Practical Driving Skill & Flying

                                                  ( An exmaple of a Tyre striking a Kerb )
On 2^nd of July 2015, glad to inform you that, my employer together with Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability (e2i), opened a The Bus Training and Evaluation Center – (BTEC), in Jurong East with some 12 bus cockpit simulator to give trainee a sense of what they will face on Singapore’s roads. Personally, this is a step in the right direction. However, it is still remain to be proven whether, more locals will come forward to take up this job as a public Bus Captain and I hope my regular blog posting, in a small way, will be able to compliment these good initiatives.

This is the start of the actual training programme for Trainee Bus Captain. In this module, there is Part A and Part B. Part A is about theory (see the last para for blog post no.7) and is conducted in a class room environment for about 2 weeks. At the end of each topic, there will be understanding test taken. Part B is about practical driving skill with a 12M long Bus.

After completing the classroom activities in Part A; for the next 4 weeks, I was on the road, every day. I have to drive daily to hone my driving skill in handling all the intricate and complicated road conditions. This is the time, where mistakes are tolerated by the trainer as some roads and their related junction corners are both narrow and sharp.  If I am not careful, I will get the rear tyre to mount kerb or force the tyre to press too hard to the stone kerb and cause a puncture tyre as shown in the attached photo. At times, I also have to “eat” into the opposite lane, i.e. cross-over the white line. Specific to TP class 4A test requirements, all these road mistakes mentioned are deemed to secure an immediate failure from the TP tester. However, I guess, in real practical driving, I need to bend the rule to avoid any potential accident.

For Part B, I am fortunate to be assigned to a more “refined” Trainer. I could not remember him cursing or shouting or uttering any 4-letters words to me. This phase of my training, covers, narrow roads maneuver, sharp during corners and negotiating bends, making U-turn (not tested earlier in TP Class 4A test), bus stops function, the dreaded pedestrian crossing rule, bus washing, parking at the depot, top up diesel, bus cleaning, daily1^st parade (FPT) and last parade task (LPT) and passenger boarding and alighting.

 To complete the learning for this Module 2 and to be passed out as a Trained BC; I need to do about 8 trips of “flying”. This is a technical jargon used for a new BC to get himself familiar with the service route that he will be expected to do as a first revenue-able service duty, soon. I have to literally sit inside the said service bus number, driven by another official BC; as a passenger for 8 trips. I guess, this is what in Malay it is called “makan angin” or loosely translated as “eating wind”. Of the required flying trips, minimum 2 trips will be done with a night flying. The reason is that, during the day time, the daylight from the Sun helps you to have a better visual, and you can see afar on what is coming your way. However, during night time, with only the streets lamps light; the visual distant is much limited and overall visibility is reduced. So it is actually a very wise move as required in this route familiarization session.

It can be overwhelming for a new BC like me to immediately trying to know exactly, where is the next bus stop located along the road; where will be the cross or T-junctions and pedestrian crossing situated; where and when to make the dread 4-3-2-1 lane switching from the out most left lane to the out most right lane and immediately followed by making a right turn.

My maiden svc route is 178. It is a trunk service linking WRI and Boon Lay Interchange, BLI. To and fro, there are some 140 Bus stops, about 70 bus stops in each direction. So if, you are 1^st time doing this svc 178; do you think, you can remember all the bus stops?  I guess, you will miss some, which I have to confess, initially, I do missed some, but luckily there is no passenger waiting to board the bus.

When the 4 weeks is up, I am ready to be certified as a Bus Captain. The final test requires me to drive the bus from WRI to BLI. This is real stuff, but minus the commuting passenger on board. The final test is examined by in-house examiner. I passed in one go, and no retest is required. Hurray, the next thing to do is formality….the Passing Out Parade, “POP”.