[speedsatya]

Yesterday night,I was travelling on the 2229 B7R from Mangalore to Bangalore which was a very sadly maintained bus with dents in the back and a cracked windshield.The door also had a problem in opening!!!

I usually take the left side aisle on these trips so that I have a good view of the driver and the road.And these 7-8 hour trips have just one driver and a conductor .

I had heard of non-B7R trained drivers drive one and meet with this end Travelling by Volvo B7R bus in India: KSRTC's Volvo's major accident

We had just entered bangalore limits when the bus stops on the LHS and the driver who was driving in the night comes from the back and starts driving.

I still didnt doubt anything until i heard this :

First driver : So how was the drive ?what do you think would have happened if i was driving alone ?

Second Driver (who had just handed over the steering ):

if you had driven alone ..we would have to admit you in the hospital!!.I drove for sometime and my legs are aching.I can understand what you drivers go through when you all drive the whole night!!!Its so diffcult to change gears!!!

As i was awake and sitting in the front row , I could hear all this being spoken in Tulu.

How much more irresponsible can one get !!Here we have a conductor ( I am assuming he was a conductor as he was also issuing tickets ) drive a bus capable of doing 3 digit speeds and full of unsuspecting passengers .

I am at a loss of words ..and I dunno how do I go about this .I had complained previously to KSRTC when I had come across a driver who was being advised by his conductor on how to operate the wipers and headlights!!
:

I will never ever take a KSRTC bus anymore and will never allow any of my close ones to do that for sure .

I know KSRTC will never bother to do anything on this ...also I dont have anything to prove my claims .

Imagine what would have happened had this idiot failed to control the bus and had crashed into one of those many LPG tankers that ply on this road...or had he crashed into some other vehicle!!!

[aargee]

@Speedsatya - Look at that, they even have nerves to talk about their swap in front of the passengers (whether sleeping or not). Who knows? May be the conductor doesn't even have a heavy vehicle driving license.

Thanks for the warning. On one side, some of us talk about increasing the public vehicle to avoid traffic, pollution, save environment & what not? But this is the other side of using public transport.

What is more annoying is, just for 7-8 hours can't the driver do his job? All the more all of us here know that these guys cannot be forced to work. Reason? Union. Despite this if a conductor is allowed to drive, then there's nothing wrong even in beating up this guys.

[ajmat]

You should have taken photos and gone to the press about it

[Blue Thunder]

I dont know about KA, but in TN it is standard practise nowadays (at least in overnight trips of the TN-SETC) to have both crew as qualified drivers : so the person whom you think of as conductor when you board the bus is also experienced/qualified to drive that bus. He does the job of issuing tickets at the beginning of the journey, and then switches over to driving the second-leg of the journey.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by Blue Thunder

I dont know about KA, but in TN it is standard practise nowadays (at least in overnight trips of the TN-SETC) to have both crew as qualified drivers : so the person whom you think of as conductor when you board the bus is also experienced/qualified to drive that bus. He does the job of issuing tickets at the beginning of the journey, and then switches over to driving the second-leg of the journey.

Well this could be possible if this was a non stop journey where the chances of taking passengers was nil. Even in that case the driver would have to a break journey to have a break.
This kind of arrangement is not possible in India coz anyways the state run tranports are in a loss, they would like to take as many passengers are possible and hence there would be stops whenever some one signals for the bus.
I have seen in Thane where there are private bus operators (those operating under Society transport disguise), the driver and the fare collector exchange places after each trip.

[lohithrao]

Satya, i guess its the same with all buses, i guess private its more dangerous as the company itself might get someone who is not good or still a learner. this can happen in the busy season esp...

i had a small experience, couple of months back when i was travelling to bangalore at night, the bus was new and the driver and conductore took more then half an hour to fix and error signal which was poping up... could not make it what/why was it coming though but was evident that those 2 folks had no clue

[clevermax]

KSRTC may have Volvo trained drivers. What about all these private Bus operators? Do you think all the drivers are properly trained? They learn by trial and error - I have seen this happening in Kallada Volvo from Trv to Blr.

Once the bus reached Trissur, the driver went out and came with another guy and this new guy sat behind the wheel - the driver gave him a mini crash course on how to operate some of the essentials and guess what, he started driving!! He seemed to be a driver is used to driving the Leylands and Tatas till then.

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by ajmat

You should have taken photos and gone to the press about it

They do put curtains in the night and you wouldnt in your wildest dreams imagine of something like this to happen!!!

and before i could think of taking pics or recording something ...the original driver was back to driving ...now even if i go and say i saw this at the Majestic depot ...i had no "proof" ....and I didnt have the stamina to go and fight over this after a 10 hour long bus journey !!

More than taking up something against KSRTC ...this was more of a FYI thread!!

[WhiteKnight]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

I still didnt doubt anything until i heard this :

First driver : So how was the drive ?what do you think would have happened if i was driving alone ?

Second Driver (who had just handed over the steering ):

if you had driven alone ..we would have to admit you in the hospital!!.I drove for sometime and my legs are aching.I can understand what you drivers go through when you all drive the whole night!!!Its so diffcult to change gears!!!

Obviously, there were talking about the condition of the specific bus, which was lousy, as you mentioned. Just means that mechanicals were lousy too.

Anyway, we have no information about whether conductor had license and badge to drive heavy vehicles. From my short driving experience with heavy vehicles, I can assure you that if the conductor were not a good driver, you'd have known the moment he started driving

Originally Posted by speedsatya

something against KSRTC ...this was more of a FYI thread!!

Agreed

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

I can assure you that if the conductor were not a good driver, you'd have known the moment he started driving



Agreed

I could make out that from the jerks when changing gears ...and it was so annoying to see someone drive like that .

The reason I got this doubt is because there are never 2 drivers on a bang-mang b7r route and the line where he said how do "you drivers" manage to drive!!

i did see a Seabird Isuzu overtake our bus as if we were standing still ..and at that time I thought probably our KSRTC "safe" driver was sticking to some limits though I did remember our bus doing some crazy overtakings in the night .

But when the curtains opened I understood as to why was our bus going so slow .

[amitoj]

Great! Why dont they get monkeys to drive the buses?
Oh wait. They are all busy driving autos in Bangalore.

Night travel anyway is dangerous and stunts like these make it even more risky. Not just for the passengers but other road users as well.

[condor]

Satya, how are you so sure that it was a conductor ? But it seems apparent that the second guy was not trained on Volvo's.

One point before you head over to another bus service : this happens far more often in pvt buses. A cousin said he has driven buses like this (he was with that operator, but not as a driver. Though he was well versed with driving, that would still not be official).

It's only the larger operators who have a second driver on the long routes. Presence will be known when he gets on to the bunk in the driver's cabin.

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by condor

Satya, how are you so sure that it was a conductor ? But it seems apparent that the second guy was not trained on Volvo's.

1. the First driver gets into the driver seat just about 10 kms before we reach Majestic

1. The second driver issues tickets

his lines : ".I can understand what you drivers go through when you all drive the whole night!!!Its so diffcult to change gears!!!"

[arin_12]

I believe this full transport industry runs on this kind of attitude. Any one can drive at anytime. They just need to drive, dont think about any passengers safety. Every time the Tour Operator looks for big profit forgetting the Passengers Safety.
Ex: Once one of my relative went to Coimbatore in a CAB, the driver was not a experienced at all. And while coming back they met an accident at Hosur. The driver even didnt have money for to pay for his own small FirstAid treatment.

[dkamath]

This is the first time am hearing of such an incident, after having travelled solely on Airavat's since the last 3.5 years or so, on this route. The person who drove it can be a day trip driver. Had he been inexperienced, all of you would've felt knee-jerk braking, as this is common with untrained, or first-time drivers on the Volvo. It's not easy to maneuver the Volvo buses, as they are longer than the standard buses other drivers are used to. I don't think the primary driver would ever risk doing such a thing as handing over the controls to an inexperienced person. Job loss apart, they'll even have to shell out for the expenses on fixing damages, and fend for themselves at the police station, in case of any incident, which, God forbid, doesn't ever happen.

In any case, since you are sure of the date and time of journey. You can ask someone in M'lore to call up KSRTC M'lore and report the same. Believe me, they are proactive in following up. History: I did not reach M'lore on time sometime back, and stuck in a road block in Sampaje, with no network available on my cellphone (when that was the route they used). My wifey called up the inquiry, with the B'lore departure time (which was actually incorrect, hehe). They in turn, provided the driver's cellphone number, who was driving somewhere near Puttur. The driver scrolled through the entire passenger list, not to find my name, of course . But thankfully, he said all buses were running late. I reached M'lore at 11am that day.