-day.

Helps if you live nearby or do a side hustle.

You can bring your kids to work every day if you want. A lot of parents work here. Management is pretty good, friendly, and flexible.

Health care is not great, so most don't opt for it.

I would highly recommend it for someone that wants a good work/life balance and can survive on 650-780 bucks a week.

There are a lot of unpaid mandatory days off or reduced hours since school buses stay parked on holidays, and some schools will run a bit different schedules.

I think if you want to achieve great things in life this is probably not the place to be if you want to buy a house or pay off debt. 

But if you are young and don't want to go to college or if you are a parent and want some money and spend time with your kids more, or you are old and retired and just want a side hustle. Then this is for you 100%.

The job itself is pretty easy. The hardest day is the first day on your own, after which you get to remember your route by 2nd day or end of the week.

The kids aren't too bad. They scream a lot as they goof around, but they are generally very good kids.

The real hard part about the job is the weather and seasonal lack of daylight early in the morning.

You're expected to get started around 6:30am, then walk around the bus and check everything in the heat, cold, rain, snow, or darkness when winter comes, 

You are expected to clean your bus inside with a broom. Kids trash it almost daily.

You are expected to clean your windshield, especially when it fogs over or develops ice.

Pretty standard stuff, and only a few days a year can be challenging during the winter.

If the schools don't close, expect driving in crazy weather. Big buses handle snow with ease. Little busses skid more than your own car most likely. So you have to be a safe and slightly slower driver to give enough time for the vehicle to turn when the weather wants to skid you off the road.

If you have half a brain and aren't in a hurry, then you will do just fine.

There is no real path to career advancement. But some people sign up for extra stuff like being a trainer, extra routes, field trips, standby driver. 

And in rare occasions, some people sign up for additional office work but those spots are taken and likely will not be changing any time soon.

Durham used to be a decent place to work but it’s always been a turn over factory. The main reason for this is the pathetic corporate management. They take a one size fits all approach to their CSC’s and it’s a total failure. 

The most recent crop of geniuses decided they know how to handle scheduling better than the people on the ground working directly with the client. They have changed the process to pinch pennies and squeeze employees for time. Everyone locally tried telling them it was wrong and that it was going to be a disaster, but they know better. As predicted this has been a complete failure and has cost more money than they will ever save. They have also angered a client that already despises them and their poor decisions. I guess they never wonder why every meeting scheduled between corporate management and the client gets cancelled? 

To top it off they are now paying overtime for people to fix their problem manually every day while we work through their convoluted process to get a permanent solution. This is what happens when you value your ego over your employees opinion.

Because of trying to pinch pennies and squeeze people for time they have also created an unsafe environment for our employees. Their tactics are forcing drivers to rush in the yard and to stops. It’s only a matter of time before there is a incident because of this.
 
I guess the 6 kids killed in Tennessee by an unsafe Durham driver is no longer a lesson learned. Safety now appears to only be as important as its cost.

The people corporate brought into our area already lost our account once before with their bright ideas while employed with another company. Now Durham, in their infinite genius, has apparently hired them to do the same. Why would a corporate office hire someone that one of your largest clients finds repulsive and refuses to meet with? That’s Durham for you! 

Our location has already lost very talented people because of the poor corporate management and they will continue to do so. In fact, I can’t think of a single person who isn’t looking to get out of this place.

It’s a shame because a lot of people worked very hard for years to make a better CSC for our employees and build a good relationship with our client. It’s taken less than a year for poor management and their poor decisions to completely destroy that hard work.

I have worked at Durham School Services for a short period of time but I can definitely say that it has been a learning experience. Quite a few people would equivocate the career of a bus driver to being an effortless job. This label is far from the truth. Being a ambulatory/wheelchair bus driver is incredibly similar to good parenting. It requires: punctuality, responsibility, dedication, diplomacy, cultivation, patience and bravery .People believe that they have all these qualities in which they might but my job requires exceeding levels of all the above. The first day I drove alone I was comfortable with my route and passengers. I quickly learned that punctuality for my job requires leaving to pick up passengers twenty to thirty five minutes early depending on the location. I was under the impression if I left my yard at least fifteen minutes early there wouldn't be any reason for me to be late. While turning onto the street of my passenger's school, I ended up caught in a traffic jam. This resulted in my being fifteen minutes behind schedule. On average I have at least three ambulatory (walk-on) and one wheelchair passengers daily. When you are late even if it's ten minutes during the initial pick-up you will not ever be able to catch up. This was definitely my most concrete learning experience. Even though I had an ill-fated experience such as that one I absolutely love my job. I have great relationships with my passengers and their caregivers. That is a great deal of what I enjoy most about my job; the close-knit interaction with others. I have a great love for people and I am a firm believer in customer service. This is what makes my job and others like it ideal for me. My management and co-workers are very amiable. Similar to other jobs I have encountered difficulties but they mainly pertain to the exterior of my bus. My most common difficulty is pertaining to driver's awareness or lack thereof regarding school bus trafficking laws  (e.g. when the stop arm comes out you shall stay behind the bus until all passengers are clear or aboard.) More so on the interior of the bus if the automatic switch should break for the wheelchair ramp it would have to be manually elevated and/or depressed. This might take a lot of pumping.

Durham Bus on Richard St in Jacksonville, FL
I don’t have any positives about this company. 
The management team is very unprofessional, the treat you with disrespect and their very unorganized. 
They allow their team to repeat the same behavior. 
Sone drivers in lieu repeat the behavior in which they receive. Their is favoritism in this workplace but also racism in this place. They try to cover it up, but it’s visible. They pretend they like you, but it’s apparent they do not. They don’t do anything for the drivers that stands out! At meetings in the am they serve cake and sometimes a little fruit and bottles water, but never enough when they know they have a great amount of employees. They allow some employees to do what they want due to their tenure. Children are allowed to run around the compound both inside and outside which promotes unsafety. Some mechanics aren’t knowledgeable and they don’t have mechanical credentials. One mechanic is very disrespectful and performs actions that are unprofessional in the workplace. He die da more time flirting with a driver and being in her face than working. Some of the drivers are very disrespectful, unprofessional, rude and show no courtesy in the parking lot area and when driving the buses. Durham parking lot is ridiculous an accident waiting to happen. No lights in the early am to walk to your bus other than the bus lights. Homes through out the lot in which you can be injured due to falling in especially when it rains the puddles are deep. 
Buses are moved from where you park them. You have to search for your bus because it’s being used and fuel is not placed back in your bus when it’s used. Working at Durham you feel like your just a meal ticket no one cares. You can call on the radio and sometimes you receive no answer or they will place you on standby and never return to you whether it’s an emergency or not. The radio is sometimes treated as a playground by staff and employees. The buses breakdown often. 
Durham needs a new face. New managers, new employees to make a positive difference. 
Contacting Corporate they protect management whether their right or wrong. Bottom line Durham makes false promises to you to hire you on. They don’t keep their word.

This is a great side gig, rewarding job, love the kids and people working with. This is no way shape or form a way to live because pay is very low - it’s only a side gig. The work life balance is fabulous, no nights or weekends and summer off mostly. Summer has much fewer hours and not worth it if you are a monitor, company struggles to find drivers especially after the pandemic, so tj they’re always short handed to the extreme. This cause issues everyone all around that 
results in a high turn over rate. I have idea who the managers are, I am never in contact with them and that is a good thing. I feel in control of what I do and no one breathing down my neck. The bus driver position is a well paid job - I do think that is worth applying for but there are many back round checks you must pass and there is drug testing with mandatory physicals. Keep in mind - the government is involved with this position, some folks are not allowed around children and special needs people. This is a factor as to why many districts are short handed.  I do feel this is a way better job that an office corporate position and being employed by small business. I am hoping everyone’s stops working 
for corporate America and takes on jobs like this. I am not paid at all well as a monitor but I am an independent contractor and this adds a bit more to my income. I worked in mortgage finance and managed a call center for a bit and found out how bad life was during the pandemic. I am paid less now but I am so happy and in control of my life. Corporate America has no right to force you to work 10, 12, 15 or how many hours of the day with no sense of control over your life. Working nights and weekends on top of that is imprisonment. Do something rewarding and take control over your life. Overall this is a great company, people are awesome to work with, management stays out of your face, and the work/life balance is a dream come true. The pay for a monitor is very low and cannot survive off of it, you’ll need a 2nd job or other way for more income. Bus driver position is a high pay bracket. Good luck.

The day would start with a pre-trip inspection of the bus. Then we would head out to get the kids. There was a great deal of public relations involved in regard to managment of the children, safely maneuvering the bus in traffic and weather conditions, and getting the children to school on time. I learned patience, patience patience. I also learned that if you talk "to" the kids, not "at" them, you will gain not only their cooperation but their respect.

We had a lot of turn-over in management and not all managers were really qualified for their position. A lot of times people advanced by putting others down. When I first started there was a feeling of family amongst the entire staff. But after a couple of new managers, an atmosphere of mistrust and spying and tattling was encouraged by management leading to poor morale and an attempt to unionize. It was pretty awful! I was a park-out driver and was happy to be out of the thick of it.

I made friends with a lot of my co-workers and we are still friends even though it has been close to seven years since I worked there.

The hardest part of the job was losing a student. I lost one in the military, two to disease and one in an automobile accident. It is hard because you can't help but become attached to the kids.

The best part of every day was the first child that got on the bus and smiled at you and it would just make your day. I always enjoyed greeting the high school kids each morning when they were half asleep and getting them to smile.

The job had challenges but it was always intetesting. I loved it and I miss it. I would still be there except for one of the big guys tripping and falling on me. It fractured my neck, tore up my shoulder and broke some ribs. After surgeries, therapy and a return to school, I earned a degree and started a new career path.

Easy electronic daily work requirements. Pre trip an post trip inspections are also electronic unless the system is down an then a paper inspection has to be done but it's multiple choice so it's very easy to complete. Managers make the job easier because they care about the safety an advancement of their employees. Meeting children with different personalities an disabilities makes the shift run smoothly. Occasionally there are children who need extra love care an attention who probably don't receive it from home so they tend to act up until you get aquatinted with them an learn how to deal with each child accordingly to their distinct personalities an traits. Some parents can make things difficult by being disrespectful an show no signs of affection towards their children. When a parent goes overboard or mistreats or harms a child it must be reported immediately because we sign a waiver the same as teachers an doctors to report abuse of children. Try an accommodate parents with transport especially ones who are employed an have strict or changing schedules that may conflict with pick up or drop off times. Seasonal work unless one needs or wants to work during down season, summer vacay an/or field trips. Advancement in the company is encouraged because when you have accomplished every position you can help new hires an be able to be empathize with them an their ever changing life situations that occur an deter someone away; especially when it comes to leadership positions. Being over safety an never driven can cause strains on communication. Being dispatch an never driven can cause a wedge during routes especially if a driver gets lost or has a route with hazards if you have driven you can give advice or solutions to help assist properly. 

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