A little embarrassing

Very cold this morning but decided to use the bike to go to church. Got up to North Road and closed the choke. Bad idea. the bike stalled and I was not quick enough in getting my foot down and the bike and myself ended in a rather untidy heap. No major damage, just broken mirror and bent brake lever and a scratch on my leg where I tried to pick the bike up. I must say thank you to the young lady who came and helped me lift the bike up and the driver of the Shell tanker who came over to make sure I was OK. It goes to show no matter how short the journey ALWAYS wear safety gear.

Union Elections

I am a member of the Unite Union. I have to say before I became a driver I always thought of Unions as left wing anti government and only interested in calling strikes so they could have a day off. However, almost the day I started driving my view changed. I was asked to join the Union and did not, until one day I was out with a 'shadow driver' who asked if I had joined the union. I told them I did not believe in unions. Then then asked me to tell them who was left on the bus. I looked and only saw one young lady sitting at the back. 'If that girls said you assaulted her who do you think will stand by you?' The company? I said. Think again I was told. I joined the union the next day. I am not militant but daily I see the rights of workers being attacked and see how much normal working people are struggling. I understand companies have to watch the money. However, many decisions are being made that make no financial sense and seem only aimed at getting more for less from workers. It is therefore vital that every work place has union representation and ideally 100% of the workforce are members. So after all that what is the post about? Our branch chair is retiring and therefore there are elections on the 22nd for a new one. I was asked if I would stand as at that time it seemed there was only only one candidate. Since then a few have put their 'hat in the ring'. This is good news as it shows there is interest in the union within our depot. I have 'set out my stall' so we will see who wins.

New Timetables and new buses

New timetables come in today which means duty changes. Fortunately being on the 'Long Day Duty' mine have stayed pretty much the same however some of my collogues have had major changes made and it still remains to be seen how they will all work out. We also have new routes, changed routes and changed times to deal with so happy that tomorrow I am on City work which at least means if things go wrong I haven't got too far to go. We have also had our first new bus delivery in a while. These are the new Park and Ride Buses.
These are Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 H Hybrid Double Decks. Or as I call them big milk floats. However, these are rather nice and if you drive them correctly will run of batteries for almost all of the journeys as the system uses regeneration from the brakes to charge the batteries.