Transit Jobs NOW!!! Coast Mountain Bus is HIRING!

At least 2 Op's retiring this month out in Richmond.

A Depot Office workleader, who retired in 2013, passed away suddenly this week!

 

Breaking News: They have just posted (again) for more CONVENTIONAL TRANSIT OPERATOR TRAINEES!

www.translink.ca/careers and THEN "Coast Mountain Bus Company"!

 

Conventional transit operator trainee job posting available again at the CMBC website today. I applied last saturday May 7th. I still have not received the email for the video test. I am thinking if I have to apply again or if is better to wait a few days more (the posting that I used to apply came down last tuesday May 10th). What do you guys think??

 

Hi Alex, You will here from them soon. I applied at the end of October and didn't receive the email for the video test until Nov 30. As long as you got an e-mail stating they received your application your fine. Its a long process. Took me six months to get through all the steps.
Good luck!!

 

TGIF!!!!! Did very well today driving in to Vancouver from Poco. We went BTC, VTC and Oakridge and toured the yards. We will be heading out to Surrey on Monday, hopefully we'll do some route training. Up til now we've just been driving the routes but I'm hoping we can pretend to pick up passengers and pull into the stops.
Have a great weekend!!

 

Good work! I'm glad to hear the training is going well for you.

I didn't pick up passengers until near the end of training. But if you want, you can ask your instructor if you can practice pulling into stops - I did that just for extra practice.

 

FYI: Tons of Overtime these days, especially in Richmond. If it continues I would assume there would be more Ops sent to Richmond before the June sign up.

We'll be signing up for the late June sheet change either at the end of May or early into June. (Week of June 6 in Richmond).

Then The BIG system wide sign up for the September sheet change starts before the end of June. The big/consolidated sign up takes like 6 weeks to complete. 3,000 Ops, in seniority order, over like 25 business days.

They want the Consolidated sign up finished early this year/before August so that August will be freed up for lots of route training for everyone who is switching depots in September. Lots of changes coming for the September/Labour Day sheet change. North Van (CLOSING) routes moving to Burnaby depot. South Burnaby routes moving to (NEW) Hamilton. 3 main Richmond routes moving to Hamilton and Vancouver. Route relocations at all depots I believe. Old Oakridge (SHUTTLE) moving to Hamilton as well. Hamilton will have some first day-week headaches. Often buses don't yet have proper signage programmed= cardboard signs for a few days. There is a learning curve as everyone adjusts to the new configurations.

There is also a Union election going on right now; every few years we elect our President; 2 vice presidents; Recording secretary; Property reps; Safety and Service Review reps. There are posters up at all work sites and in the busier crewrooms/washrooms thru out the system. Lots of chatter on the CAW 111 Facebook page too.

It is YOUR Union. The union is only as strong as it's membership.

 

There were 3 newbies doing route training today in Richmond.

 

Just did my first shift today.

After school tripper
144 to metrotown
110 to lougheed
110 to metrotown
106 to new west stn
99 round trip

Spent 5 hours studying my paddle because their were so many turns!!

 

That was me 25 years ago! Now I barely ever look at the paddles anymore. Best of luck!

 

Hi!! Tuesday was our testing day, and I was extremely nervous. I guess it showed because everyone was telling me to take deep breaths and relax. I aced the pre trip, but my nerves got the best of me and I failed the road test. The instructors were so caring and understanding and were confident I could do it. So today while everybody else were picking up passengers, I redid my road test. Anyways, I did it! We went to ICBC right away and then did some more routes to practice pulling in to stops.Tomorrow morning I'm doing my line training out of Oakridge, C5,C6,and C7. Should be an interesting day!

 

Congratulations!! You are now "One of Us"! Here's to a bright and prosperous career in Public Transit!

 

Cool! I saw you guys all headed back on the freeway as I was going to work at BTC. The convoy of shuttles on Highway is always fun to see! and yes you will get to practice stops soon AND do some revenue service... picking up real, live peeps! Have fun

 

WOW. Talk about trial by fire! That's a really ugly first piece of work lol. A 106 and a 99 in the same day... poor guy! Not to mention the traffic on the 110/144.

Good for you though, you made it! I just had 3 days of 106 from 1205-1405 (one round trip only) and I was ready to pull my hair out! haha! My second piece was 4 trips on a 130 - a mini vacation in comparison!

 

Way to go. It all works out! C5, C6, C7 are great runs to learn on. I got to do C23 morning rush when I originally trained in shuttle!

 

Same here, it becomes second nature pretty quickly! Because I holiday block, I can't remember all my schedules and I usually only look now to see how much more torture I have to endure on a 106 before I'm free!

 

Several new faces out here at BTC lately too with new drivers on route training and so on... at least 3 or 4 that I've talked to in the last week or 2 including one that has relieved me a few times now. Every time he relieves me it's a first time for him on the route lol. If you're new to BTC and you have any questions, message me here if you want and I'll be happy to try and help!

 

This could be very interesting as to where everyone ends up. The only certainty is that no one is certain what will happen. Out of everyone I have talked to, 50% will stay put, 30% want to transfer and the remaining 20% don't know/won't know until signup because of seniority. On e answer is constant... 100% say it's going to be a HUGE shuffle and could be very surprising to many mid-seniority ops having to move when they don't want to. We won't know until we know.

It's tough to get a read on it all at this point. For example, a guy I talked to the other day has a friend driving in Surrey and he figures that there are a lot of ops planning to move to Hamilton. Surrey has always been a pretty senior depot but this may open the options slightly for other wanting to move South of Fraser...

Personally speaking, I would probably consider Surrey if I could block there, but Hamilton would be better and even Richmond would be suitable.

Like I said, we won't know until we get there! Fun times.

P.S. - WOW! on the subject of signup, I just got the June signup schedule... I'm no longer signing on the last day! Woo hoo! lol

 

By the way... sorry for the flood of posts. It's been a goofy schedule this week and I finally have some time.

I wanted to say congrats to the newest grads and now they've had a week or 2 under their belts, wanted to know if it's all they hoped it would be! Hopefully smooth sailing and uneventful days!

 

Today was my first day picking up people. It wasn't too bad because I had someone with me. But I'm terrified of being out there on my own. We should have more time learning the different routes before they throw us out there. Overall it was a good day