# Greyhound Driver Stops At Motel To Rest w Bus Full Of Passengers



## Chaz (Jan 7, 2016)

Greyhound Driver Stops Denver bound bus at Motel in Salina Kansas To Rest... With Bus Full Of Passengers!

Tuesday aft

The driver allegedly said nothing.. A passenger finally kept motor going for heat

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/01/06/greyhound-driver-stops-at-motel-to-rest-with-bus-full-of-passengers/

Greyhound's lame respnse:

"Greyhound said the driver had to finish his federally-regulated rest hours. The company also said the passengers could have waited inside a fast food restaurant to keep warm."

includes a tv news clip from 6th


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## crabby_appleton1950 (Jan 7, 2016)

Why would Greyhound assign a driver who didn't have enough drivable hours (?) to complete the trip?


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## OlympianHiawatha (Jan 7, 2016)

That driver should be Fired* INSTANTLY* and with cause. Same for the Dispatcher handling that run. At minimum he should have not taken the assignment knowing he was going to come up short on hours and Dispatch should not have even offered it to him. And since he elected to bail mid trip, he could have at least explained to pax what was going on. Of course the company doesn't come out looking so good either based on their prepared statement.


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## fairviewroad (Jan 7, 2016)

I'm hoping Swadian weighs in on what model of Greyhound bus that was and whether it's the best model for waiting in during an unannounced driver hotel stop.


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## Bob Dylan (Jan 7, 2016)

Unbelievable!

Sounds like some of the fiascos that Airlines and Amtrak have pulled!


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## Ryan (Jan 7, 2016)

How many of you clamoring for "the driver" to get fired actually read the story? There were two drivers - the first did exactly what he was supposed to, not knowing that the second wasn't forthcoming. The second likely did nothing wrong either, trusting in the company to see to it that arrangements were made while he completed his rest.

It's pretty depressing to see everyone jump on the "FIRE HIM!" bandwagon without taking the requisite 30 second to learn the basic facts of the situation.

Should someone be fired? Perhaps. But that requires more knowledge than is provided by a single news article. Is it really all that much to expect for folks to exercise a tiny amount of judgement and restraint?


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## Swadian Hardcore (Jan 7, 2016)

The first driver completed his run to Salina at 4:15 PM and checked into the motel as he was supposed to, so he SHOULD NOT be fired! The other driver who was supposed to drive from Salina to Denver shouldn't be fired either because he had arrived late into Salina previously and was still sleeping in the model.

What actually happened is that Operations Support Center (OSC) sent the bus from Kansas City to Salina even though the driver in Salina wasn't going to be able to take over when it arrived. It was on Schedule 1675 New York City-Las Vegas and had presumably arrived on-time in Kansas City so OSC messed up and sent it on-time out of KCD. It got on-time to Salina but there was no driver available in Salina and the driver from Kansas City checked into the motel as he was supposed to.

AFAIK, the first driver came back around 6:00 PM after being alerted that the passengers were stranded and stayed with the passengers until the second driver was ready to drive at 8:00 PM.

And yes, I do have local sources from the area so it's pretty clear what happened.

So if anybody needs to be fired, it's whoever in OSC ordered the bus out of KCD. But Greyhound never seems to fire its OSC fools, so whatever.

For you fairviewroad, the vehicle is a 2000 MCI 102DL3 ex-Golden State Lines with a retrofitted wheelchair lift.


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## NorthShore (Jan 8, 2016)

And, here, I had hoped that there was a big pajama party. Or that all of the passengers got rooms.


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## willem (Jan 8, 2016)

Ryan said:


> Is it really all that much to expect for folks to exercise a tiny amount of judgement and restraint?


You've been around long enough to know the answer to your question. "It shouldn't be, but it is."


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## railiner (Jan 8, 2016)

The way I see it, the scenario was as Swadian outlined. But one simple act that would have saved the situation, would be for the first driver to be sure to "turn over" his coach to the relieving driver. Once he found that the relieving driver was not there, he would have called OSC to report the situation, and when they then discovered the problem, they would have held the first driver to remain on duty, to inform the passenger's and take care of them and the bus until the rested driver relieved him.

In major terminal's, where there are other employees and supervisors available, that wouldn't be necessary. But in a remote relief point such as Salina, common sense would dictate that you don't leave the bus, until you see your relief.....

The whole fiasco was certainly an embarrassment for Greyhound, and fortunately, there were no serious consequences other than bad PR. Hopefully, all concerned will learn from the experience, and take steps necessary to insure it doesn't happen again....


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## Swadian Hardcore (Jan 8, 2016)

The passengers didn't really need rooms, because they were only there for 3:45.

I think Greyhound's poor timetable was also to blame. The Salina stop is 30 minutes, and the first driver would probably get agitated if he had to sit there for 30 minutes waiting for the next driver, so instead, he just checked into the motel. If the stop had been shorter, such as only 15 minutes, it wouldn't be such a big problem.

Also, I assume that some kind of union contract dictates that if the first driver has to sit in Salina for 30 extra minutes, he would have to be paid for it. Similarly, if OSC had told the driver to stay on duty and wait on the bus with the passengers, he would have run out of hours and Greyhound would probably have to pay him overtime, whereas if he stayed voluntarily (off-duty) he wouldn't have to be paid.


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## railiner (Jan 9, 2016)

Whether a stop is 15, 30 or whatever minutes....in a 'remote' (non terminal) station or rest stop where there is a thru bus occupied by passenger's, someone must be in charge of the vehicle at all times. A driver completing his run must do a 'post trip inspection', and the relieving driver must do his 'pre trip inspection'. So there should be sufficient time built in to the schedule to insure both driver's are compensated for their time.

It is true that if the first driver's tour had to be extended to await relief, he could have conceivably run out of hours, but "on duty, not driving" time lasts up to 15 hours. And in an "emergency" situation, could be extended beyond that. Not as critical as the ten hour "driving" time limit. Once relieved, the driver must get eight hours uninterrupted rest, before returning to duty, so in some cases, that could mean delaying his return trip for the same reason as the first driver's delay. The 'snowball effect'. In such situations, there are other solutions that OSC could have done, such as sending a second driver from the nearest crew base (Kansas City?) to be in charge of the bus while the other two got their rest....


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## Chaz (Jan 9, 2016)

"0SC" referred to several times is...? I can infer it's central dispatch but....


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## railiner (Jan 9, 2016)

Chaz said:


> "0SC" referred to several times is...? I can infer it's central dispatch but....


Your inference is correct.....Operations Support Center, located in Dallas....


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## Swadian Hardcore (Jan 9, 2016)

Would 15 minutes be sufficient for the driver change, considering the post-trip and pre-trip, or is 30 minutes necessary? I rarely see driver changes actually taking 30 minutes; usually they just get done and hang around.

I assume that OSC either had no driver available in Kansas City or didn't want to pay an extra driver per bean-counting policies.


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## railiner (Jan 9, 2016)

15 minutes is long enough. What I am saying is that if you want to give a 30 minute meal stop along with the driver change, the consecutive inspections would 'cover' that period.

I don't know the particular's of this specific case...apparently, someone at OSC was 'asleep at the switch', so-to-speak, and didn't recognize the problem or forgot about it, until made aware by the phone call from the passengers. By then it was too late to send a second driver along with the schedule, but they could have applied other creative solutions once the problem was known....that is what they are there for...


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## Swadian Hardcore (Jan 10, 2016)

They might as well cut the meal stops to 15 minutes too. Last time I was on Salt Lake City-Reno before it was discontinued, 15 minutes at Wendover was enough to go to Arby's for a sandwich and curly fries. Heck, I even managed to finish the curly fries before getting back on. That driver Dave Wood only stopped there for 15 minutes, unlike most people who went for 20-30 minutes.


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