(Photo by Mikey of Number 10 Arriva bus, taken from Wikimedia Commons)

Chrissy Ashby, a local Arriva bus driver on why he is striking.

Guys we as drivers know you are all frustrated as are we.

In light of the on going strike I want to enlighten the people who moan at the drivers for this on why we are looking to do this !!!

Unless you work for Arriva then you don’t really know how we are treated !!

1st

Just recently Arriva took away our big pension which has cost a lot of drivers 10’s of thousands even way over a £100 thousand in the long run just to save them selves a few extra quid!!

To compensate this they thought it was fair to say drivers don’t have a say but we will give you £5000 that’s it over an done with !! Fair or not fair you decide ??

2nd

They give us time sheets which they change every other month so we don’t have a life !!

we have to work around there times which could see us getting up at half 3 in the morning to start work or finishing at half 1 in the morning !!

Also the time sheets are just not possible to keep to which is why you see out of service on the bus when we drive past you so we can catch up to get back on time !!!

They also give us split shifts which means we have to start God knows what time in the morning drive for 4 or 5 hours then go home to go back to work 3 hours later to then drive another 2 an half hours or the other way round drive for 2 hours sit around for 4 hours without pay then go backnan do another 4 hours !! Thats almost a 11 hour day an paid only for 7.24 hours

We also get given buses that are not up to scratch but get told to drive them or where refusing to work to which we get a disciplined!!

We get uniform which includes company shorts but get told we can not wear them past a certain point of the year even though they are company issue !!??

We have not had a canteen. Untill recently in I’d say nearly 2 years so we have to live off tesco butties or chippy food or a packed lunch that carnt be stored in a fridge untill our breaks as the fridge provided is a small under the counter fridge for over 300 drivers!! or we pay double or triple what we would to get a decent meal if we had a canteen!!

In the hot weather they wouldn’t buy cold bottled water for the drivers untill drivers moaned for it as it is/was like driving In a green house!!

We drive with 1000’s of kids getting on our buses that scream an shout along with 1000’s of pissed students an adults who who mess around to the point its hard to concentrate to drive !!!

We have idiots throwing bricks an things off bridges through windscreens injuring drivers !!

If something happens like a trip or fall on a bus even though its not our fault managers still try to blame us an try to give warnings to us !!

If you are off sick managers bombard you with calls or send letters for you to go in to find out when your going back an try force you back when your not ready !!

When road works are on they tell you to re-route even though you don’t know the roads there talking about !!

They put new services on an get drivers that have never drove the route on that service!!

If you have lieu days you have to put in a request to take it which 9 times out of 10 its knocked back !!

An these guys are just some of the things I can think off

And all this for £13 a hour yes just £13

That’s why we want more pay

Don’t see the managers moaning as there on set pay 70,80,90 grand a year which we are on less than half that !!

So remember when your moaning about a service that hasn’t turned up or a bus goes out of service or giving shit to a driver

THATS ITS NOT OUR FAULT AN WE ONLY WANT WHAT IF FAIR TO US !!!

We want to be back at work to serve the public and the great people and characters that we meet and have all got to no over the years on our routes , but when they only offer 8.5% but want to take sick days from us and our Saturday enhancements and closed our final salary pension down costing us tens of thousands then it isn’t 8.5% more like 3%

But they can pay them selves 70,80,90 grand and upwards a year and up to £15,000 for a bonus on top of that which they did and tell us there’s no money for a pay rise !!!

We take the crap

And 95% of us do it will a smile ,

can’t talk for the other 5% miserable gets 🤣🤣

Guys we deserve our pay rise and more

We have to fight back against these big compines and company big wigs lining there own pockets and forgetting the little guys who keep there pockets full and company going !!!