DEE123

I don’t know how transfers works but hopefully you get something close by.

Yes. A lot of my classmates are mabstoa from the recent exam only issue is they’re being forced to work at fresh pond and East NY as they’re insanely short right now. I have no idea why how or what’s going on with them but yeah I can see you getting called in the next 90 days or so.

I got my CDL B today from MTA. Before getting the job, I paid $5,000 for CDL School for my CDL A but MTA called very fast, and I wasn’t able to finish on time. I am going to get my A license another time, but the MTA CDL school in the eastchester depot is excellent compared to the private driving schools, It’s not comparable. You’ll have a lot more time behind the wheel performing your backing maneuvers than you would at a traditional CDL School where there’s like 40 people waiting in line and just standing around doing the “pre trip” on an old and broken bus that isn’t even equipped with the parts that you’re supposed to be inspecting . Out of the whole day, you would probably have 30 minutes behind the wheel and the instructors don’t help much. That’s how most private schools are laid out. The MTA instructors have a very high Passing rate. You would have to do something outrageously crazy to not get your License, or get kicked out and told to resign. I highly recommend using the MTA to get your license. One more thing I would like to add is people that were already licensed school bus drivers, and tractor trailer drivers had a rough time transitioning to this job. Your best bet is to go in day one with zero bus knowledge because so many school bus/ Truck drivers either didn’t make initial day 10 or had difficulty qualifying because of bad programming not even necessarily because they were bad drivers, it’s because nearly everything is different on these buses compared to all commercial vehicles. There is nothing like driving a NYC MTA bus even compared to other transit buses in the country. Literally you’ll need 100% control of how soft or hard to put your foot on the accelerator and brake. The second you put your foot on the accelerator without 100% control, the bus can jump to like 10 MPH almost instantly and then you can’t suddenly take your foot off the accelerator or else the retarder kicks in and now your instructor and classmates, or passengers standing can lose balance and fall right to the front of the bus.

Error I mean 3318. Where did the 3,318 extra candidates magically appear from?

Where did the 2,314 extra candidates magically appear from?

When is the next class

Is that the SBS bus I saw today? I saw what appeared to be a new SBS bus in the yard

All b/o’s hired in my class 9/10 were in Zerega today. They start line training tomorrow. All Bus Company operators are going to JFK, Far Rockaway, or Spring Creek. There was also no availability for Queens for the new TA operators either. They all got sent to Brooklyn or Staten Island and have to wait for next pick.

Yeah exactly. I want to add that You’re just getting on the job at the right time. It’s not always gonna be easy like this. Like a month ago, I was looking at posts on this website on forums from 2010-2013 where NYCT bus operators were laid off because there was no need for them, and either they started fresh at bus company depots, or were at home and possibly didn’t get re hired. I can’t find the exact forum location, but it was on this website. I also saw NYCT bus operator exams from around 2017 where there were about 5,000 people on the list and it took like 2-3 years for people that got 90% on the exam to get called. You just happened to be coming at an opportunity where the MTA is extremely short of operators. Yeah the job can suck at times, but what other job doesn’t even require high school diploma and still pays you 100k a year? I don’t have any college, or any type of valuable experience, a job like this is a life saver for people like me coming from 10 years of minimum wage jobs where I made no more than 50k a year.

A lot of people are retiring or getting promoted.

I got an email on Monday night to process my application and drug test for 4104 for this Monday the 25th at 6:30AM, but was already hired off that list and i'm currently doing training in Zerega. Yesterday I got a letter in the mail stating my list number for exam 4311. I was calling both the numbers all week and sending emails because I was confused, and no answer, did anybody else get an email to show up for exam 4104? or did MTA finish that list and they're on 4311? I'm hoping it wasn't an accident because I must go to work Monday and I cannot make it.

Yes I think it’s 2 hours and 30 minutes to answer 60 multiple choice questions. After the memory portion in the beginning, be very thorough and double check before you answer each question. At no point should you be unsure before answering the questions. The answer is right on the question. They just want to see how good you are in identifying the problems and solving it. I don’t know how anybody can score under 80 unless they just don’t care much. Take your time. The answer is going to be there. I took 2 bus operator exams and got 96 on both of them. It’s really pattern recognition and finding the riddles in a sense. I don’t know how to explain it.

I’m glad to hear you took the job. I’m referring to your posts from last month when you had trouble with the process

If I’m not mistaken, if it is the 2nd to last page where it says for a supervisor to sign is the MTA HR supervisor, not yours. Your employer doesn’t need to fill anything out on that form.

When you get assigned a superintendent for training, listen to everything he tells you 100% and correct the mistakes you made sooner than later. Your experience doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you already drove a bus for NJ Transit or were a tractor trailer operator for the military. None of this means anything and they will fail you without hesitation and tell you to resign so don’t go in cocky regardless of history of commercial driving experience. Luckily I came in with no experience which is better because I didn’t have bad habits I had to break. You need to operate the bus exactly how MTA wants you to operate it, drive slow and smooth enough so you have enough time to ANTICIPATE and FORWARD PLAN a block ahead. You might mess up in some areas and they’re gonna write it on your paperwork. It’s not for you to have bad feelings about, just learn from your mistake and make sure it doesn’t happen twice. You are also going to get a textbook with all 7 days broken down. Every morning I recommend going to the depot about 90 minutes early each day and studying ALSAPS, Pre Trip, reading over what you have to do that day, and reviewing all notes from the days prior that the instructor gave you. If you follow this advice, Once you hit days 5,6,7, you wouldn’t have any issues, at most the instructor will fine tune small things that need to be changed. You just need make sure to listen to the instructors, and apply everything they’re telling you verbatim, The system works.

I’m not mabatoa, but i’m in the training class with people from mabstoa, and they still don’t know where they’re going to go yet. Maybe some time after you qualify, you’re gonna be able to pick in order and if they have space they might try to accommodate you im not sure how it works.

I answered your question I forgot to press reply. Look at the post before this one.

I’m in Zerega doing training right now while waiting for 3601 to call me. I know I got a high score on my exam, but I’m not expecting a call until early next year as people are being processed from Mabstoa and Bus Company, each class can only hold a certain amount of people. People from NYCTA that I’m training with are exam 2612 with low list numbers under 150. I recommend you take the mabstoa/Bus Company exam now, so by the time you get called by TA, your training would be finished. If you’re in Mabstoa, when TA calls you’ll probably even wind up staying in that same exact depot, Just with a new ID and your probation time will carry over. also You should not post your whole List number for security reasons. that’s why you see People usually put a star or # in the last digit or 2 such as 3** or 30* 3## or 30#

Other than the memorization portion. most of the questions are just reading comprehension or trying to match a picture, other questions require you to read the question multiple times until you can find the right answer. Just take your time and be thorough, and understand what they are asking and you’ll be fine. Yes you look inside the microscope and they test color blindness right after your vision exam. They did it with me last month. There is a bunch of pictures with numbers inside and they are different colors. You have to call out the number inside of the picture. For the ear exam they check inside your ear, and then put you in a small silent room with headphones, then they play sounds. You have to click a button each time you hear the sound. good luck

I would love to work it out, but it’s way too far away from my house, Every time I pick up family from that airport it’s a grueling task that takes up 4 hours out of my day. I don’t want to make that my everyday commute if I can help it. That’s 20 hours a week that can be spent sleeping, or doing overtime. All the other bus company depots are no more than 30 minutes from my house with traffic.

When you finish your medical let me know if they threw you in JFK like they did for me. I had to re apply for the same title because from what I hear JFK and far Rockaway has a long wait list to be transferred out and by the time you get called to transfer to another depot, you’re already like 5 years in.

Ok cool, sounds good thanks for the info.

Ok so yeah I took mabstoa and TA exam 3601 Thanks and wow at 60 miles you must be by Mohegan lake. Did JFK/ Far rockaway have tons of overtime or no? Did you like it over there? How long was line training?

I’m happy I have the opportunity, and am super humbled and grateful for it, my only concern is I scored high on the exam and got an excellent list number and I’m one of the first people to get called, you would think that it would be appropriate to place someone from the Bronx in LGA or College point at least. I can already see why people are so quick to transfer.

I see you were in bus company. How does it work transferring depots? I live far away from the JFK depot they put me in. I live in the Bronx so most times It’s gonna take over 1.5 hours sometimes with the traffic going and coming back each way.