Hi all of you teamsters working for First Student and First Transit. I have not been on this site for a few months but have been kept upto date on the work that the Teamsters orgaisers have been doing to get First Student Union organised. Here in England we are seeing an attack on our wages and conditions but just as you are we are fightng back.
As you may know we have had an election here for a new Government and the Conservatives have won more seats in the Parliament than the Labour Party has. For us in the UK it will mean tougher legislation against the right for workers to defend themselves.
Pay is a big issue here in the UK as First are trying to freeze pay or limit increases to one and a half percent.
The other issuer we have is the safety of buses. We are seing drivers disciplined for not picking thigs up on the First Driver Check but when we do pick things up then the supervisor on the day don't like it as it causes them more work or maybe the bus does not make its run.
However its because of the Union that our buses go out safe as the company say if its not safe do not do it.
It would be good to get some feed back from drivers about whats going on in your yards so I can report it back here in the UK.
Yours In Peace
Ian McDonald
Secretary of the Leeds Busworkers Branch of UNITE the UNION
Hi Ian. Nice to hear from
Hi Ian. Nice to hear from you. We too are experiencing problems with the zonars. The company doesn't seem to know how it's suppose to be used. They don't want us to put things in because it makes too much work but the state inspections require us to do so. If we don't input problems then the state holds us liable and can remove our school bus certifications. Talk more soon. Off to work. It will be nice to share stories.
Donna(Salem, NH)
I don't know if this will
I don't know if this will satisify all inspectors but up at our location we have zonar as well, and like all others we aren't allowed to list the damaged or broken things on the zonar so we fill out a seperate dvir report listing the defects as well as a zonar report. That way the drivers cover their own butts.
Zonar is suppose to be your
Zonar is suppose to be your dvir. The federal gov agreed to uses Zonar to replace paper. Seems stupid to use paper also. I say input it into your zonar and when they get tons of reports they have to address them. We flooded our zonar system.
Zonar is aupposed to be a
Zonar is aupposed to be a dvir replacement, that is true. When management tells you not to put defects on the zonar you have to do something to cover your own butt.
The only reason I can see
The only reason I can see for some FS locations objecting to drivers use of Zonar over paper is time. Once you enter a defect into Zonar the company has to fix it within three days. National will stomp on them if they don't. If it is not fixed and so noted there are consequences for the shop and possibly the driver as well. With paper they can always claim the driver didn't turn it in right away and wait to fix it when they had time to do it. They can't fool the electronic trail. Our location stresses Zonar use but our maintenance still sucks....go figure.
Management is not driving
Management is not driving the bus. If you get stopped and you don't have defects on a legal document (dvir) then they won't care if management told you not to do it. It is YOUR license. It is the company that wants the zonar. Use it as it is meant to be used. Maybe when they see what happens across the country they will do something to fix the issues.
I don't know about anyone else but there was no real training as to what the zonar covers. We have people that are not tech savy to figure out how to use these. People are just walking around the bus and clicking on the tags saying yes. Some don't know how to enter a defect. They don't want to deal with a computer if they make a mistake. Computers don't have erasers or can be scratched off. Even upper management for the garages don't really know how this works. If everyone pays attention to actually what the zonar can and will do maybe they will flood the company with so many issues they will finally take care of them. Without a trail they will say everything is great.
Donna
Management is not driving
I guess maybe I should ask
I guess maybe I should ask the question. Why is First Student still supplying you with paper books? I thought that they were trying to save money and that the whole purpose was to use the zonar for this reason to pre trip and post trip your bus? The zonar is the dvir. They do not supply us with regular vir books. We get one only to use if the zonar is not working. Zonar is the vir so why would anyone tell you not to use it? The only thing I can think of is that it will look like you have the best shop ever. That you have no defects at all.
When we had our inspections and some of our drivers got summonsed to court we made sure that all of our defects were getting into the zonar vir. I have to say even now though I still have people that have no idea how to input defects. We are all working together to make sure that we know how to use this technological wonder. We got complaints that there was too many reports running through. Over 100 even over 150. They have to account for these reports. Somehow somewhere drivers need to start working together to show First Student upper management that we need bus problems to be addressed not shoved aside and not hidden. I asked a Zonar representative some questions when he was at our terminal. He said that whatever is in the zonar was requested by the company to be put in. This is supposed to by your legal document for inspections. I say use it.
Here's another question for you: when you write up in your book a defect are you getting your tech in charge to sign off the book the next day to show that it is safe to drive? or are you just continuing to drive without the ok? They are suppose to sign off on all of your defects to say it is ok. Bad tires, oil leaks, antifreeze leaks, emergency exits not buzzing, handles broken, seats broken, heaters not working, overheating etc etc. All the things covered on your pre trips.
Got to go mow the lawn talk more later I'm sure.
Our location utilizes both
Our location utilizes both Zonar wands and dvir forms. I have no idea what their official reason for both may be but the real reason is management is too inept to effeciently handle all the capabilities of the zonar, especially the areas dealing with bus defects.
Ahhh! So another location
Ahhh! So another location that was not properly trained on how to use. Even here the upper management of the garage could not answer my questions. I asked how we were going to get the ok (signed off vir) after we wrote up defects on the zonar. Seems to me that maybe First Student should take a really good look at educating themselves as well as drivers before they install another 60,000 of these things in buses. Especially since most of these buses probably should be retired because of too many defects. Save the money fix the buses first.
Did I hit the nail on the
Did I hit the nail on the head? Isn't it amazing that they figured out how to use the zonar to track driver's hours but yet they cannot figure out how to use it for a DVIR.
Amazing!