bus driver

driver

fitter

master technician

hgv technician

Stagecoach Bus

I joined as a trainee driver, so I had to learn to get the required driving licence needed to drive a bus. The good thing about this is that Stagecoach cover all the training costs to get the licence as long as you stay with them for a few years. Once you get the licence, it's a huge investment and can unlock way more opportunities for you beyond Stagecoach.

My first day at the Ashford depot was very weird. Nobody knew I was even employed, nobody was there to give me clear guidance on what I was supposed to do, all I was told to do was go out in the town centre and learn the routes by going on the buses and sitting around for the entire route. Even the other drivers were telling me this is how it is in Stagecoach which felt demoralizing. I was getting paid literally for doing nothing, which was a weird feeling. It wasn't until 2 weeks later that I finally got a mentor assigned to me, to teach me how to use the ticket machine and actually drive a bus in service for the first time. It was fun, and eventually, when I started driving on my own, it all came naturally.

A typical day at work involves going to the depot first thing and getting your route list for the day. If your shift starts in the morning you usually take a bus out from the depot. If it starts in the afternoon, typically you are taken into the town centre by an electric van and you will switch drivers with a bus that is already in service. Your first stint usually should last for about 3-4 hours (sometimes it can last as long as 5 hours) before you go for a meal break, which is usually 45 minutes - 1 hour. Then you go on your 2nd stint which should last around another 3-4 hours and then your shift ends. Shift hours vary from 6 - 10 hours a day, but as per the UK Domestic rules, you must not drive any longer than 10 hours per day and typically 1 week totals to around 39 hours and no longer at Stagecoach unless you do overtime of course.

Driving in Ashford (as of 2025) is an absolute pain if you are doing only local town routes such as 501, 502, 503. It is best to do the longer, out of town routes such as the 1X to Canterbury or the 511 to New Romney & Lydd. Sometimes you get customers asking the most stupid questions or they don't bother to read the destination board on your bus but you can't really blame them, just answer the questions and move on, even if its stupid. 

At rush hour times (around 7 - 8 AM and 3-6 PM), the Ashford Town Centre may as well be a huge car park of traffic, don't even bother thinking about being on time and yes customers will complain but you as the driver can't do much. The controllers are nice people and their job is to put you back on-time so all you have to do is give them a call and they sort things out. If you are late, don't think negatively about it and you won't ever get reprimanded for it unless you are late on purpose.

The fleet of buses at Ashford (as of 2025) consist of the most outdated buses I've ever seen in my life. About 90% of the fleet are buses that are at least 10+ years old and are all very high mileage, Im talking 500K plus and I've seen a few buses with 800k mileage which is just insane. There are 4 types of buses we have at the Ashford Depot. The Optare Solo SR, Enviro 200, Scania Enviro 400 and the Enviro 400 MMC (the only semi-modern type of bus in the depot even tho they are also quite old). I've seen some buses have their mileage reset, maybe due to the engine being rebuilt but trust me when i say their fleet are very very old. This doesn't bode well with the fact that a lot of them have bad suspension, added with the bad road surface quality of Ashford in general. Think about it, you are sitting, driving these buses for several hours. You are guaranteed to have a bad back just going to the break room after a long stint, and I'm not old for crying out loud.

And finally, the workplace culture stinks, or even reeks of corporate bulls**t. I don't know why a bus company needs to be corporate but i guess because it is such a large company, it does need to have a good face. I typically do not engage in any of this gossip that usually happens in the break room because its not my business. I just come into work, drive the buses I'm supposed to drive, and go home. Please i beg anyone working here or in any corporate business, do not mix this into your personal life because its not gonna end well. With some people, they always give this stern speech of "you need to do X", "doing it this way is wrong" and some of them think they are bigger than management. Do not listen to these kinds of people. I think its a British thing with that stern look and the way they talk if you know what I'm on about but ignore those people.

Overall, working here is fun if you were always dreaming of driving a bus or if you are a bus enthusiast. Just don't engage in this corporate nonsense and remember, your coworkers are not your friends.

Iv worked for stagecoach a year now and I'm still signed up for another year, before I can can leave without  paying the training bounty back, 
but I can't mange a year as this industry is not just driving a bus from stop to stop like you would imagine.
the main problem is the customers at 9.30 every morning the parasite passes kick in and this is where your day gets ruined, soo many of them waiting to get on that first free bus makes you late then is moan moan complaint and argue drop their on,
but stagecoach make things worse as any complaint that is reported to them is rewarded with a megarider voucher worth £22, these vouchers end up on ebay from sellers that have multiple items, but this isn't a free at all as every one has to be a paper trail in the form of a form A,  discaplinnary for the driver involved , 
it is so bad that every single driver has had many form As and many are afraid   of loosing employment  over complaints that are rubbish,
but you can't just do the job by the book by the ruled black n white because their is a lot of ocasions where things are in the gray area, where policy rules and the law contridict each other, stagecoach leave it to the driver to decide, but this just means that stagecoach will put 100% of the blame onto the driver, washing their hands of any blame. they will tell you unofficially to just do what ever keeps the passenger's happy, even if it means breaking licensing health and safety laws, just don't get complaint about..

also driving a bus the way they want you to can be a eye opener as you have a running board, a4 piece of paper that tells you what time to be at each stop, wow you couldn't get to some of these stops in the designated time on a superbike never mind a duble decker in rush hour, and the ticket machine runs on a gps that tells you how late you are, and sends and recIves text messages, but you have that on your left hand side and a green road device on your left flashing if you drive too fast, and 70%are not accurate and a bad greenroad score will have the management crying to you. no wonder some busses drive dangerously stagecoach clearly put profit before public safety and put everything before the staff.

also you get told when you have your holiday and when you get given 2nd 2 weeks in January, and you don't get told this until December you can cancel any chances of going away for that holiday, unless like me you only had 4 days off over Xmas and new year the bank holiday and could do with the break, but don't think you can go sick near a bank holiday as this will for fit your bank holiday pay, so you drive a bus in flu season taking cash from 100s of people that  have the flu viruses caught ing and sneezing on you in a confined bus, but have time off near a bank holiday and loose your  pay. or if you sick over the world cup it's instant  dismissal  even you a 1st offense, I personally don't follow football but did have toothach over the world cup, but knowing I'd loose my job I had to take some very strong pain killer and crack on, public safety again,

but all in all this year has not been good for me the rediculess hours mean that I have missed ever birthday, stagnight, bbq, child's scholarship event, what is the point in working like a slave for £309 a week, putting up with our societys lowest denominations who winge, moan, lie, argue, spit , phisically attack,  you. with complete protection from stagecoach as their is a lot of repeat offenders of bad aggressive behaviour on the busses towards drivers, but in my town only one person is banned from the service and she is just a fair dodger,  not really giving the staff a safe working environment  letter the real nasty one ride.

I worked as a Stagecoach as driver for two years, and this was long enough for me. It's one of those jobs you either love or hate. It would suit someone single, but if you've got a family it won't be easy to accommodate them, what with the seven day rota and shift work. I can imagine the job has ruined many marriages, and you losing quality time with your children too.  

You work one week early shifts and one week middle and late. Some of the drivers work 50 to 60 hours each week! You’ll also be asked to do overtime, which is optional, but always available. Office staff are often stressed out, so be prepared to take the brunt of their frustration. Everyone is overworked, and often grumpy, whether you clock on in the morning or afternoon. I'm a positive, smiley person, which doesn't fit in with their work environment.   

Most of the buses are old, going back to 2009, which might not seem that old, but they are in a terrible condition cosmetically, especially on the inside. Don't expect a clean work space, it can be a grubby job at times. 

There is a high turnover of staff, as many drivers leave after their first two years. It takes this long to pay off the initial training fees. The seven day rota, at around 43 hours (although they tell you it's 37) can be very stressful, add to this the toxic work culture. Foul language, bigotry, sexism and constant moaning by many of the drivers will make you want to leave sooner rather than later. The older drivers can be miserable, though not all of them, but they all can't wait to retire. I made a few friends, as there were some nice staff there, but I knew I wouldn’t be there long term. 

You have to put up with drunks, unsociable behaviour from children, as well as angry motorists. You'll be stressed out trying to keep the buses on time, but as this is often impossible, you'll be hearing complaints from passengers, and often from other drivers. 

This is not a job for the sensitive type, you need to be thick-skinned and mentally strong. The public were generally nice, I didn’t get any grief other than from unruly, and often drunk teenagers. In this age of feral children you can expect this type of behaviour in most public service roles.  

Long term work, in such a sedate job (as you're always sitting), can and does lead to health problems, such as stress, back ache, diabetes, etc. The job is physically and mentally demanding. You need to watch what you eat, and exercise before or after work, or at least on your days off. Many drivers are overweight, again this is an occupational risk in this area of work.  

The lunch breaks are tight, so you need to eat quickly, and don't spend too much time on the toilet! This again can be a cause of health problems such as poor bowel movement. You might be driving for up to five hours before you get that toilet break, which isn't good for your kidneys.
 
The job would be much more appealing if it were a four day rota working 32 hours. The nine hour days should be cut to eight, and lunch breaks should be at least one hour. I think drivers burn out after a few years, hence the high staff turnover. They seem to stay for the decent salary, union benefits and pension.  

If the above hasn’t deterred you, you should try working as a Stagecoach bus driver, you may actually enjoy it. It’s one of those jobs you have to try before you decide if it’s for you. I know it’s definitely not for me.

I had the displeasure of working for Stagecoach at another depot a few years ago, and when I noticed they were recruiting in Aberdeen I decided to give them another chance. Closer to home, decent-ish wage and not all city driving. What could possibly go wrong?

I’d heard stories prior to joining, mainly regarding the terrible management and high turnover of staff. Having worked in the industry for over 6 years, I know that this is common across the board and some drivers do make things sound worse than they actually are.

Stagecoach Aberdeen have set the bar really high. 3 Operations managers in the year I was there, the engineering manager changed twice and I saw at least 20 drivers leave (Of which I know 7 were bullied out by the terrible management!).

Stagecoach Aberdeen is all about making rules and policies, and then moving the goalposts to suit them. For example, one of the guys at the depot was caught smoking whilst driving a bus and kept his job, yet a driver who clipped a post at the bus station, causing very light scratches to a bus was sacked. He had no prior warnings.

What’s the work/life balance like? You’ll certainly have a worklife. Working excessive hours, getting the minimum legal time off. If it wasn’t for the law governing driving hours, you can guarantee you’d either be on the road 24/7, or be issued a company sleeping bag and be made to sleep over in the canteen just to ensure any remaining family and friend ties you do have are well and truly destroyed.

Working most weekends, and working very antisocial hours is what you can expect. You can go and ask the allocator for some time off, and he will pull his usual stunt. Ask you to work your rest day this week, and he’ll get you the day off you want. Then the day before the one you’ve worked to get off, he’ll tell you it can’t be done and you’ll have to work it. 

Don’t even think about not going in either as you’ll be up for a disciplinary, regardless of whether you stuck to your half of the deal or not. 

Stagecoach try to get things done as efficiently as possible, which I completely understand from any business point of view. That being said, they’ve made so many cuts that it’s almost impossible to do the job properly. Most of the shifts are barely legal with breaks. The service timings are unrealistic unless there’s no traffic on the road, or you’re willing to speed around all day. Unreliable and barely road legal buses too which don’t help. 

I was fortunate only to be sentenced to 11 months here, by applying for a job here you could receive a much heftier stretch. My honest advice would be to avoid working here. The money is good, yes. But the poor management, face fits culture and lack of staff care makes this the worst place to work in Aberdeen.

And if you do go there and things don’t work out, don’t for one-minute think that your final pay will be correct! And the payslip they promised that was posted out to you with your P45, never does turn up.

Stagecoach have a number of rotas, each with their own specialities, such as lates, earlies, spreads and school to name a few. It takes time to get onto these rotas, based on availability and your seniority. The good news is, is that new drivers can gain seniority quickly nowadays as the driver turn over is constant. The company is always recruiting and constantly training new drivers, because as I said the turnover is a massive, with drivers leaving all the time.

When I consider applying for a new job I always ask myself why are they recruiting and if its because their losing a lot of employees, you have to ask yourself the reason why?

Management will work you into the ground if you let them, they are constantly at you to work days off or do overtime. The management don't see you as a person, they care little about your family, social life or health, except when you take time of sick, then their on your back to come back as soon as possible. I have never known so many drivers leave a job due to stress related illness than bus driving for Stagecoach, with many heart attacks and strokes.

You work a shift system as a new driver and cover all the duties for drivers who are on sick, holiday or just cant cover because they don't have enough drivers. Most shift systems are 10pm - 6am. 6am - 2pm and 2pm - 10pm. Bus driving roughly has the same system, but you will rarely start at the same time two days running. your shift of 8 or 10 hours can be slotted into any day, with the earliest start time of 5am and at weekends a latest finish time of 3am, the working day range is slowly edging to a 24 hour day. 

Holidays are pre determined and unless your lucky enough to get them at a decent time of the year, your stuck with them, with many drivers reluctant to swap. You will work most bank holiday(valuable time with your family) and you'll be given a choice between an enhanced pay rate or a day in lieu, which is subject to availability and you probably wont get the day you ask for.  

The depot is in the middle of nowhere and is a ball ache to get to, with only one bus route that takes you there, so starting early or finishing late is a pain and travelling on foot or bike at that time puts you in danger, with two permanent gipsy caravan sites close by, its a desolate area to travel through during unsociable hours.

Some of the breaks are very long, three hours or more on spreads and these are not by choice and are unpaid time.

Over all, your social and family life will suffer, at times non existent, your health will suffer, at the time you may not realise it, that is until you become ill.

My typical working day takes up at least 15 of the 24hrs in a day including commute to and fro work for a guaranteed 5 days a week with the option to make that 6 days with overtime. 

Interacting with an average of 650 passengers daily has its challenges but thankfully contact per person is only seconds and usually pleasant or at least non-confrontational.

Most problems arise as a result of passengers' misinformed or uninformed opinion coupled with counter-intuitive Health and Safety rules and regulations that we have to abide by and assertively insure passenger-compliance, in the course of our work. Driver errors do occur but can usually be easily corrected.

Most managers are amicable but like all other employees are limited in what they can do to help to alleviate difficulty in staff's personal circumstances when they arise,(as they do to everybody) by very stringent policies which can be a significant obstruction to personal progress and wellbeing outside of bus driving.

Co-workers are brilliant, they are like family. You can never get stranded for whatever reason in daily living emergencies. A colleague is always available and willing to help, its fantastic!

Without a doubt the hardest part of the job is the work/life balance. Life outside of work is almost non-existent due to the demands the job puts on time!

The most enjoyable part of the work is signing-off at the end of an event free day as long as you don't think about coming back and doing it all over again inside 10 hrs and it goes on and on and on...

The wage is arguably still competitive but (for the drivers among us) can now be matched by LGV driving for lesser hours, flexible working and significantly lesser risk of confrontation and stress, hence the current high staff turn-over with staff leaving for LGV jobs.

Overall a secure reasonably paying job and employer for someone who is "dedicated" to driving a bus and has no other intellectual interests outside of the Driver's cab and can extract maximum leisure in minimal time off.

I work for Stagecoach for over 2.5 year. At the start it was quiet good place to work except that:
-Any even smallest mistake and you had to see manager about it
-38h roster is s$¥/ in one week you can start on early like 4am and by the end of week you can do late that would finish around 1am
-customers got no respect for you at all just like managers and allocaters
-customers can rob you split at you or swear at you and you are not allow to do anything or to say anything back to them 
-any accident you have is either your fault or you could do better cos you are professional driver and you should know what may happen
-some colleagues are really unfriendly and unhelpful
-loads of problems on some of the buses
-you don't get loads of time for the journey so passangers are moaning cos you late
-if the traffic is quiet you will end up with 20 minutes or more to wait at the timing point 
-you're allow to have only 1 or 2 events on the green road per hour if more for few days you will get letter asking you to get the score down 
-if you have any asb on the bus call depot they will tell you to fill in yellow form when you get back and that's it
-if there are little s,$& messing about somewhere depot will make call to everyone saying if something more happen they will get the police down same call you can get 10 times a day in the same.place and you will never see the police
-alligators are more then happy to give you overtime before or after duty sometimes you have break of 1h or more (unpaid of course) and then you have overtime of 1h or 2h 
-overtime are paid at the normal rate
-unpaid brakes
-uniform that you get is not the warmer so in winter it's cold especially if you have to wait for a change over of the bus that is running late you are not allow to have own clothing to keep you warm so you get cold in work uniform
-other then dealing with passangers and managers you get stand inspectors some kf them will do their best to make your life harder

The good things about this company is 
-plenty of overtime
-free cpc
-bus licence training

This are some of the things why people are keep leaving the job you are only number for this company I been there for over 2.5 year and I kind of hate it only the pay is keeping me there for a bit more

The shifts as they were, were good, but you don't get much of an evening social life as shifts started at 3.30/4.30pm and didnt finish until 12/1am.
The job in itself is easy to do for the amount of money you get paid, however the general attitude of my collegues and of other staff members was rude/offensive - of which you you need a thick skin to handle - and depressing which resulted in a couple of cases of bullying.
The work was based outside , which was sweltering in the summer and freezing in the winter. Rain and even snow we had to work with no full waterproofs - just a coat - so our overalls and legs got soaked when it rained.
We were exposed to harmful fumes/chemicals and provided very little protection from both until a new engineering director came along in mid 2015.
My superviser wasn't qualified for his job, regardless of how many years he'd been at the company. He held no form of a licence (granted it was private land), but when moving the busses did not obide by the speed limits set around the depot frequently crashing the busses into walls, buildings as well as each other, narrowly missing other staff members too.
Management in general was shocking, the manager was racist and more noticably sexist and any form of complaint usually resulted in it being turned around and made your fault. The manager also gave us extra jobs to do within the shift of which were nearly always impossible to complete because of the timings of events throughout the shift as a whole. 

Upon joking with the manager as to potentially covering a collegue he stated that he wouldn't know what to do!

My work collegues loved to banter, which occasionally would make the day more enjoyable and the day go faster. But there were occasions where there would be a disagreement and it taken too far to the point of childish, this made shifts more awkward and sometimes lasted for weeks.

The hardest part of the job was not letting other staff members attitude get you down, including your managers.
The most enjoyable - towards the end of my employment - was seeing the money in my bank every week.

I’ve been away from driving buses for 16 years, after a few silly bumps, the company have been extremely supportive, prior to applying I’ve heard alsorts of false information, such as management will look for reasons to sack people, not true at all, they are down to earth, friendly and supportive. The experienced drivers are always willing to help and offer advice, it’s a good blend, no job is ever perfect. However,I’ve always enjoyed driving jobs, having drove for Tesco, Iceland and Asda, I can definitely say working for Stagecoach trumps them all, I would go as far as saying it’s the best job I’ve had, considering I’m a former police officer, now a law graduate, I have my personal reasons why I did not pursue those roles, it’s not all green on the other side, I wanted a job where I can remain honest and keep to my morals and ideals. It was a challenge for me in the beginning, the support I had from management was invaluable. I initially wanted to do my review after 12 months service, I’m currently on 4 months, I feel I’ve grasped what the job is all about, many complain about the up and down shift work we do, well, I had knowledge of this from the outset so there is no point in griping about it. The most attractive part of working as a bus driver for this company is weekly pay, I couldn’t go back to monthly pay, my wife gets free travel and so do I if and when I need to use a bus, the uniform is good, considering it’s a massive organisation the training isn’t to bad, yes it could be better in certain aspects but it works, and have done for years; I’m currently on £11.81 ph, will rise in December to £12.15, I won’t argue with that, not many bus companies in the north west can compete with that, finally, it’s a good company to be a part of, I look forward to plentiful years to come.

I've been in the company over 15 years. The job is what you make it. There are pros and cons.
 In the beginning it was an appealing job despite the unsociable hours. It does have some good benefits such as free travel bus/ overground/ tfl/ Elizabeth line throughout the whole of London. It offers a good pension scheme however in the last few years the company reduced the amount they pay into employees. They also offer a scheme called tbf fund which you pay as little as £1.10 a week. If you require certain types of treatment such as acupuncture or chiropody you can claim back some money through the fund. It is very beneficial for a person in latter years.
 Despite some good perks there have been a few problems over the years. I shouldn't get political but this is a major factor which is driving away good experienced drivers and needs a change. The bus industry infrastructure has been negelcted for a long time by tfl and the government and it is at breaking point. This is not just happening with one bus company, this is happening across the board. 
 Some of the mid management and supervisors are good professionals however certain people above seem to bury their head in the sand when it comes to staffing issues which has an impact on the business and the current work force.
Bus driving has become quite a stressful job with a small minority (but growing) of nuisance passengers and bus driving is not seen as a respectful job by some people anymore from a public point of view.
 If you have a young family or are a young yourself be prepared to work unsocial hours which can affect your personal life.

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