A bit naughty

Not bad yesterday. Lot of traffic going up, not helped my someone breakdown and parking in the middle of the motorway at J8/9. Why they could have not got to the hard shoulder. Had to pick up an out of hours driver at Heathrow. In fact our training officer who was also due to take over my coach. Decided to go to Victoria by Knightsbridge and traffic was good until we got to Scotch Corner. It is very narrow and a bit of a bun fight. As we came over the lights I notched traffic indicated right around some roadworks. I mirror checked one car alongside and a BMW behind. Let the car go by and stated to move over. You guessed it, it was 'I am not letting the bus move what ever driver'. We moved along slowly me edging ever over and the BMW TRYING to push between me and the cones. I think he saw the traffic island a bit late as he stopped a bit quick!! This sounds a bit naughty on my part but when you have given as much warning as I did you do get the 'Red Mist' come down and you then do what you are told not to do and use you vehicle size to get what you want.

A very close shave

I do not like weekends at the best of times as they seem to bring out the idiot in many drivers. Today was no exception. However the worst, and possibly the closest I have come to have a potential fatal accident was this one.
I was travelling between Radstock and Peasdown. This road is long and straight with various roads joining it. One road on the right is angled so traffic approaching from Peasdown can usually turn right without having to slow very much. As I approached this one a car appeared from the right and stopped. A 4*4 was coming up towards me and indicating to turn right (across me) I eased off a bit and was going about 45mph. The 4*4 then turned right, I eased off as he had time to clear in front of me. Oh no, HE HESITATED!! half was across the road. I will not repeat what was said on the bus both by me and the passengers. I hit the anchors and the ABS did the job, the poor guy at the junction must have been in the same situation as me. As you can tell all worked out OK but it left me a bit wobbly. The passengers were very quiet the rest of the way. One passenger saying he was amazed we did not hit him.

Front Fog Lights

Not bad day, very busy up with full coach. Getting a bit fed up with people using front fog lights. This must be an easy one for the police to crack down on, and make a few quid. The highway code states.

Rule 236

You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226) as they dazzle other road users and can obscure your brake lights. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves.

Interested in the post about luggage and loading. This is always a problem when you are singled crewed. We can have 30+ passengers to load and they are going to different locations so the luggage has to be put in separate lockers. I normally check the tickets, paper and mobile then either load the luggage myself or ask the passenger to do it. However it is normally quicker to do it my self as most people will just put their case at the front so you then have to spend 10 minutes sorting it out!! Anyway I am not loosing any sleep over yesterday as it is the first instance of this I have had.
Tomorrow is bus work, have the 778 and 14A. Cant complain though, short day only 1000-1800.