RDwarrior

That's not true. We have a pick every 3-4 months so you have a chance of getting something that works for you, maybe not right away but sooner rather than later. Then every year you have the general pick, which ended on Tuesday, and there were depots with weekends off. If anything Queens is more difficult because you have so many senior drivers who won't let go they're schedule until they retire. As far as appreciative passengers they are in every borough, I sometimes get tired of hearing "Thank you" or "have a good day" and I'm in the Bronx. If people pay or not it's not an operators concern, you get paid to drive the bus safely, not collect fares (Zerega's exact words) they have undercovers who handle fare beaters. And lastly people will treat you based on your attitude so if your attitude is sh*t you will be treated as such.Queens is a more decent borough.

Jamaica,great depot. Only 9 lines and they're pretty easy. Did line training and about 1 month on my own before I transferred out.

For me it was about 3 weeks from 1st day at livingston till I had to report to Zerega. so try going to a driving school that would get you the road test as early as possible. I used Ferrari and they got it real quick for me. Trust me if you go in with your cdl ready it's a lot less stressful cause all you have to worry about is training. Good luck

It's true, most people pass on day 9. I remember that there were only a handful of us from day 7 then after day 9 we got bombarded with people and all those people said that days 8-9 the instructor took it easier.

you're welcome

It's not that it's hard, the trick is to pay attention and use what you are taught. Don't take the way superintendents treat you personal they can be very tough.

Days 1-5 you are taught how to drive the MTA way, in order to qualify on day 7 you have to be perfect on days 6-7. Otherwise day 8 you're retrained and qualifying day is 9, day 10 is last chance to qualify. If you fail you're asked to resign. Make sure your passenger endorsement has no restrictions.

It took a couple weeks, the problem was they sent winter uniform in summer and vice versa and little by little. hopefully you have better luck but I heard this uniform company sucks and I see why.

That's horrible. My class lucked out, all TA operators got forced to queens and OA and MTA bus got to pick depots. Talk to the union ASAP about transferring it may take a while depending on how many people in front of you guys want to leave and availability. One bright side is that the system pick is starting next month but won't take affect till January 2017. Good luck

Congrats on passing day 9, what a relief huh? . That is the reason why in one of my posts I mentioned the passing on 7 and like young said it isn't absolutely necessary. but I brought it up because you feel sooo relieved when you pass early on.

That's strange you did those things after you qualified, all of us who passed on day 7 or 9 were sent to Jamaica depot to get qualified on driving the RTS and nova.

You probably wont get the same route everyday since you'll be on extra list. One of the best parts of finishing with line training is the day you get your badge. Yea I've been pretty comfortable from the beginning cause I've been driving commercial vehicles for a while now.

You're welcome. To be honest during probation PM is better because there's less traffic and people out there. I'm on the BX9. I have what's called a floater or work run which means I do the same route everyday but with different start times. So every Monday I start at say 2pm, every Tuesday at 3pm etc.

Not saying blood pressure is good or bad but MTA doesn't follow DOT regulations they follow their own. For example, as per DOT you need atleast 10 hrs of rest after your shift for MTA it's 8.

MTAonDeck congrats on your progress. During line training you'll likely start in the AM but when you're on your own you'll be on extra list and that's usually PM unless there's something left from the pick. I suggest you take notes while line training and write down all your turns on index cards.