Bus Operators Meet, No New Schedule Yet
The Department of Public Transportation today [July 27] advised that following a two hour meeting with bus operators this morning, a new bus schedule failed to be ratified.
The new schedule has been an ongoing issue for some months now, with a meeting in May also failing to produce a new bus schedule. Bus service was suspended for the duration of both meetings.
“The Department of Public Transport will continue to work with the BIU representatives to resolve the outstanding concerns of their members and will keep the public advised on progress,” a spokesperson said.
Fire them all. There are lots of construction guys lookin for work. They just need one more meetin to party before they come under new Government.
Oh shut up!!!
I used to be an operator, so you know nothing when it comes to the schedules.
After ten years it seems nobody knows diddly about bus service!
It aint rocket science for goodness sake.
At least they got a good greaze and a few holes of golf in before retiring to the next ten years
of sick outs, walk outs, mid morning meetings, tourism destroying disruption.
Shouldn’t the employer just tell the employees what to do?
Sort of like what happens in the real world?
Don’t go on strike my brothas and sistas. The union has no money left to loan out never mind pay for a strike. By the way…when were the civil servants going to start to have a cut in their pay!?
@ Truth is killin’ me
Did you really believe the politicians and civil servants would take a pay cut?
They are hoping we will forget what they said.
Unfortunately, they may be right!
As a matter of national importance, they need to be fired and oeople who are willing to ACTUALLY work for Bermuda hired.
I agree with you,the union has no money !!!!!and members are fed up.
Hehehe!!
What a joke DPT has become. They have been turning down this new roster for about ten years or more now.They had a consulant or run cutter as they called him coming here from canada and his assistant for at least nine years. Back and forth to canada at the tax payers expense living at various hotels. The guy is laughing all the way to the bank as he has made a fortune coming back and forth and apparently after about nine years the director decides he no longer needed the service of mr. ????.I bet if DPT were forced to show thier hand we would keil over after seeing the sum of money that was paid to that guy for nothing in exchange. The bigger part of the joke is that DPT had also sent some of the supervisors to canada to become certified in run cutting. But after thier return and being certified they were never included in the process of putting togeather the new schedule.Everytime they call a meeting to discuss this issue I know before it begins the answer is nooooooooooooooo. They need to finally send the director packing along with the other weak links over there at DPT and hire a group who have real insite and experience of running a transit system.
How difficult can this be???? you people are disgusting!!
Hint: How about every half hour. (I know, its thinking out the box, but why not try it?).
Children playing at grownups, playing games with the country’s economic life.
Screw the tourists, kids, seniors or people trying to get around.
You guys lost the little respect we had left for you after the last time,
your lot in life will reflect what you put in..grab a spot for your stand selling detergent along Palmetto rd while you can. The future is coming like a sunrise but it’s gonna feel like a sunset .
I’m surprised to see 4 responses to the 2 hour meeting with no resolve. The only thing I see is disturbance in public transportation while island is loaded with tourist n locals relying on their services they are paid to provide. I’d say go to meeting don’t bother to return to work. There r many ways to solve schedule concerns. Get it together for the sake of the island!
absolutely rubbish. this inept and draconian Department and Union need to be reshuffled. Time to change the cards in hand to more useful ones, NOW!
FIRE everyone of them from the top to the bottom,get rid of the biu and get a government with balls and then and only then will Bermuda get back on it’s feet..until then…I’m walking,yes indeed I’m walking!
Is’nt that back @$$wards? Should’nt the schedule be decided upon what is good for the travelling public?
Are not the bus drivers public servants to the the tax payer,thus civil service?
One of the fundamental rights of management is THE RIGHT TO SCHEDULE their employees! Everywhere except here, where the tail always wags the dog.
What a pathetic, entitled, smug bunch of sniveling babies!
Would you want your work day spread over 12 hours!
No!!! I think not, so get the facts before you speak id%#.
My work day IS spread over 12 hours. And I don’t get 14 weeks “sick leave” a year either.
Yes, if that’s what you signed up for.
Ask restaurant workers who work split shifts!
Bermuda is in for a rude awakening. The BIU cannot continue to live in the 1960s for much longer.
Funny how you call ME an idiot, when you have just made such a ridiculous post. There are thousands of good people who would, well…throw themselves in front of a bus, to have one of these jobs. You don’t like split shifts? Work in an industry that doesn’t have them.
I wish I could have my workday spread over 12 hours. Instead, I work 12 STRAIGHT hours a day, with no time off in between.
I love my job, and I know I’m fortunate to HAVE one, mate.
the schedule will be milked for another morning off or maybe 2 and then there will be the separate BIU meeting….fire them all……surely someone with half a brain would figure out a way to have people vote before or after work and then tell everyone the next day the results….kind of like an election…..
this is complete b@ll@cks. you are telling me that ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL of the drivers need to sit down and listen, discuss, agree on a new schedule. what happened to the organization in this department which has a hierarchy of workers, shop stewards, managers, etc.
it is high time that we start working from a post 2000 A.D. model of passage of information both up the chain and down the chain of employment so that we have a more effcient system that can ratify a bus schedule a lot easier than ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL of the drivers having to go to a hall and vote on it!!!!!!
For Chri$t’$ sake Larry!!!
Yet another clear signal of exactly who is in charge on this island.
The jokers!
Let’s see what this so-called Government will do about this….more giving in to the BIU so the drivers can continue to collect mega bucks in overtime at the taxpayer’s expense.
How much will PTB go over their budget this time around, I wonder? The cog certainly knows how to mismanage other people’s money and we stand by and watch her do it!
We, the general public lose no matter how you look at it!! ALL of the transportation services on the island are pathetic!! Buses always cancelled for one reason or another, taxis sitting at the cruise ships, hotels Front Street etc.(took me 2 hours this morning to get a taxi) and mini buses…well the eastern service is just a joke!! No sense complaining though….just falling on deaf ears!!
hey i need a job i will work whatever schedule u want me 2! after all “work” is work”!
Fire the lot of them. Drivers, mechanics, Administration, What a uselss bunch. Time to privatise. Yes, it will have to be subsidised by tacpayers but the service will be a whole lot better & a whole lot cheaper overall too.
Yes Privatise!!!! I agree 100%
Or
Can the head of this department and transport minister just f’n institute the new schedules. Wasn’t Mr. Lister talking tough about these changes years ago????
If the Union does not like the changes and they are not deemed to be unhealthy, inhumane, or unreasonable then tough!!!! Let them strike!!! Im sure we can all pull together as Bermudians and give the busing public and tourists rides and inconvenience ourselves and help each other for a few weeks or months until these SELFISH BUS DRIVERS and UNION officials realize how good they have it.
Only when they run out of money and realize that their great BIU won’t assist them with any real out of work money to pay bills will they understand how lucky they are in these times to actually have a job. Fire them, I will take the job!
Yes, and look what the cog did to Terry!!
You know whose side she’s on…..it’s definitely not the taxpayers!
Vote this lot OUT.
On a bus schedule gone are the days of everybody of at 5 and weekends off and screw the rest!
Get to work Bermuda we are broke and be thankful for work if u have it as things are abouto get worse, hello any tourists out there oyeah a few until the end of next month then massive layoffs
I know 120 guys in India who would come do the job and for half the money!
Be happier still when they see the benefits. Died and went to heaven,
15 hour days too!
By next year we’ll all be going to work in India anyway!
We trebled the national debt- vote for us.
LOVE this! It’s all about perspective!
Privatise the system!
Aloha
Ms. Furbert-
Are there provisions in the current CBA governing employment of bus drivers that give the union the right to refuse changes to the schedule?
Many thanks in advance for your insight.
EW
This question has been answered on another news site; it appears that the union does have that right, under a arbitrator’s decision made in 2004.
Greetings. I posted this over at the Royal Gazette web page and thought it might be of interest to those following this particular comment thread.
There’s a maxim that states “I don’t care what they say about me, as long as they spell my name right”. Well, my name is spelled “Reed” not “Reid”, and parables aside, I really must address the comments made about me – and my company.
I am one of the principals of Schedule Masters, Inc., a Toronto-based software and consultancy firm with Public Transport clients in North and South America, the Caribbean, and New Zealand. All told, our scheduling software is used for or at over 100 Agencies – including Bermuda.
In late 2001, (the then) PTB acquired our software in order to assist in the development of a new schedule and roster for the Island. Shortly after we installed and made operational the system, the Chief Scheduler moved on to another opportunity within PTB. Director Dan Simmons advertised the position at PTB, within Government, and within Bermuda to no avail. When an international search brought no results either, I was kept on in an “as-needed” basis as the de facto scheduler.
During our firm’s tenure, we produced no fewer than 25 schedules and rosters. Each one was met with refusal by the BIU. Around attempt number 10 in late 2004, the matter was submitted to an Arbitration Tribunal with (then) PS Marc Telemaque arguing for the Government side, and, among others, Derek Burgess (!) arguing on behalf of the BIU. At issue were “Hours of Work” (as per the Collective Bargaining Agreement [CBA]), “multiple-night” rosters, and “turn-around” times for runs on routes.
The Arbitrator decided that in keeping with past practice, drivers would continue to have only one “night run” in their rosters. Further, a minimum turn-around time of five minutes was established for Central Terminal.
The starting and finishing times for PTB, according to the CBA [8.6.f] were set out as “from 6:00am to 1:00am”. In section 8.1, the words “Starting and finishing times may vary and be varied between Departments and Sections within Departments by mutual agreement between the Union and the Employer”.
Since the new schedule and roster altered the starting and finishing times for the drivers – albeit still between the 6:00am and 1:00am parameters – the Arbitrator decided that new schedules and rosters did indeed alter the starting and finishing times of the drivers and that the Union had the right to ratify any new schedule.
This was, in my opinion, a horrible mistake by the Arbitrator. It virtually guaranteed Union refusal of any future schedule changes in favour of the status quo.
It is indeed maintaining that status quo that has made Public Transport such an expensive endeavour in Bermuda. Schedules are living and breathing things; they need to reflect ever-changing demand and traffic conditions and simply cannot be considered viable when they follow 1998 assumptions.
From the outset, the new schedules reflected changes on the streets of Bermuda. Although somewhat dated now, they’re a considerable improvement in both realistic running times and increased service. Mr. Furbert was quoted as stating the schedule was designed around a Canadian model. This is untrue. The base (1998) schedule was maintained and expanded upon once chronic late-arriving trips were identified and corrected. Input was taken and implemented for earlier and later service – especially on the weekends, and buses were no longer to short-turn at Grotto Bay or Barnes’ Corner. Those turn-arounds were placed in the old schedule in order to even out the drivers’ work hours. Under the new schedule, they simply did not make sense.
Under the current schedule, it takes no fewer than 77 vehicles (school in) and 54 vehicles (school out) to put service on the street. By realigning how buses travel through the system and having drivers swap duties with one another at Central Terminal, those numbers were reduced to 76 and 46 respectively. Imagine, if you will, an extra eight buses being made availble to the tourists in the summer!
In the old schedule, most drivers would finish their first piece of work and drive “Not in Service” back to Fort Langton for lunch. Under the new schedule, most drivers would finish their first piece at Central Terminal and hand the bus over to someone else. If it was going to be less than an hour until their next piece, they could stay at Central Terminal for their lunch. If it was going to be more than an hour, they would be transported back to Fort Langton – and get paid for their travel time – on regularly scheduled service.
Not only were there vehicle and fuel savings, but with the new schedule, PTB/DPT was in a position to save well over $1 million in operating costs in a year – with increased service and even with hiring an additional 15 drivers to handle school and charter work in the winter.
Does DPT still pay Schedule Masters? A bit, actually – maybe about 40 hours a year and only when directed by DPT Director Dan Simmons. Mr. Simmons has tried valliantly over the years to accommodate the BIU but to no avail. Each one of the schedules and rosters conformed directly to the CBA, save for a few versions that violated the one “night run” per roster (or had odd travel instructions) that were subsequently corrected.
The most recent complaint was the number of rosters operating out of Dockyard that has Saturdays and Sundays off. Due to service realignments, it was indeed the case that out of fourteen rosters, only two had Saturday and Sunday off. That was for the summer roster and everyone else had consecutive days off during the week. In the winter schedule, the number of Dockyard rosters with Saturday and Sunday off increased to eight out of twenty with school in. Every driver in the roster – including Fort Langton and St. George’s – was given consecutive days off. Not always Saturday and Sunday, but two days together regardless.
The most recent complaint? Some drivers wanted split days off so they could have one of Saturday or Sunday and then another day during the week. Of course, there was no mention of the fact that DPT grants its drivers the right to swap days with one another.
Instead, service gets interrupted again so the latest schedule can get voted down.
In the new roster, the average weekday run involves 6:15 of driving time and 7:30 of pay time. No driver has to drive a run more than once a week that finishes after 10:00pm. Every driver is scheduled a minimum of 12:00 off time between runs.
The summer schedule is the same as the winter schedule, save for the school runs. Those drivers are scheduled to drive and average of 3:20 a day and then be on stand-by should they be required to cover a charter or another run if the scheduled driver is unavailable. They get 7:30 pay time a day too, with Saturdays and Sundays guaranteed off.
Drivers select their rosters in seniority order twice a year. Naturally, those with less seniority get to choose from what’s left over once their predecessors have chosen theirs.
Thank-you for providing me with this forum.
Kindest regards to all Bermudians – friends and foes alike.
David Reed
Schedule Masters, Inc.
The schedule (like many other things)will never be changed while the PLP/BIU are the Government.
…and after complaining about the spelling of my name, I went ahead and misspelled Derrick Burgess’. Mea culpa.