bus driver

diesel mechanic

fleet maintenance supervisor

fleet mechanic

cleaner

Greyhound

If you have no other desire in life, but to make money, this is the place.
If you are content to surrender your life to an employer that sees you only as a means to an end, this is the place.
If you have no family, social, civic, church or other obligation or interests, this is the employer for you.  If you do not value your life or the lives of others, the Dog is the employer for you.  

I was excited to start my new job as a professional motorcoach operator with what I thought was the finest bus company in the world.

T R A I N I N G  S E C T I O N  B E G I N S - 
skip this if you are not interested in the training process.

You start with what I yet hold to be the best training in the industry, whether you are a seasoned bus operator or, as I, a new commercial licensee.  In fact, if you at least have the permit, Greyhound will take you all the way from that point to your road test.  Trust when I say that this alone is worth the "price of admission."  Also, like many other companies you need only arrange scheduling with your supervisor to maintain current your annual or biannual medical certificate.  These two factors alone can save you about $1,500 in your first year of licensing and as much as around $200 per year or every two years, depending on various factors.  You are taught by the best of the best.  It reminded me of basic training in the military - only without the PT, marching or yelling.  Well, the yelling - or chiding - came during road training.  The idea was to stress the importance of strict attentiveness and care while driving.  They are trained to highlight every little error, because unlike other commercial drivers, you carry the most precious cargo, people.

You are sequestered during training, unless, like one of my classmates, you live near enough to the training center to be on time for the early morning training start time, which can be quite early once road training begins. This is two weeks.  By the way, yes, you may wash out.  There are administrative knowledge quizzes and of course the driving skills assessments during road training, which you are expected to pass.  You can repeat, but this is at the discretion of the director.

Then you return to your employing garage.You will have to complete another 30 or 40 hours of driving.  I forget the exact number, but there are more required of trainees pending their road test than those who hold a license as I did.  Part of this is in "route training" where you travel with two to three other trainees, driving routes normally covered by your garage.  In New York City, and other garages that serve Canadian border cities, you have to be able to pass Canada's strict entry guidelines. Then you will spend another several hours driving passengers in "cubbing" with a regular driver on board. Once you have satisfactorily completed all of the required hours you are now put "on the board."  Now you will be assigned random schedules to drive.

T R A I N I N G  S E C T I O N  E N D S

Once on the board you learn that the company lacks an operating ethic.  What do I mean?  Federal Law restricts drivers to no more than 10 hours Commercial Vehicle driving work and no more than 15 hours of work of any kind without eight hours of rest.  Greyhound operates according to the law. Nine hours after you check in at the end of a run, you will be called by central dispatch in Dallas or your local dispatch if you are home and your home garage does its own dispatching.  You will be given one to two hours to report for duty.  This is your life every day.  You will not be allowed any unapproved time off, paid or unpaid.  You drive, you sleep, you drive, you sleep,repeat.  Law is not for the ethical, but the unethical. Ethical employers will already provide ample time for employees to not just sleep, but recuperate.  "The Dog" as I affectionately called it, just wants you to get "fresh".  This means you have just enough time off to reset your daily or, if necessary, 8-day (70 hrs) clock.  Once this is done, you are back on the road.

Drivers are not permitted to use electronic devices of any kind. This includes music, entertainment, radio or GPS devices.  To get around you are given a "route guide", a printed list of directions.  You are not supposed to rush, but drivers get recognition for on-time-performance.  As a Christian, Sunday priorities are fellowship and family.  The Dog wants none of this.  You can be excepted from the clean shaven appearance requirement, or wear special headgear for religious reasons.  However, you cannot attend regular religious meetings - even once a week - unless you have seniority and the union contract allows it.

The electronic device prohibition is dangerous.  An operator is supposed to drive with minimal distraction, which includes talking to passengers.  So, the operator is left with her own thoughts and the road and the tail lights and the road and the lane lines and the tail lights and the road and the tail lights and the passing lines to keep his mind sharp.  Many drivers violate this rule by hiding earplugs.from the all-seeing (and hearing) cockpit camera.  Others violate the GPS rule by hiding it out of the sight of the camera, and using hidden ear plugs.  This prohibition is dangerous.  There are road closures and road construction that make the route guide obsolete - at least temporarily.  How do you maneuver around this before you hit the parking lot that used to be a highway?  On my last return run, I got detoured in Delaware to an unfamiliar road that almost put me on a bridge with a weight restriction that my 25+ tons o' fun 'n' folks far exceeded.  I was able to avoid it by turning on to a road that ran through acres and acres of undeveloped marshland.  

All in all, the experience at Greyhound was very much like the experience portrayed by enslaved American African slaves.  Your every waking hour is consumed in driving or preparing to drive.  Your priorities are those of the Dog.  Your family is the Dog.  Your God is the Dog.  

One prevalent discussion among drivers is fatigue.  All veterans I talked to had a story about arriving at a location remembering none of the previous several to 100 miles.  They attempt to use all kinds of strategies.  Some do not eat before or during a run.  Some subsist on coffee or Red Bull or other stimulant-laden drinks before or during a run.  It is a volatile safety environment, begging to become a nasty highway tragedy with none to blame but the unethical, albeit legal, practices of Greyhound.

I absolutely do not recommend this employer.

Out of Richmond VA, You have a very good Terminal/City Manager who does his best to work with the drivers. The Ops Manager is something else! ---- Some Of the Operations Supervisors, are cool and another is not. 

You may have a home, but you are away more often than not. You live out of your luggage and your married to greyhound. 
this position is great for someone single or someone who has a partner who is understanding to the transportation industry. if they are not. your relationship won't last. 

They are VERY STRICT! 
 You are to sit in the seat and Drive like a robot with No Mental Stimuation at all! 
No phone, no Bluetooth, no drinks (not even coffee or water), nothing to munch on, No talking to passengers, Nothing at all to keep your mind Mentally stimulated (which is very dangerous expecially in the early morning hours when everyone on the bus is sleeping and your hearing them snore, you so will want to join them too but you can't.  
If you are a "by the book person" you will be fine, If your not or like to bend the rules, than you'll loose your job in time! 

You get one earned day off after 7 days of working. and OSC there dispatch can and has denied me my day off. 
You can book off (call out) fatiqued. and you get 12 hours off, after 12 hrs, you start getting phone calls by the management. 
If you book off sick (call out sick) you have up to 3 days to return to work without a doctors note. 
In any case, The Ops manager will call you to harass you, to tell you to get back to work sooner. which is against Union Rules. 

When you start. You will be on call 24/7. 
OSC (Dispatch) will call you and give you Normally 2 hours to report if your at your home terminal and 9 hours off duty. 
OR 
They will give you 1 hour if your at an away terminal, and only 8 hours off duty from the time you sign out till they time they can call you back in. 

Sometimes, if your New they will try there best to get you to come in on a "Short call"! its your choice, but you do not have too.
"Short Calls" is when you would have to go in earlier than your union set up call in time. 
 They will also make you chase your pay. So there is a claim form that you will need to fill out to get your pays or you can call them. they will NOT teach you this at all in school. Go to a long time driver, and have them sit down with you and show you the ropes. 

They say Using a GPS is Prohibited!
if you get caught you will be terminated!
but there "Route Guides" paper directions. Aren't good either. 
and sometimes they will give you a Charter, and No Directions, and say "figure the directions out."

                  Greyhound is full of its own problems. 
but IF you can deal with it. Its not a bad place to work. 
Majority of the Drivers there and management get along like a good Work family. 


Just the best piece of advice I can give you.
Remember the Coustmers, Without them, you wouldn't have a job!
Try your best to keep in good spirits, Your passengers will love you!
DON'T TURN INTO A BIG GRUMPY DRIVER LIKE ALOT HAVE!
JUST BE THANKFUL EVERYDAY THAT YOU CAN DO SOMETHING YOU LOVE TO DO AND GET A DECIENT PAY DOING IT. 

ADVERAGE PAY STARTING OUT IN RICHMOND, VA
$19 CHANGE AN HOUR. 
ADVERAGE BI-WEEKLY PAY $1,000 TO $2,400
EXPECT $400 TO $900 OUT IN TAXES BIWEEKLY. 
UNLESS YOU HAVE TONS OF KIDS TO DEDUCT!

How I miss this place, how I miss this place, how I miss this place. Until I visit there after completing my last job and it's only then I understand why I most people are afraid to drive in the North East, hahaha.

All jokes aside, this place is not one nor ever been one. If you have the innate skill set, the willing tenacity, and the desire to better oneself in a company that needs only the best and can keep a cool, calm and collected mindfulness of the environment around them in an ever changing atmosphere, this place is for you. Port Authority, New York City on it's calmest days is a constant buzz of humanity's busiest individuals coming to and from work, during the holiday season it can turn into seemingly mechanical maelstrom of vehicular and train traffic. As a professional motor coach operator, you're responsible for assisting the masses in a comfortable way to navigate through the chaos in the safest and most controlled way you know how, by following Greyhound and D.O.T. standards of safe driving to get everyone home in peace. Company culture with the majority of employees is one of a very friendly and nice camaraderie overall, not to say there's no bad apples but when the stakes are so high to get everyone from one stomping ground to the next that attitude tends to develop on it's own. Also company policy (between employees only I must add) is to confront anyone with their objective behavior before involving the next man over, so that does help. 

Overall, I only left here for my own reasons. My previous employers in relation to pay only barely kept me afloat on a life boat, which in turn I racked up plenty of debt to keep a roof over my head. Paid it off with Greyhound during the 2014/ 2015 holiday season but after the fact there was enough of a lull (as there is in all transportation industries, not just them) in driver run's available that the previous month's savings was paying the next month's rent with not much to spare in between. Anything else more will be in the Pro's/ Con's list below, but overall it truly was a wonderful career experience that I would highly advise to anyone from the get-go to either start off with in their driving career and stick with it or use it as a stepping stone to move up within either the Greyhound corporate and/ or the personal motor coach transportation industry.

PROS
Free hotel stays so on your first night at any hotel, I highly advise you obtain the chain membership card to earn your own rewards. 401K plan with a match and health insurance available. Union representation/ PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR UNION REPS THEY ARE YOUR ALLIES. Job stability as long as you're following the Smith 5 Key system.

CONS
You start as an Extra board operator and are on probation for the first 90 days, as such any incident during that period may have you lose your employment ASAP. You may not have a regularly scheduled run to drive for until at least a year after hiring. Currently, they're doled out on a lottery based system with preference given by seniority in the company. Some locations don't like employees from other locations and as such can make it their mission to give you as much trouble as they feel like because they can. Keep good logs to ensure good pay.

The hiring process is about one month long- You run back & forth to your hiring terminal doing paperwork & other things at your own expense. The criminal background check is long & strict. Its the reason why many people get hired & quit their previous job thinking they have a job & right before you are scheduled to leave for training, BOOM- You receive a call saying you could not be hired because of your background. Training is about five weeks long- two weeks in class (Class is in Atlanta, Chicago, & other cities I'm not sure of, training is $100/ day, off on Sunday's, Meals are paid for only on training days. Hotel room is covered also). The last three weeks will be on the road driving in your region. You are rushed to get your 120 driving hours which is needed to *plug the board* (which you will learn more about). Once you achieve these hrs. you will be thrown out on the road by yourself with a bus full of passengers. You will drive outside your region before your 90 /day probation (You are not officially a Greyhound employee until AFTER your first 90 days). You will drive in areas that you are not used to driving in & was not properly trained to drive in. There is money to be made mainly if your are on the extra board- YOU REALLY HAVE TO WATCH YOUR MONEY & KEEP UP WITH IT (You will hear this a lot). Work Greyhound, don't let Greyhound work you. You are placed in hotels to get your rest, not all hotels are nice. There are also dorm rooms (in certain areas) that is not so nice neither. You can get called anytime of day or night to pull a schedule (You are ALWAYS on call). They can send your anywhere. When they see that you are new (in black & white) & they know you are new, they give you the worse & longest schedules, things pass over your head because there is a lot that they know you don't know. Some of the dispatchers are very rude. If you don't answer your phone in time they can take you out of service. They basically have just as much authority as your supervisor. In class you are given a lot of misleading info about rules & the job itself. You basically learn as you go (on your own) or when you make a mistake with something you should have been trained about. Many of the trainers STILL needs training themselves & they poorly train you while in the two week training away from home. Majority of the trainers are men. Most of them are perverts who are only there to start sexual relationships with the women students who come from all areas. They have been with greyhound for years & feels as if their job is secured & it is impossible for them to be terminated. This job is not for everybody especially if you have a family & small kids at home. If you have never driven a commercial vehicle before- good luck. Forgive me for my typos:)

Greyhound’s iconic brand is synonymous with affordable long distance travel in North America and a unique national network. 

Founded in 1914, Greyhound Lines, Inc. is the largest provider of intercity bus transportation, serving more than 3,800 destinations across North America with a modern, environmentally friendly fleet. It has become an American icon, providing safe, enjoyable and affordable travel to nearly 18 million passengers each year in the United States and Canada. The Greyhound running dog is one of the most-recognized brands in the world.

While Greyhound is well known for its regularly scheduled passenger service, the company also provides a number of other services for its customers. Greyhound Package Express service offers value-priced same-day and early-next-day package delivery to thousands of destinations in North America. And the company also offers charter packages for businesses, conventions, schools and other groups at competitive rates.

Greyhound has additional operating entities: BoltBus, serving the Northeast and Western regions of the United States; and YO! Bus, which serves Chinatown markets in the Northeast. In 2010, the company launched its premium city-to-city service, Greyhound Express, and has since quickly expanded the popular service to more than 100 markets across North America. It also operates Greyhound Connect, a service that connects rural communities to larger Greyhound markets in the United States.

In addition, Greyhound has interline partnerships with a number of independent bus lines across the United States. These bus companies provide complementary service to Greyhound Lines' existing schedules and link to many of the smaller towns in Greyhound Lines' national route system.

Amtrak passengers use Greyhound to make connections to cities not served by rail on Amtrak Thruway service by purchasing a ticket for the bus connection from Amtrak in conjunction with the purchase of their rail ticket. Passengers may also buy a bus ticket directly from Greyhound.

Greyhound is owned by FirstGroup plc, the leading transport operator in the United Kingdom and North America. Its vision: to provide solutions in an increasingly congested world, keeping people moving and communities prospering. With revenues of more than £6.9 billion per annum and about 120,000 employees, the company transports more than 2.5 billion passengers every year.

Yes, the company is as outdated on the inside as it is on the outside. The root of the issue(s) within Greyhound is the tenure of its executive and field leadership teams. The motto at Greyhound is "this is how we've always done it." 

Good luck making an impact at Greyhound because you'll have to fight for progress. Leadership does not value the experience a new hire brings to the company. Leaders question instead of trying to understand.

Efficiency is a foreign concept because too many decision-makers are brought into projects. I like bringing multiple perspectives into the equation, but it becomes an issue when perspectives become decision makers. Too many cooks assessing too many small details. 

It takes forever to establish yourself within the company because people have been there for ages. It's tough to find out how they "do things" because none of it is documented--knowledge is inherited.

Sure, Greyhound has a few shiny new buses, but the outdated way of thinking impacts company culture greatly. New hire onboarding, training, and internal/employee communications all suffer because of it. Don't get me started on their attempt to focus on diversity and inclusion...that program was pitched and led by marketing. These leaders can't seem to understand basic elements of D&I, like neurotypical employees, for example.  I was personally mocked in a team meeting by a leader because I had difficulty finding my words...this person knew I experienced brain fog caused by condition. We had many conversations about it. Outdated ways of thinking impacts how they see YOU as a PERSON. Authenticity isn't celebrated. 

Compassion isn't a Greyhound value. Employees are treated like dirt. The company did little for the field staff throughout the pandemic. Management prefers you to keep any personal hardships that may impact your work to yourself. 

Don't get me started on the pay. 

I could go on and on. TLDR; culture is a mess, progress is impossible, managers are void of compassion. Greyhound doesn't do anything to retain their new employees. 

Greyhound overall is an above decent place to work. There are 2 types of drivers here, Regular man and Extraboard drivers. A regular man has a set schedule and knows when he/she is leaving and returning home. The extraboard works oncall or by preasignment and fills in where need when the regular man is off or wherever the demand is. If you dont have a family or one who doesn't mind you being gone 1 week to 90 days at a time then you can make some serious money on the extraboard (depending on your home terminal). In most places seniority is really high so becoming a Regular man can take 5+ years at some locations and thoes salaries range from $35,000-$73,000. You only get that pay if you drive your schedule how it is planned and you hold that same schedule for the entire year, 6 days on 3 days (3 round trips with 3 days off) or 4 days on and 2 days off (2 round trips with 2 days off) to name a few cycles. A typical day at work start with arriving at the garage, pre-tripping your bus, then heading over to your depature terminal loading your passengers and starting the schedule. my expierence with mgmt has been decent they sometimes have to enforce certain rules or procedures that come down from corporate but as long as you do you job safely you wont have any issues. The hardest part of the job would be dealing with our customers.  We deal with people from all walks of life and situations and being able to balance that while operating your schedule safely and ontime can be stressful. We are the face of the company and for some customers the only point of contact during their trips so when something goes wrong we get the blunt end of that frustration. 

All in all  the best thing about this job is that we go everywhere in the country and being able to explore a diffrent city a few times a week is the biggest plus about this job! 

You will be placed on the extra board during your first 5-10 years of employment. Years spent on the extra board depends on how many drivers with seniority from other locations will bid to your location during bid seasons. Also depends on how many senior drivers at location retire. The extra board is awful. You will be home for about 8 hours then called back in to drive.  You will be given 2 hours to report to work.. Once there you will be on protection.. which means you will be on the clock waiting for a schedule to go second or third sections... or you will be hurried to fill in for a driver that didn't show up... and on occasion you will be required to take a bus to a driver experiencing a road failure... When you go out on a second or third section on a schedule you will sometimes  be put to bed at your final VRU (check in point) . Sometimes you will be given a schedule back to your home terminal or given a DHOC# ( Dead Head on Cushion Number) to board a schedule to home terminal depending on the needs of greyhound. You can also continue driving the schedule up to 10 hours away from your home terminal... Sometimes you will deadhead buses to other locations as needed... If you are young and like to party, this is not the job for you because you cannot show up to work with Alcohol on your breath and there are also random urine test given... You won't be able to go out  on Saturday night unless you Book Off... and it is frown upon to book off during busy seasons...and too many Miss Outs - not answering a call from Dallas Texas Dispatch, can get you fired...
Be professional and  nice to your passengers at all times. Passengers are sometimes rude and obnoxious.  They sometimes smoke marijuana and drink alcoholic beverages aboard the bus and also engage in prohibited activity. They will become belligerent and loud when things don't go their way... PUT THEM OFF YOUR BUS IMMEDIATELY. as soon as you experience or become aware of these situations..

Like any job it has it's negatives. But when weighted against what other careers with similar education and experience requirements are offering it's a no brainer in my opinion.

Start at around 18 dollars per hour with regularly scheduled raises up to around 24 dollars per hour. Top pay within 4 years. No supervisor looking over your shoulder. A fairly strong union. Decent benefits if you want them. You can book off of any assignment for just about any reason without much worry of repercussions. If you need a day off, just call OSC (National dispatch) and book off for 12 or 24 hours.

Negatives are that your days can be very long. Especially during peak travel season. The equipment can be shoddy (especially on the west coast and south western regions) and the work can have extreme highs and extreme lows. Meaning basically that during some parts of the year you may not work for days on end due to low ridership. Or it can get so busy that you could work up to 70 hours per week. Also, if you're based out of a location like Los Angeles you will be stuck working on an on-call as needed basis (extra board) for well over a decade before you can get a permanent run. It's all seniority based and some locations have drivers with 20 years or more under their belts. Oh and almost endless complaining among some of your fellow drivers. I love my union brothers and sisters, but some of them whine too much about anything and everything.

It's perfect for me though as I like the flexible schedule that I can allow myself. I'll remain at Greyhound for the foreseeable future unless something that I can't resist comes along.

Every morning the Operations Support Team of dispatch supervisors would meet before the beginning of our shift with our Regional and National Operations Managers to review pertinent information from the previous shift regarding what has been set into action and needs to be set into action. We would be updated on weather issues, road hazards, and breakdowns, all while exchanging playful banter amongst a tight-knit team of workers.
Aside from the technical side of learning software and programs, I had to learn Greyhound's union contract and DOT regulations in order to correctly assign drivers. I learned how to hone my instincts based on past experiences, educated predictions, and familiarity with my drivers' individual work ethic.
I worked with an awesome group of supportive, patient, and understanding managers that would jump in at any time and relieve you of a massive workload by taking calls, creating orders, or placing necessary outbound calls. My coworkers followed their lead with assistance and general genuine concern. I can honestly say that it felt like working with family.
The hardest part of my of my job was, in essence, the most enjoyable part, and that was having to come up with a solution to unexpected, unforseen issues such as delays, breakdowns, no available manpower and/or an overflow of passengers. It required me to think quickly and recall information that I have been filing away all day and knowing who is accessible to assist with getting the job done. I really enjoyed hearing from a terminal manager, "Man, I'm glad you were working today!"

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Bus driver 75 salaries reported	$29.81 per hour
Diesel mechanic 9 salaries reported	$32.92 per hour
Fleet maintenance supervisor 20 salaries reported	$76,875 per year
Fleet mechanic 1 salary reported	$28.39 per hour
Cleaner 8 salaries reported	$16.87 per hour

Working at Greyhound: Company Overview and Reviews

Greyhound

Greyhound Ratings

Popular jobs at Greyhound

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected