tyneside:
Up till 12 months ago I lived in very close proximity to that Holiday Inn. During the pandemic Sunderland Council took the homeless of the streets and put a lot of them up in the same hotel. The police were there several times a week sorting various incidents amongst the druggies. The same ones caused trouble in Lambton & Ayton Village centres.
Presume you have your visit to Holy Island timed to match the tide times on the causeway. I think about half a dozen motorists were caught out over the summer and had their cars wrecked. It’s the same every year. The Coastguard and RNLI put lots of warnings out but some people choose to ignore them. The North Sea always wins!!
Tyneside
I wonder how it will pan out if your scheduled to be out on a tour through the Christmas holiday inc Christmas day, do you have to do it or can you take the time off to spend Christmas with family
Quinny:
Next time you are there, go into the winery and buy a bottle of mead. It is very sweet, but after drinking the bottle, you won’t care.
Ken.
I have got home and read this post too late. I did see the winery and saw the huge ads for the mead but didn’t get any as wasnt too sure what it was. I will be sure to get some next time I visit though. The monastery is long gone and just ruins now but long live the mead.
peirre:
I wonder how it will pan out if your scheduled to be out on a tour through the Christmas holiday inc Christmas day, do you have to do it or can you take the time off to spend Christmas with family
Excellent point and my honest answer is that I am uncertain as to what happens or if it is a voluntary arrangement, I have now asked the question to see how this works, a big downside to the job if it is mandatory to be away. I will update the answer when I get it.
peirre:
I wonder how it will pan out if your scheduled to be out on a tour through the Christmas holiday inc Christmas day, do you have to do it or can you take the time off to spend Christmas with family
I can book xmas and new year as a holiday because I am new to the company they will accept that I have made plans already for xmas. Phew!!!
Glad you’re enjoying it. Not for me though; both my son and my ex wife are bus drivers, and with the stories they’ve told me I will stick to my principle of avoiding self-loading cargo!
When i fancied a break from trucking I used to do a bit of coach work.One of these was a double manned shuttle down to Chiasso.Various pick ups in the UK and various drop offs on mainland europe of cyclists,the other passengers going to a camp site near Venice.These groups of passengers did not socialise well.Do cyclists socialise with anyone ? Anyway the job itself was ok apart from petty grumbles from some of them.Breaks had to be taken according to progress on the road with drivers ’ hours rules.This did not stop some passengers ringing the holiday company boss complaining that we hadn’t stopped at a particular motorway service area that the previous journey had stopped at and that they liked. The boss would then call back to the crew for an explanation.One driver (guess who ?)would refuse to speak while driving,or not.
Gidders:
When i fancied a break from trucking I used to do a bit of coach work.One of these was a double manned shuttle down to Chiasso.Various pick ups in the UK and various drop offs on mainland europe of cyclists,the other passengers going to a camp site near Venice.These groups of passengers did not socialise well.Do cyclists socialise with anyone ? Anyway the job itself was ok apart from petty grumbles from some of them.Breaks had to be taken according to progress on the road with drivers ’ hours rules.This did not stop some passengers ringing the holiday company boss complaining that we hadn’t stopped at a particular motorway service area that the previous journey had stopped at and that they liked. The boss would then call back to the crew for an explanation.One driver (guess who ?)would refuse to speak while driving,or not.
I have met a few trying passengers over the past 5 weeks, at least one passenger on each trip seems to be hell bent on being as miserable as possible. Complaining or something isn’t to their tastes. I tend to try for so long with them and then give up if I cannot help them, my firm knows how awkward some passengers can be and takes little notice of it unless there are multiple complaints of the same nature. The old saying of you can never please all of the people all of the time sure rings true. When you are receiving lots of compliments from passengers on the same trip, then the odd one out doesnt hold much water. But certainly some passengers are much easier to please than some.
Sidevalve:
Glad you’re enjoying it. Not for me though; both my son and my ex wife are bus drivers, and with the stories they’ve told me I will stick to my principle of avoiding self-loading cargo!
Of course the job isnt for everyone, however I have found that a group of normal people going on holiday are usually in good spirits and are generally good company to be with and appreciative of your efforts for them to enjoy the holiday as much as possible. You do become part of their holiday and are their agony aunt for the duration. I am happy to be doing the job and get a kick out of seeing them enjoying themselves which feeds your enthusiasm to do the job. The odd problem passenger is just par for the course and doesnt deterr me from trying to make their holiday better.
peirre:
I wonder how it will pan out if your scheduled to be out on a tour through the Christmas holiday inc Christmas day, do you have to do it or can you take the time off to spend Christmas with family
Excellent point and my honest answer is that I am uncertain as to what happens or if it is a voluntary arrangement, I have now asked the question to see how this works, a big downside to the job if it is mandatory to be away. I will update the answer when I get it.
I posed this question because I have a couple of drinking buddies (retired) who regularly do those “turkey and Tinsel” Christmas breaks, so I assume they are quite popular
peirre:
I posed this question because I have a couple of drinking buddies (retired) who regularly do those “turkey and Tinsel” Christmas breaks, so I assume they are quite popular
I am glad you raised the question now as I assumed xmas and new year would have been a voluntary option. I have found out that It is quite norma and expectedl to be away on these occasions, the Turkey and tinsel events are very popular and start in the next few weeks, this is the only downside for me that I didnt expect, I will get away with it this year but probably not next year as it isnt actually a time we are allowed to book our holidays for. One driver told me we usually get the option of doing one or the other, either xmas or new year. Oh well I will be faced with this problem next year. Thanks for raising the issue as foolishly I didnt give it much of a thought.
peirre:
I posed this question because I have a couple of drinking buddies (retired) who regularly do those “turkey and Tinsel” Christmas breaks, so I assume they are quite popular
I am glad you raised the question now as I assumed xmas and new year would have been a voluntary option. I have found out that It is quite norma and expectedl to be away on these occasions, the Turkey and tinsel events are very popular and start in the next few weeks, this is the only downside for me that I didnt expect, I will get away with it this year but probably not next year as it isnt actually a time we are allowed to book our holidays for. One driver told me we usually get the option of doing one or the other, either xmas or new year. Oh well I will be faced with this problem next year. Thanks for raising the issue as foolishly I didnt give it much of a thought.
I take it these christmas hols cost more for the customers, if so does any of this get passed on to you in extra wages for working over xmas?
Where I worked on coaches (and trucks) the company operated 365 days a year. The rate for working Xmas and New Year was so good everybody wanted to do it so if you wanted it off it was never a problem. There were no foreign drivers either.
PaddyTheLorryDriver:
I would have thought it would just be double/treble time Xmas day etc. Bluestar bus who I worked for operate 365 days a year. Xmas day is voluntary but they never have a shortage of volunteers, usually the polish drivers.
jakethesnake:
Where I worked on coaches (and trucks) the company operated 365 days a year. The rate for working Xmas and New Year was so good everybody wanted to do it so if you wanted it off it was never a problem. There were no foreign drivers either.
Same at our firm, there are plenty of drivers who volunteer for these dates due to the increase in wages, some drivers do not even mind working over these periods regardless. As your experience states there were no foreign drivers it is the same for us, in fact over the past weeks I have met many coach drivers whilst on tour and yet to find a foreign one. Nothing against them personally, I just think HGV attracts them more than holidays and coach work.
Just for those following me on twitter, next weeks 5 day tour is a Lake District explorer consisting of visits to a drive over the Red Screes Mountain through Patterdale and Glenridding over the Kirkstone Pass, Kendal and Bowness-on-Windemere, Grassmere and Coniston. Ambleside stopping by Lake Windemere then heading to Skipton on the way home. Looking forward to both the challenging driving and the places. Will be posting daily on my twitter . TheWanderingGazoo. Should be an interesting week!!!
