Greyhound seats and fleet questions

[mightyjoe1201]

If I could get pics I will but it's at night so I may not be able to.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

So far the wifi sucks. Couldn't connect right on the Greyhound bus it was slow. This bus of Baron's has no connection.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

Made my switch in Cincinnati. This time on a Greyhound prevost X3-45 number 86264. Much more comfortable then the list two. Got seat to myself for now.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

Wifi actually works right in this bus.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

Does anyone know when Greyhound started using drivecams on their buses? The company I just left out then in our buses at home when they took the contract over. I always felt it was just a way for the company to spy on us.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I've ridden #86316. Yeah, it's pretty bad, eh?

I've never been on a Barons J4500. Glad to hear it is much better than the D4505. #86264 is one of the newer X3-45s.

Greyhound has been using DriveCams since at least 2013. For safety reasons, I agree with the use of DriveCams, but there should be enough trust between drivers and the employer that "spying" does not become an issue.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

I'm just glad that 86316 was only for about an hour and a half trip. Lol

The Baron's bus was comfortable except that there were very few seats open. I had to share with someone.

My experience with drivecams is the company bitchs about what you did wrong instead of trying to help make it better. At least that's how Easton Coach Co does it. They took over the contract for the city buses where I just moved from. They are helpful when the is an accident or unruly passenger.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

For a newer bus 86264 has quite a few miles on it. I was sitting in the first seat by the door and was able to see the odometer. It was shooting about 467000 miles

 

[railiner]

Interesting, your mention of the camera's....

I took my annual recurrent training a couple of weeks ago, at our HQ in Hurley, NY (Kingston area)....

One of the topics we covered was the camera's.

The Company affirmed that they are never used "to spy" on driver's...they are only used after an accident, or passenger incident, such as someone falling.

The company can not view them in "real-time". After an incident, they can download the appropriate time period onto a thumb drive, and then view the various camera's on a computer.

After a thorough demonstration of the camera's capability, and full discussion, our driver's now accept them as more of a benefit, then a threat....

 

[mightyjoe1201]

I wish the ones Easton Coach has were like that. If you got the brakes to hard or hit a pothole to hard or take a turn to test it triggers the camera along with an accident triggering it. The driver can also reach over and trigger it. Easton will complain that the driver was doing something wrong, I.e. eating, drinking taking to passengers when they ask a question or even looking at a mirror when the incident happened. They don't ask what could be done to improve. They just say don't do it again or else.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

There's good bosses and bad bosses. Looks like Easton is one of the latter. I'd even venture to say that it may be useful to be able to view footage in real time, though it would most likely require a wireless connection.

#86264 is a 2013 X3-45, so 467,000 sounds about right. The average Greyhound runs 130,000 miles a year.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

In some cases of have to agree with you. Especially after a wreck being able to view it immediately. I still disagree with the idea of a camera system like drivecams. If it didn't record the driver of like it more

 

[railiner]

If you do your job right, you should not be concerned with camera's.....nowaday's, people everywhere are recording on their phone's and posting on You-tube, etc.

Even in the old day's, companies had "spotter's" riding schedules....so nothing is really new....

And before there were Saucon and other electronic recording devices, we used old-fashioned tachograph's (recording speedometer's), with their wax charts...

 

[mightyjoe1201]

Speaking of recording devices, I noticed Greyhound is apparently holding out on going to e logs. The driver I had for the last leg of my trip was using pair logs. I found out in orientation yesterday at the trucking Co I'm at that everyone including bus companies have to run e logs by December of this year.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

You means ELDs? I personally don't see the problem with them. My experience with electronics is that they are better than recording on paper. Piles of papers that could get lost or torn are a pain in the butt.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

Yeah. I'm old school and would rather a paper log. It's more beneficial to the driver. With paper logs you can still get home if you run out of hours minutes from home where with e logs you have to stop even if you are 15 minutes from home and take a 10 hour break if your a truck driver or 8 good if a bus driver. Paper logs you can play with. Companies and dot like e logs better. They are supposed to make us "safer" . Which is a total crock.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I read that the GOP is busy making good on their promises to roll back safety restrictions on maximum duty hours for commercial drivers so it looks like you'll be able to legally drive while exhausted real soon. The company I work for currently has to print thousands of paper tickets for hundreds of trucks, which is both expensive and time consuming to support. As the move to electronic records becomes ubiquitous we intend to follow the trend and replace the physical hardcopy paperwork with digital forms and signatures.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

I don't know where you might think that I'm one that wants to run even when I'm tired. I'm not. Only time I will run over my hours is when it means getting home. I don't want to be stuck on the road another day because I ran out of hours an hour from home. And it's been proven by the experts and by the trucking companies that the current hours of service laws are more dangerous then the original ones we had. The ones bus drivers have to follow. Most drivers have realized they can make just add much if not more money running legal then running illegal.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

And to tell you the truth. I don't like having to sign elections forms. My signature doesn't look right.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

No political discussions here, please!

I agree with Joe that drivers should be allowed some leeway to get home - maybe up to an hour. This can be built into ELDs. Most drivers don't want to die and will not risk driving when seriously fatigued, especially not if they own the vehicle. I still personally prefer ELDs vastly over paper logs.

I'm fine with passenger-carrying HOS rules as they stand and I am also fine with ELDs on scheduled motorcoaches. I do not know enough about trucking to have a definite opinion about property-carrying HOS rules.

Speaking of HOS, does a motorcoach carrying Package Express or pulling a cargo trailer count as a "passenger-carrying vehicle" or "property-carrying vehicle"?

 

[mightyjoe1201]

I'm some ways I agree with you Swadian. Unfortunately the regulations don't allow for time to get home. You run out of hours dot doesn't care if you are an hour or you are 15 minutes from home. You still have to stop for a break.

As to your question about coaches. If they are carrying people, regardless of any packages or trailers they are still a bus and follow those hos rules.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Then I have to agree that they should let a hour of leeway to get home. ELDs can easily allow that if the regulations did. But, of course, not when carrying passengers and certainly not when fatigued.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

Exactly. Tho I don't understand why passenger IE buses are still on the original hos when the stupid special interest groups said they were unsafe and convince the government to change them for us truckers. It should have been for both. Even tho the current hos is more dangerous then the original ones

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Then let's just change the truck HOS back to the current passenger HOS.

Are those air pockets in the new seat covers?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/147657413@N08/33081871035/sizes/o/

That's a 102DL3.

 

[Caesar La Rock]

Well Prevost has been awarded a large contract for 360 buses from Greyhound.

http://www.masstransitmag.com/press_release/12345744/prevost-awarded-large-greyhound-contract

Greyhound Lines Inc. , based in Dallas Texas, has awarded Prevost a contract for up to 360 motorcoaches. The three year deal specifies the delivery of the first 60 coaches in 2017 with the option to purchase the balance over a 3 year period. This is the single largest contract in Prevost history.

“Our team is quite excited to be able to build Greyhound buses again. We greatly value our long standing relationship with GLI and are appreciative that they have chosen Prevost as their brand of choice,” said Francois Tremblay, Prevost vice president/general manager. “We believe product quality and exceptional service support made all the difference in their decision. ”

“We are pleased to continue our partnership with Prevost over the next few years. The quality of buses they produce will help us to keep setting the highest standard for transporting customers across North America,” said Dave Leach, president & CEO, Greyhound. “Our customers desire to travel in the safest and most comfortable bus available; motorcoaches from Prevost allow us to fulfill that need for them.”

Prevost Vice President, North American Sales, Jack Forbes stated: “It is always a pleasure to work with our long-term partners at Greyhound & First Group. A true team effort went into the bid process that brought us to securing this contract and our relationship with GLI will continue to be a team effort. From Sales to Manufacturing to the best Aftermarket Support team in the industry, we are all committed to the success of this partnership.”