Difference between driving a regular public bus vs. driving for Call-a-Ride

[PatrickR720159]

Most Call-a-Ride vehicles are either cutaway vans, or cutaway medium duty trucks. It's where they cut off the back of the cab of a medium duty truck or they cut off the portion of an ordinary full sized van right behind the driver's area and they put a larger bus body on the chassis.  The majority of the ones that are left are either Freightliner M2s.  The newest ones are the Ford Transit vans with a new automatic engine shut-off when sitting at a traffic light.  When it comes to driving those things at night, vs. driving a regular public service bus, driving a regular public service bus requires you to drive the vehicle with the interior lights on at all times.  They have glare boards behind the bus driver and a dark sun panel on the passenger side to help cut down dome light glare on the windshield.  On Call-a-Ride, those don't have big glare boards.  So you turn the interior lights on so the passengers can find the seats and seatbelts.  And your vehicle has to stay put until the last passenger is strapped in.  Then once you put the Call-a-Ride vehicle into drive, you turn the interior lights off so you can see outside.  90% of the time when you work for Call-a-Ride, most of your passengers are pretty nice and would never say anything that sounds threatening.  Just about anytime when I rode Call-a-Ride, I have never heard another passenger cuss while on board.  As a bus driver, YOU have the authority to make the troublemakers get off the bus.  

So here is the link for if you want to serve as a bus driver or work for Call-a-Ride:

https://jobs.jobvite.com/bistatedev/jobs/viewall