Acquiring Bus Driving Skill

Vast learning and the arts, and being well-trained in discipline is a Blessing….Mangala Sutta

After spending 2 full days in the classroom and passing the entire class understanding test. The class moved to the depot bus park in Woodlands. It would be an outdoor and inside the bus session. A group of 5 trainees is assigned to man a “training bus” with a specific Trainer. Since I only got a class 3 driving licence (DL), I have to go through this module in full with lots of bus driving practices. My employer provides us 2 attempts  to pass the required Traffic Police (TP) Class 4A Omnibus DL. When the 2^nd chance or attempt is used up, and I still fail the dreaded TP test; I will be out of course and that will be the most unfortunate event for me.

So, I mentally and physically transform myself and accept whatever “shit” it may come along the way and be humble to accept it. This is the start of the most anxious time of my life as an enlistee. Before I am allowed to drive the 12M bus, I need to get a provisional DL from the TP. 

This module is a 2 weeks, 6 full days per week of nonstop practical driving. Course will cover all the TP Class 4A requirements. Proper methodology for reversing the bus, 3-point turning, confidence in handling the bus, test route familiarization and driving on the public road.  Reverse parking is critically emphasized as the rear of the bus is a “blind area” and both side of the bus is a “blind spot”. If I do not have a proper viewable rear side mirror for both sides, I will stop driving the bus immediately and get the rear-side mirror adjusted to achieve max side view-ability.

My Trainer for Class 4A qualification is a furious (garang) one; and always talking tough and down onto the trainee. However, I can sense that, his heart is a good one. He wants me to be good driver, accident free and most importantly pass the coming driving test. He is dead serious and need me to take sufficient safety precaution to prevent any potential accident. The scenario is similar to that of been in the Army Camp that been commanded by an Encik or Regimental Sargent Major (RSM).

When I first started to turn on the bus engine, I was already terrified by him; he always getting mad at me and it seemed as if I could not do anything right around him and because of nerves, at time, I became more and more fearful of him.

I still can vividly remember my 1^st day of driving on a public road with a 12M long Public Bus. The moment I drove on the public road for the 1^st KM; my trainer shouted at the top of voice and jumping up and down mad inside the bus, and commanded me to stop the bus immediately, and drive no further. At that moment, I was shocked and just freeze. As I do not know what I have done wrong or maybe I have bang something or someone. Obeying his command, I stopped bus at the nearest bus stop. He asked me to get up from the driver’s seat, and started to get a mouthful from him. What a lousy day !.

The reason for his screaming is that, for almost 30years, the technique that I used to drive my car on the road is now no longer applicable or suitable to drive a 2.4M wide body and 4.5M height bus. The width of the public road is almost the same width or just a bit wider than 2.4M. In my car driving technique, I skewed too much to the left of the road and this almost resulted in hitting a couple of road sign, lamp post, stone kerb and tree branches just for the 1^st KM of driving, poor me.

I have to re-write my driving algorithm fast, refresh and adapt it for driving bus; and quickly deleted my car driving OS. So for the next 2 weeks, I abstained myself from driving my car. When I have clocked the sufficient number of hours of practical road driving, and the trainer is also satisfy with it, and it is now time to take the Class 4A DL test.

It was a nerve racking day for me on April 28, 2014. The bus reserving test was poorly done and took more than one straight reversing to get it right. I need to go forward and backward before I can finally stop at the predestined parking lot and pulled the handbrake handle.

The road test starting point is at Woodlands Regional Interchange, WRI. Having adjusted the driver’s seat; I need to do a “forward drive” to pull the bus out of the berth. On the contrary, I actually and still do not know why, till today, I hit the “reverse gear” instead.

The bus reversed about 1M, given the size of the R196 tyre, the TP examiner give me a look, and I almost got an immediate fail; that is I no need to continue the road test further. I started to panic and freaking out with cold sweat. I am glad that, the TP officer, allows me to continue the rest of the road test. I told myself mentally, that I have come so far since the day I went for the walk-in interview, I need to be focus and do my best and continued with the test.

The last unpleasant event happened at the T-junction traffic light in Marsiling Road, near the Siva Krishna Temple. As I was approaching the T-junction to make a right-turn, the right turn arrow turns green, but as I about to make the right turn, it suddenly turned to red right light after 3 continuous flickers. By now, I am very nervous, as this can be considered as beating the red traffic light which can warrants an immediate TP test fail. Later I found out that, in order for right-turn arrow to have a longer residence time, I have to “step” the bus into the piezoelectric sensing zone, which in turn will activate the electronic timer controller to give me more right-arrow-turning time.

Having arrived back to WRI, the TP Officer, called me to see him. At this juncture, I am totally freaking out and my mind is blank. His immediate remark to me is that, my driving is not “steady”, meaning lacking in technical competency in handling the bus. I told him, Sir I agreed; I finally got a 18 out of 20 points, a border line pass and I thanked the TP Officer wholeheartedly. Yes, I passed my Class 4A on April 28, 2014. That was about 30years since I last taken a TP test.

Upon successfully passing the said TP test, I am now deemed officially as Trainee Bus Captain. For the next 6weeks, the training is all about service quality, fare structure, depot functions and proper conduct while in the interchanges, route familiarization and most importantly safe and defensive driving technique; and learn a bit of bus operational functions and situation and incidence related to passengers and traffic.

Most importantly, right up to this moment, it is never my intention to be trained and become as one of “5-types-of- bus-drivers-we-hate-in-Singapore” according to www.lowkayhwa.com. I will give my remarks and comments to these statement in due time.