"Another must is that you should enjoy driving. If bad drivers get under your skin, if you are impatient or lack compassion toward other people, you had better look for something more suitable. If you want to be a happy bus driver, you must possess the aforementioned qualities. Or you will become that old grouch."
INTERVIEW
Bobbie Ann Zielinski
School Bus Driver
Bobbie Ann Zielinski is a school bus driver for the school district's transportation department in Elgin, Illinois. She has been working as a driver since 1986.
How Bobbie Ann Zielinski Got Started
"My mother is in charge of a bus company and I started with her privately owned company at the age of nineteen as a bus driver's assistant. We worked with behaviorally disordered children and had to have an assistant on every bus to help the driver with the children so the driver could drive safely.
"I applied for my current job because I had gone to school in this district my whole life and wanted to give back a little that they gave me. I filled out an application. They looked at my qualifications, took me on a test drive, and I was hired.
"All bus companies have a driver/trainer at their facility to show you the ropes and teach the safety rules expected of you as a school bus driver. They teach you how to inspect your vehicle every day before you leave the lot to pick up the children. Then you go to the DMV and get tested there for your commercial driver's license. You take a number of written tests, a vehicle inspection test, a road test, and a backing test. It's quite difficult."
"Bus drivers get up very early to start their day. I rise at 4:30 A.M. and get to work by 5:45 A.M. I am in my bus by 6:15 and picking up my first group of kids by 6:45. After I deliver I hem safely to their school, I have four more schools to do the game with. I finish around 9:15 A.M. and unless I do a midday preschoolers and kindergarten routes that go half days), I'm off until 1:00 P.M. Then I go back to work, bring home the kids I brought in, and finish by 4:30 P.M. I work approximately 7K hours a day.
"I have two children and being a bus driver is the best for a working mom. You are off work the same days your children are off school. The sad part is that you never get to bring them to school on their first day or see them come home with excitement from a great day at school. It's also hard to go on class trips with them. I try my best though.
"While on the bus, you have many responsibilities and at times it can be very stressful. Sometimes you get hard-to-control kids, and you have to work with the school authorities and parents. We transport bilingual students and they can't understand everything you tell them, so you need someone to translate for you. You have to watch all other drivers on the road and keep in mind at all times that you are the professional out there and have to keep a cool head. You are a baby-sitter, a social worker, a friend, a teacher, and sometimes a parent to these children. And even though you have bad days, when that one student thanks you for being you and a parent thanks you for driving their child safely, it's all worthwhile!
"I love being with the children, especially the ones that need you the most. You begin to feel something warm for every one of them and they are never forgotten your whole life. They make little pictures for you and write notes to you and make you feel like you're making a difference in their lives.
"On the downside, you have people driving around you, going past your stop arm, not thinking about the child that could be running out in front of them. Everybody wants to beat the bus. You have snowy days and bad weather to contend with, and some days you just wish you would have stayed home.
"I get paid hourly and we swipe a clock. I get $15.02 an hour at my company. We are among the highest-paid drivers in Illinois. We are union. When you start at our company you get a lower salary and work your way up. At privately owned and nonunion companies, top pay is usually around $10 to $11 an hour for driving the big buses and $8 to $9 an hour driving the small buses."
"First off, you can't be in it for the money. You have to really be thinking of the kids and your role of being there to guide them and keep them safe. You have to know that they come first at all times just as your own children would. Safety should always be first in a bus driver's mind."
