bus driver

mechanic

driver

electrician

engineer

First UK Bus

I had a 6 month wait to start, in 2015.
This wait was unexpected and I was given no indication of the start date until about a week in advance which caused financial problems. 
Once in the job I found that some managers were better than others but the culture of blame is very large at First Bus, particularly within Worcester. The company actively promotes telling tales on fellow employees and shows mistrust for its drivers. Whilst safety is paramount, First go beyond the necessary in their pursuit of eliminating complacent staff. Considering the hours and working conditions are hardly top notch it's hard to see why anybody would want to tolerate this bad atmosphere. Some employees lapped it up of course and were willing to tell tales on their colleagues at any given opportunity, in the hope that it would advance their position in the company. Others like myself calmly and carefully went about their duties under the radar and still found that they had to defend themselves against unwarranted disciplinary action, all because some supervisors were desperate to prove their vigilance.
I spent over 4 years at First, the fellow drivers were the only reason I stayed. I learnt a lot, it prepared me for a better position and in some respects the aggressive tactics the company use to enforce a safety focused attitude had benefitted me in preparation for a new career but it was psychologically painful at times, leaving you feeling vulnerable to dismissal even when you did the job right. Customer complaints are dealt with on the assumption that the customer is always telling the truth, if you run late off a journey you may find yourself having to explain yourself all the time and over keen supervisors will report you for everything and anything, often they don't check facts and will send you for a disciplinary for it to be thrown out anyway, but leaves you feeling under surveillance and untrusted. I don't think anyone with a professional attitude and a pride in their work and themselves would appreciate it.
Sickness and absence policy means that if you have 3 days off in 12 months you'll end up in a meeting with a manager to explain yourself. Whilst it might seem reasonable, I had bugs that kept me off work for 4 separate individual days and ended up in the office over it, yet some guys were off for a whole six months at a time and wouldn't have to. 
The pay was OK for what the job is, you won't find much better for bus or coach work but the rotas are awful, with plenty of dramatic changes in start times over a normal week. You could be in at 5am one day then in at 2pm the next, as long as you have your 9 hour gap in between, the company pay little attention to what is comfortable for their drivers in this respect and will call you on days off asking you to do overtime. Despite making it clear I wouldn't do any I was often getting calls at 6am requesting I cover on a day off. This is despite working 5 days a week for 10 hours a day on average.
I'd recommend this job to someone young who wants a career in the public transport industry and has lots of time that they are willing to devote to the company, who can't get a better job anywhere else.
If your a family person, don't like feeling exhausted and pressurised and can't stab your friends in the back to climb the company ladder this job might not be for you.

Why are you failing to run services as advertised. First is in a very fortunate position that they have a monopoly on all bus and train services between Portsmouth and Fareham.

Customers are being taken for mugs by being charged rip-off prices and buses failing to turn up on time or at all. Customer services continue to trot out the same excuses about traffic time and time again.

Reporting issues or complaints leads to no improvement in services or resolution of issues. Managing Director Managing Director and Operations Director are inept and incompetent, merely existing to collect a fat pay cheque and doing nothing to improve the situation for customers.

Customers are being wallet-gouged by legalised extortion by sky-high costs and taken for utter mugs whilst these two cowboys continue to run First Bus as a shambolic monopolistic scam into the ground! Both should be removed from their jobs immediately for gross mismanagement of the entire operation!

The quality of services are utterly dire, regularly failing to arrive on time. Buses are ramshackle - especially the quality of ride on the Wright Streetlites and resemble mobile blast furnaces in the summer with the excessively high level of heat. This is completely unacceptable given the extortionate fares charged by First to line the pockets of the inept Managing Director and Operations Director!

It is time both are made aware of the dire situation their mismanagement is creating and those further up the management chain too! How the existence of this useless pair running First into the ground is justified. I do not know!

They need to wake up and get their heads out of their collective backsides immediately! I am fed up with reporting issues weekly with First and NOTHING BEING DONE by the Managing Director and Operations Director to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND DO WHAT THEY ARE PAID TO DO. Rather than sitting around, doing NAFF ALL and taking a BIG FAT PAY CHEQUE FOR DOING NAFF ALL!

If the Managing Director and Operations Director were any use - which to be frank there is little evidence of that, they would be going to both Hilsea and Hoeford depots and demanding answers and solutions from managemnt about the continued service failure culture that is so ingrained in the operation! By again doing NAFF ALL, they simply serve to collect fat pay cheques and have complete contempt for customers  by takng NO ACTION.

Any other organisation would be looking seriously at the number of complaints about the running of their services and hauling the Managing Director and Operations Director into the office and demanding answers and solutions. Clearly the management up in Aberdeen are also so deluded with their heads up their own collective backside and such a contempt for customers that they too decided to do NAFF ALL about the actions or lack or actions from Managing Director and Operations Director!

Accountable for performance. I pride myself on always doing my best. Even when additional work is added I always give it my full attention and will stay on and make sure all that I can do is done, I do feel I could be more productive if I had access to a laptop so I could clear more work in a quieter environment.
Supportive of each other. All my work is directly supportive of others. I pride myself on doing my best in the work I do as it is part of a link to support my line managers and our front line staff in their roles within the business.
Committed to customers. I feel I have high standards in all our values but I also feel that with better time utilisation of many of the tasks in operations I feel we could deliver a better level of service to our/my direct customer who is the drivers.
I am very pleased with how I have adapted and risen to all aspects of my role and the support I have been able to give to the staff managers and operations manager by taking on additional tasks and be a part of driving our KPI’s in the right direction and helping us achieve our bronze operational excellence accreditation. I am very interested in self progression and enjoy my job, I will continue to strive forward and deliver my very best all the time. My immediate line managers have been supportive and encouraging but I do feel at times my extra efforts are not recognized by persons outside of my immediate team, this does not raise my concerns but when I get tasks from outside my line managers my work load increases without consideration of what else I must do. My personal working nature means that I will always get tasks allocated to me completed and to the best of my ability, but I find myself putting myself under pressure as I am fully aware that if I am out of the business for anytime I always come back to all work as there is no one else to do. Again, I am very happy with the work I do and what I have achieved but would really like to see some of my recommendations/objectives actioned or at least discussed so as productivity and time management can be improved. The addition of my own laptop is welcomed but I feel there is more that can be done as mentioned in objectives but I am aware of the forth coming management change so actioning these has slowed but I don’t want them to be forgotten.

# This is only based on my own experience working here.
# You go in to start work at 17.00 at night or at 21.00 and you are in a warehouse with 3 vehicle doors on both sides so the cold will pass through at night.
# There is 3 different lanes in which buses will pass through to be fueled. And in this time (4 minutes) in which the buses are being fueled, there is 1 person upstairs in the bus and 1 person downstairs. And your job is to sweep out the bus in those 4 minutes and step back off the bus. The bus then moves up like a production line and another bus comes in right behind it so you are repeating this process very quickly and very constant. 
# Every now and then you will have supervisors telling you that you are not going fast enough and that you need to speed up. You do get a 30 minute break but unfortunately this includes the time to leave the shop floor, time to scrub your hands and the time coming back so it's really only a 20 minute break.
# The noise levels are also Horrendous, and despite the managers saying the sound has been tested, this has not been done in years and when it is done, they make sure to leave out the noisy buses that must be reved up to prevent the batteries from dying. 
I had attempted to wear my own safety ear plugs for normal factory floors but i was told I could not wear them because it was a bus movement area, and i would not hear the bus coming towards me. 
# Your shift goes on non stop for 8 hours straight with a shift pattern of 6 days on, 2 days off, 6 days on, 2 days off. so when your days off come around, you need to recover on the first day and sometimes the second as well. it is a very consuming job with unsocial-able working hours. 
# The wage rate was just above the minimum and does not increase for weekends or working at nighttime, or even working at Christmas or New Years time. They do not even try to make it worth it while trying to ask you to stay longer and put in more hours. Time and a half may have even been sufficient enough, but no.
# They sold the cleaners and shunters out to a Cleaning Company called Cordant as part of a contract thus ending all workers time served bonuses.
# This is the most honest experience I can give.

Unhealthy shift patterns mean that you can be up for work at 4am at the beggining of the week, starting midday in the same week and by the end of the week you can be on a late shift that doesn't finish til after midnight, or any combination of shifts, and any/every day of the week.  So long as you get the legal minimum of 8.5 hours off between shifts and one day off in fourteen, the company don't care if it takes you half an hour to get home, and you might only end up with six hours in bed.
Lots of overtime always available, but new drivers are always pressured to do overtime.
You often start at depot and finish in the town centre or the opposite way around.  You are not paid to for your travelling time between these two places.
Massive pressure to keep to timetables which don't give enough time, which results in lots of missed journeys. This is a problem across all of the yorkshire depots and the union is currently investigating an all out strike in all depots until resolved as talks with the company have had no result.
Huge turnover of staff.  A lot of this is to do with the pressures of timetables, but also the starter pay is not great considering the horrible shift patterns.  There is a higher rate of pay but it takes a long time to get onto that when older drivers leave.
Local management are pretty good, so long as you don't cause them lots of problems they tend to leave you alone, but the company is greedy greedy greedy, looking for how they can give the shareholders more money at the cost of providing less and less service to bus users.
Not the worst place I have ever worked, but they need to stop trying to sqeeze blood out of a stone as the stone is now bone dry from years and years of penny pinching.

Passed my test with them within 3 weeks (not enough training in my eyes) and then was let loose. Was given a "buddy driver" that just complained the whole time about how terrible the company is and then sat on his phone and not really teaching me anything and shouting at me whenever I did something wrong. After two weeks I was let loose, not sure where I was going or how to issue the right tickets. First 6 months was a complete learning curve, self-taught myself after the terrible training. Then I felt relaxed. First year I thought great, what a brilliant place to work, then the honeymoon period wore off.

Management were absolutely horrific. Complaints would come in from the public about drivers, even with evidence drivers were in the right they were still given warnings and free travel vouchers issued to passengers. I was suspended once because a woman complained about me (completely lying) and after 3 years of working there management decided to believe her. (Luckily I had a witness who volunteered their information and he saved my job)

Can't book holiday, it get's allocated to you and if you want to change it you have to fight and try and swap with other drivers to change it. Get given written warnings if you're off sick more than 3 days in 12 months.

The place sees their drivers as numbers and not as people. You are not valued and the pay doesn't even make up for how miserable you are working here. Left to be on more than £2 less an hour and it was the best decision I've made. Ridiculous hours, no home life for what? To be shouted at and abused by passengers and management stick up for them? Not worth it, steer well clear.

It is very important to mention this review is only based on the First Bus depot in Hengrove as i spent 2 years there. This is the newest built depot in Bristol i think so much more modern than all other depots, including staff. I started work at 7:30 and finished at 3:45 so nice working hours. This was never alternating so very reliable also however the choice is there to change shift to a 6am - 2pm for example if you wish. Very nice people in management in what i would call a very progressive company, surrounding Health & Safety and your rights in a work place etc. The culture in the work place was very relaxed and probably not what you would expect from a very male dominated environment, of course lots of banter but very chilled and not harsh at all. In my time i didn't learn as much as i would have liked too, i felt the communication between management and my mentor's was very lackluster, therefore leading to a very disorganized setup for an apprentice. Many times having to force myself into areas to learn my trade without much guidance. I wasn't able to build relationships as well as i would like to have however most of this was probably down to my faults, therefore possibly contributing to my struggles with mentor's and overall learning This was the hardest part of the job for me, however THIS IS based on an apprenticeship experience. The most enjoyable part of the job for me was being able to learn and fully understand new things that i was being taught. So overall a very nice environment and company to work in.

You get your shifts on an app, you come in say hello, find your bus in the morning or the bus station and get on with it is the best way to put it.

If it wasn't for the banter and colleagues I think I would have been long gone.

Traffic is terrible but to be expected, not much rush for things as long as you give yourself enough time, better to be late than have an accident is the best way to go about it.

Training was easy enough, bit of paper work, drive a bus round, do some tests in about 4 weeks start to finish your ready. Trainers are great though. However, be expected to go to different depots for things. I had to go to huddersfield and bramley for my training and with no car at the time was interesting.

They have a staff bus in the morning and evening but expect them all to say "your car broken down?"

Anyways, after this waffle heres the bottom line. If you like to live this ain't the best place. Expect to never have a sleep schedule again with rubbish pay for the work, with a company that can't decide on pay. Best if your a divorced 60 year old with no mortgage no kids as you'll be living at work. Accidents happen and thats something you need to understand completely. And you'll break down at least twice a week with passengers swearing at you because they can't pay a £2 fare.

Good luck if you apply and have a nice day 

Oh and managers are hit an miss you'll know which are the good ones

When they took over our company, their only interest was to shaft the staffs wages and conditions, shaft the passengers pockets, and shaft the maintenance of the buses, all to save money. Management dont give a monkeys and drivers are always guilty whatever...they closed our canteens, took our walking time to bus stations off us, took our spreadover pay off us leaving unpaid breaks of 3 or 4 hours, completely useless to anyone, duties got longer and longer, sometimes you would finish a late about midnight and be scheduled back in at 0930. Complain???? Standard answer "Your a professional driver, you should be able to manage"  The stress they caused staff was unbelievable.  I was so tired it was dangerous. Our buses were filthy inside and out. ETC ETC ETC. They scrapped all our union agreements without any negotiation.......they destroyed moral and turned the workforce around to absolutely HATE them. The whole rotten company is DANGEROUS, After 35 years, I finally started having severe whiplash cramps in my back from those awful cabseats, 1000s of speedramps and Firsts neglected suspension-less buses. They simply accused me of lying and sacked me. I am left with what can only be described as life changing injuries. The wheel has now gone round full circle, therers virtually nothing left of the company they paid so much for all those years ago...

What a joke of a company! 

If you want to work for peanuts, be expected to max out your driving time with 2 and half hour breaks in the middle, get constantly pestered for overtime by the endless amount of pointless managers and drive buses with constant problems and issues whilst the management give more of a care to raising money for charity than looking after and maintaining their vehicles. It seems like you can’t even sneeze without being asked to donate £1 for action to children in managements eyes!

Not to mention there is no rota and you are told 3 weeks in advance what you are working, being made to work every weekend because they haven’t got the staff! 

Honestly the worst company I’ve ever worked for and it shows by the amount of drivers who are handing their notices in and leaving! 

Management have no idea, sit within their 4 walls oblivious to what is happening on road especially during COVID-19!
 
First Southampton are currently negotiating with UNITE due to the managers basically stabbing good drivers in the back and cutting their pay and benefits after working throughout the COVID pandemic! 

If your thinking of applying here then AVOIDING it will be the best decision you’ve ever made!

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Bus driver 987 salaries reported	£14.98 per hour
Mechanic 78 salaries reported	£20.71 per hour
Driver 7 salaries reported	£14.04 per hour
Electrician 14 salaries reported	£20.68 per hour
Engineer 35 salaries reported	£20.74 per hour

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