DEE123

On 5/13/2024 at 6:43 PM, Basemac7 said:

Hey family, just an update.  I passed the CDL road test today.  It was my second and last try. We family, so if I can do it so can you.

Congrats. This probation crap is no joke, once again I’m going to emphasize to you, theres too many inconsiderate people out there that want to take food out of our tummies, and stupid people everywhere. Protect yourself at all times. Make sure you have your union shop steward on speed dial. Speak to them before you do anything that feels uncomfortable and may lead you into trouble. 
If you’re called to see the boss, Do not speak to them without union representation.
best of luck.   

On 5/4/2024 at 5:42 AM, Basemac7 said:

So far so gd. Doing skills( straight backing, offset and parallel parking) training at Eastchester. Preparing for CDL road test.

You got good people in Eastchester only hard part was the pre trip. 

On 5/5/2024 at 5:42 AM, Longislandguy7545 said:

I'm going for the drug test soon. what's that process like? I'm supposed to be there at 6:30 AM. is it worth getting there like an hour early? was wondering if it was a first come first serve type of thing or it doesn't matter? furthermore, do they do your medical that day as well or they make you report for that on a separate day? much thanks in advance!

It’s first come first serve. When it was 180 Livingston sometimes the lline of candidates was all the way around the corner before the doors opened up. I showed up an hour early and I was one of the first 10 people in the building every time

On 4/27/2024 at 9:08 AM, Jeff868 said:

I came in with 15 years commercial driving experience so for me fresh pond is easy but for others the main complaint is that the streets are extremely tight and there’s constant detours due to road work. The depot only has 9 lines so it was very easy to memorize and being that I’m on the extra list it doesn’t drive me crazy since it’s only 9 lines versus depots that have 15+ lines. 

Idc what anybody says, I think baisley park and JFK has the tightest street routes in all of the system. When I was in jfk It was like Every turn you made was a hook turn and you were squeezing between cars all day with millimeters of space between both sides of your bus, and all the no standing anytime zones had cars parked to the crosswalk and they would leave their cars on the crosswalk all day leaving you to do a U turn into the same block all day. Everyday I was driving either another one of my coworkers or a Nassau county bus hit a parked car and it was almost always from the back swing of the bus. Baisley park had to do this with artics.  
on the Q40, when I was going through the residential area, before making any turns, I had to scan ahead every block to make sure a car wasn’t  coming from the other side because both of us wouldn’t be able to fit, and the car would have to back out of the block. In that same turn you had to scan ahead that 4 block stretch before turning to make sure another Q40 bus wasn’t on the other side coming your way because there’s no space to get to the side to let each other through. After I transferred out and went to another depot I felt like I was driving a Honda civic on one of those 5 lane highways in Texas. Thank god I transferred out because idk if I would’ve made probation over there. 

33 minutes ago, Longislandguy7545 said:

hey dee for when you go for the drug test did you wear business casual attire like it states on the pre employment packet or do they not really care? thanks in advance.

 Business casual means don’t show up to the office in sweatpants and a hoodie or in pajamas like you rolled out of bed, just dress like a decent person. That’s it. Regular jeans and a polo shirt, or dickies and a button down. You don’t even need a tie. If you walk in there with a sweatsuit, they can turn you away. I haven’t seen it happen but it’s not worth the risk. 

18 hours ago, Drive4Life said:

I’ve been trying to contact the MTA to try to reschedule my pre employment for the Bus Operator position. I’ve emailed them, went to 149 pierpont street, and I’ve called the rescheduling number multiple times to get no response. Does anyone know how I can reschedule my pre employment for exam numbers 4110 and 4104?

But honestly, I think they just skip your name the first time if you’re a no show and then automatically reschedule again for another date. they’re not really concerned if it’s a date that works for you or not because that’s the nature of the job, if you have to show up and be ready for work if you’re called no matter what circumstances you have at the time. 
 

They just give you a 2nd chance and automatically reschedule, if you didn’t show up the first time. After the 2nd or 3rd time of rescheduling and you don’t show up, they knock you off the list and you'll have to re apply. 
 

18 hours ago, Drive4Life said:

I’ve been trying to contact the MTA to try to reschedule my pre employment for the Bus Operator position. I’ve emailed them, went to 149 pierpont street, and I’ve called the rescheduling number multiple times to get no response. Does anyone know how I can reschedule my pre employment for exam numbers 4110 and 4104?

lol I was an annoying prick, I emailed exam operations rescheduling, and like 12 different emails that had direct influence with HR all in one group message with a detailed explanation of my situation and that I have been calling and leaving voicemails, and nobody is answering. eventually that week they got back to me. 
if that doesn’t work I would re apply and go through the information session these people are talking about. I don’t have the emails of people anymore because I organized my inbox. 

18 hours ago, Basemac7 said:

We pick tomorrow at zerega.

Where’d you wind up?

2 hours ago, SMG610 said:

Hey guys, im in the process of getting into mabstoa. I have a CDL A with the N2 restriction so during the pre employment appointment i was told to reschedule & return with a CDL B permit. The permit has M,P,X restrictions. I was told it was normal to have passenger as a restriction on a permit, even if the endorsement is actually on it, it'll be removed once you actually pass the road test. So i took the DOT drug test and im waiting to hear back. The employee at the laboratory told me to expect an email. Does anyone know how long it'll typically take/? and what all of my next steps will be/timeframe? Im assuming medical, fingerprints and training scheduling/roadtest etc.

If you took the test for the passenger endorsement and passed it, then you’re going to show the restriction for passengers until you pass the road test with DMV because you’re not certified to carry passengers until you pass the road test with the DMV instructor. 
 

they will move you quick if you already took the drug test. Probably in about a week you’ll get your medical. If you pass the medical and all your paperwork is completed the way they want it, then you will get the offer for the job. 

6 hours ago, Longislandguy7545 said:

what depot are you in? you're still in queens i'd imagine? 

If you live in Long Island and want to work in queens, I recommend working for MTA bus company and picking college point. Most of the local routes are decent and easy, and they have a lot of express routes. Every operator out of that depot I spoke to were very happy to be there, and left only because of the commute or because they are younger and want the TA NYCERS pension which can be Transferred to another agency if you get tired of driving and want to do something different with the city or MTA. All the other depots in MTA bus out of queens especially the further south you go in queens aren’t fun depots to work out of. Alot of the streets are super tight, you’re gonna be in gridlock traffic almost all day, you’re gonna have passengers all the way to the front of the bus all day, And the routes are confusing because they go through a bunch of side streets. 
if you do mabstoa I guess fresh pond or grand ave would be ok, I don’t know much about those depots. But yeah, your best bet is college point if you can get it. I know I wouldn’t have left college point myself if I was given the opportunity to work there. 

6 hours ago, Longislandguy7545 said:

what depot are you in? you're still in queens i'd imagine? 

Staten Island, Yukon depot. 

On 3/29/2024 at 5:32 AM, Basemac7 said:

I want to thank everyone on these forums that gave advice and or words of encouragement along the way. Young,  Dee and anyone else that conversed with me, it's very much appreciated. 

Finally. Congrats, don’t want to ruin your parade, but it’s gonna be a very long year for you. The 7 days of training, and the year of probation are no joke. Please be careful. a lot of idiots on the road that don’t know how to drive, and a lot of unpredictable pedestrians, bikes, and scooters that walk and drive right into your buses path of travel from every single angle, it’s no joke. Keep the mirrors the way Zerega wants it, and Do everything Zerega tells you, or else you’re gonna get fired. Probies are losing their jobs every single day and being replaced by new operators every 2 weeks. 
I have 5 months of probation left fingers crossed. It’s hard, but the end goal will 100% be worth it. 
 

On 2/27/2024 at 8:21 AM, SevenEleven said:

To add on to this, if you are in doubt, STOP, call console and ask for help. You don’t want to take it upon yourself and go off route and then something happens. I had one operator miss a turn and was finding his way around. On the street before getting back on route, he hits a parked car. He didn’t call console prior to going off route. I had responded to the accident and I was only 5 mins away. (Meaning the whole accident could have been avoided)

If you know your way around, call and just say you’re off route for whatever reason and you’re detouring. They will tell you detour safely and this way, you’re covered for being off route. 

On days where you get runs (assuming you’re XL) with long swings, go ride the routes.

In general, tough it out for the first year. You will be up and down with the scheduling if you’re on the list. The first pick is in a month or so, so if you’re able to pick a run, do so to at least get yourself a schedule. You’ll be able to change depots at the end of the year.

It’s a great job, don’t take everything personal. If you’re not here for the money or pension, then you’re definitely staying  for the benefits. It’s an easy job most days. Use common sense when driving. If you’re interested in moving up, study for and take the next OA Dispatcher exam. You need 3 years as an operator and being that you’re OA, you’ll be able to work in Manhattan and The Bronx as a dispatcher.

And again, if you have questions, ask for help.

Good luck!

Being from the Bronx, and working in another depot that served queens and Brooklyn was the biggest culture shock for me ever. The roads I had to drive on were ridiculously tight, on top of that, some people would just park their cars on the crosswalk and leave the car there overnight leaving you with inches of space on both sides, if that. Everybody disobeys the no standing anytime sign on the corner of the block, and leaves their car on the corner 24 hours on the day, overnight, they don’t care, some people double park on the corner where it’s a no standing zone and abandon their cars just so they can go to the deli to buy a bacon egg and cheese, and they will see that you need to get through, but they don’t care, and will keep their car parked anyway. People would deliberately park their cars in the middle of the street and block you while sitting in the drivers seat waiting for their passenger to finish with whatever they were doing,  hoping that you would try to squeeze through so they can get a new paint job on their car, these people don’t care that you’re behind them even if you blow your horn for like 15 minutes straight.
 

It doesn’t matter if you’re in route, and you feel you might make contact with another car or object it doesn’t matter how many of your coworkers have already made those turns, just call it in and wait for instructions. It happened with me literally every other day, and I don’t care especially on probation. Don’t worry about the passengers, let them curse you out, I have seen with my own two eyes, an express bus try to make a tight turn, and made contact with another express bus that was sitting at a bus stop. He shattered like 5 of his windows and knocked the other buses bumper off, just because he was trying to get the passengers to their destination on time, and what winded up happening was the passengers instantly vanished from the bus and walked away looking for other options to get to work not even 30 seconds after the incident happened every passenger left the bus and found another way to get to work. If that happens to you on probation you’d probably get fired. 

8 hours ago, Jeff868 said:

Today I got to pick my depot but the only options were Fresh Pond and Ulmer Park which sucks big time for me since I live in the Bronx and I’m OA. My preference would’ve definitely been to stay close to home and or not to pay tolls. Being that I’d have to cross a bridge it’s harder for me to even practice my routes if need be. 

I recommend you Start practicing all the routes by looking at all the turns on the google maps street view and the transit app over and over and over like at least 5 times a day for each route, and keeping the landmarks in mind, and write them down. For Example:

 Right South conduit (BP Gas Station) 

service 3 bus stops immediately get on the left lane after the 3rd bus stop on 130th Ave

Left on Myrtle (Pioneer Supermarket)

I don’t recommend relying on your line trainers, because you might not remember if you only did a certain route once, and now it’s 2 months later and you’re being told by the dispatcher to do the exact route that you don’t remember or even done before in line training, yeah you’re probably not going to have training on all the routes by the time you graduate, you might be unlucky and get the same route like 7 times, this happened with me. 

Another problem is the turn by turn route instructions paper NYC Transit made, can have mistakes on them. I have been on routes where I tried using the official route instructions paper, and I went off route because NYC Transit failed to add that particular turn on the paper. 
 

When you’re on your own, you’ll most likely be on the extra list and there are going to be days that you won’t know what route you’re doing that day until you report to the window and they give you a run, and then tell you to start immediately, if you use google maps and can take good notes, from today, it will save you a lot of anxiety, when you’re alone trust me. 

In December you’re gonna have a choice to transfer to a depot closer to your house. Idk how that works. 

On 2/23/2024 at 9:55 AM, Jeff868 said:

The class went today. I stayed behind to continue training at MTV depot. I have my CDL so I didn’t have to go. 

 in the two days at Zerega, I think the first day is customer service day and then the 2nd day is some state mandated class where you watch a bunch of videos. Some time in those two days, you’ll get the choice of what depot is available for pick in seniority order. After the 2nd day at Zerega its usually union day where you’ll get your uniforms. You won’t need to go to eastchester at all
 

On 2/23/2024 at 9:55 AM, Jeff868 said:

The class went today. I stayed behind to continue training at MTV depot. I have my CDL so I didn’t have to go. 

Yeah most likely some time mid week then. I remember going to nova bus training at mtv on a Friday, then the following week was 2 days at Zerega followed by union day. Local 100 gets fitted for uniforms on union day. 

14 hours ago, Jeff868 said:

How long after being hired do you get fitted for uniform? I qualified yesterday for Mabstoa bus operator and I’m wondering if I should get a few more shirts and pants. Shirts and pants are pricey as it is! 

It should be around the time your class goes to eastchester for CDL training if you’re in TWU100.

On 2/7/2024 at 10:29 PM, Jeff868 said:

I had a few questions for the people who recently have attended day 1 orientation at Zerega. A packet I received says I need to ”know all accident dates” & “know all traffic violations”. Is this something they really ask for? I’ve had my license for 22 years and I’ve had quite a few violations I’m not proud of that are over 15-18  years old. Do I need to disclose this? I’ve been rear ended one time so accidents I’m not so concerned about. 

Lol it’s probably too late now, but when you get over there, only the violations and accidents that you had in the last 3 years. 

9 minutes ago, Brillant93 said:

Not sure if this is the right threat to ask, but on the general page of MTA.info it says you should have at least a CDL permit to apply. On the paper of the exam it says you need at least a permit with a passenger endorsement. My question is does the MTA help you get your CDL license if you have a permit? 

If you file for the MABSTOA or MTA Bus exam You must have the permit on the day of the test They’re gonna check. If you apply for the Transit Authority exam they don’t require the permit until the first day of processing. 

Just now, SoSpectacular said:

You can also find the official route instructions through the MTA intranet if you have set up your Insight/BSC account. 

I’ll check it out, thanks

20 hours ago, Jeff868 said:

First day of processing was yesterday and it wasn’t too bad. It was everything I expected as far as long lines and waiting. One thing for sure is that if you’re sent the info to appear for day one please go prepared. I feel more the 50% of the crowd didn’t even come with an application at all and asked for one upon arriving which prolongs the entire day!

One thing I found weird was when I handed my application I was told it was for “MTA Bus Company” but I never applied nor took that exam. My exam was 4112 Mabstoa. The kind woman told me it didn’t show that on her end but that she’d fix it and asssign to Mabstoa. Hopefully everything goes smooth and I get the call for the next step! Good luck to everyone! 

The emails are automatically generated and doesn’t mean anything. Just as long as the sign in sheet has the right exam and list number is all that matters. 

6 hours ago, jpsi94 said:

Line training here lasts a little over a month and I’ve learned don’t always listen to Zerega they kinda try to scare you it seems like they kept saying there is a chance we could all get sent to queens or Staten Island but in the end everyone got where they wanted in regards to going to queens or Staten Island. Express I can’t say anything as I haven’t started express line training yet but the union will give you a route book for every line that has the turns and stops for every line. 

Happy to know we get some line training ,that’s excellent. 
 

I would need to see those express routes a couple of times, because I only had one express bus line training when I was brand new while working in queens, so by the time I was alone doing an express route, I was following the signs for trucks only and winded up off route when I got to Manhattan because I was supposed to be on the side where it said cars only in the queens tunnel. I can’t imagine what the buses have to do when they’re coming from and going to NJ

The turn by turn sheets in my old depot didn’t help much because there were a bunch of errors and bad information on some of the routes I was doing. It would tell me to make a turn on a street, but the street I had to turn was halfway down the block from another street and I got lost at least 10 times trying to follow the route instructions. 

I took the paddle the night before and typed exactly what I was gonna do that day from the transit apps. 

8 minutes ago, lornaevo said:

Almost a month. 

Zerega told me something else idk. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow, my only issue is the express buses, all the local routes look straight forward and easy

12 hours ago, jpsi94 said:

Thank you! And yes it could be different because they gave us Jan 1 off for the holiday so we couldn’t bank as an AVA, then gave us Tuesday Jan 2nd as a RDO followed by union day on the 3rd, and then Saturday our 2nd RDO. As long as you were already hired you don’t need to do the 10 day training in my case I was a cross over from OA to TA almost 2 years on the job. It was a mess but definitely worth it so far 

I’m going to SI tomorrow. We got the holiday off today, how many days do they give you to learn the lines?

Exam 3601 #3x. Did my 2nd lab and medical last week. next class is 1/14