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Federal Bus Driving Law and Coaches ( especially Small schools)


Slickarick

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I know the truck driving side much better than the bus driver side but my understanding now bus drivers have to go through school same as new cdl holders pass 2 or 3 written tests before getting to pre-trip and driving part. You have schedule pre-trip and driving weeks in advance. I would go take the written test because I think that is all I would have to take (I maybe wrong). Here's the problem I have to log it per fed. dot rules and it would interrupt my 34 hr reset. Same thing with reffing. There are people that would help but the rules and don't allow for it

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On 9/23/2022 at 1:00 PM, Slickarick said:

Craziness! Tx has yet to separate CDL infractions from class C infractions which they need to do ASAP.  At least be able to do defensive driving and deferred  adjudication at least once each. 

I think they ought to let you drink and drive...your bus...

it would increase the available bus drivers and help those drivers to not go crazy from the kids 

Edited by PelvisPresley
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A lot of times if you are driving at a larger school depending on the team you coach you will be driving Thursday and Friday. Many times  on Thursday night I dropped off the bus around 10:30 or later and then repeated the same thing Friday. I never complained about it, but can you at least pay the coaches somewhat close to what a normal bus driver would make, if they were to make the trip. I get School Districts wanting to save money. But understand you are asking coaches to do. You want us to get a CDL which is a whole other career somewhat, do a pre trip inspection, and then when we drop off the bus at 10 or 11 at night and do the post trip inspection. Come on now. Sorry for the whining session. 

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17 hours ago, Coach1990 said:

A lot of times if you are driving at a larger school depending on the team you coach you will be driving Thursday and Friday. Many times  on Thursday night I dropped off the bus around 10:30 or later and then repeated the same thing Friday. I never complained about it, but can you at least pay the coaches somewhat close to what a normal bus driver would make, if they were to make the trip. I get School Districts wanting to save money. But understand you are asking coaches to do. You want us to get a CDL which is a whole other career somewhat, do a pre trip inspection, and then when we drop off the bus at 10 or 11 at night and do the post trip inspection. Come on now. Sorry for the whining session. 

I've stopped coaching since moving from college to HS...this is going to sound crazy, but much of my reason...I didn't have a CDL in college and those first couple years at the HS level we had a driver, BUT they were constantly saying "coach, we need you to get your CDL"...I didn't want to do all that extra stuff. I didn't want to be asked to drive other sports (I knew that potentially/probably would happen). I seriously miss that competition that I thrived on, but I would be very frustrated by that extra layer of junk.

One of my old college players is a head coach in the Corpus area...he has to drive, BUT they pay him extra for his miles (I want to say over 75 cents a mile) and I believe they give him the hourly driver rate as well (to and from his events) on top of his coaching stipends. 

Edited by PelvisPresley
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1 hour ago, JBizzle said:

I don't believe time in the classroom counts as "On-Duty" time when it comes to DOT rules.  I could definitely be wrong though.

Classroom you are working. If you are at work ( doesn't matter if your there reading the paper and having coffee) it is considered on time. Conferences included. 

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2 hours ago, JBizzle said:

I don't believe time in the classroom counts as "On-Duty" time when it comes to DOT rules.  I could definitely be wrong though.

It counts 100%. "On duty" is the time you "arrive at a job site" and only ends when you have been away the job site and not in a work function for 8 consecutive hours.. 

Edited by 89Falcon
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9 hours ago, TIMRIGGINS said:

To enforce this busses will have to be equipped with e-logs like 18 wheelers. but even then coaches ususally only drive thursday-saturday 

Can still run paper logs as long as you don't have to use them more then 8 times in a rolling 30 day period

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4 hours ago, blesseddaily said:

Do you foresee the DOT will start enforcing these rules soon?? 

I could easily see the Elog coming into play. The current reason the DOT looks the other way is fully political. There has been no major tragedy and it is not a "can of worms" that they want open at the moment. Once a coach/bus driver falls asleep and creates a major tragedy, the politics will swing the other way. 

I can tell you from a surety of managing all facets of DOT operations for the better part of 3 decades that school districts are so far out of compliance that the first 30 minutes of a DOT audit would shut every district down in the state. No one wants to "pull the cord" on that measure of upheaval to schools.  

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16 minutes ago, 89Falcon said:

I could easily see the Elog coming into play. The current reason the DOT looks the other way is fully political. There has been no major tragedy and it is not a "can of worms" that they want open at the moment. Once a coach/bus driver falls asleep and creates a major tragedy, the politics will swing the other way. 

I can tell you from a surety of managing all facets of DOT operations for the better part of 3 decades that school districts are so far out of compliance that the first 30 minutes of a DOT audit would shut every district down in the state. No one wants to "pull the cord" on that measure of upheaval to schools.  

I totally agree...but I think the answer is already in place in some areas. In northeast Tx many of the school districts use the Bowie county transportation system instead of keeping up with maintenance of busses and hiring drivers through the district.  Most of the route drivers are not teachers or coaches and most just drive their routes in the morning and evening and then drive for special events like sports, band ect ect. Wouldn't that solve the problem of too many hours?? 

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59 minutes ago, blesseddaily said:

I totally agree...but I think the answer is already in place in some areas. In northeast Tx many of the school districts use the Bowie county transportation system instead of keeping up with maintenance of busses and hiring drivers through the district.  Most of the route drivers are not teachers or coaches and most just drive their routes in the morning and evening and then drive for special events like sports, band ect ect. Wouldn't that solve the problem of too many hours?? 

That does potentially solve the issue and that is one of the reasons you see entities such as "Durham School Services" contracted to provide transportation services for various districts.  

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10 hours ago, 89Falcon said:

That does potentially solve the issue and that is one of the reasons you see entities such as "Durham School Services" contracted to provide transportation services for various districts.  

Goldstar is used in DFW area as well. Problem is overall bus driver shortage even for those big companies. 

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23 hours ago, TIMRIGGINS said:

To enforce this busses will have to be equipped with e-logs like 18 wheelers. but even then coaches ususally only drive thursday-saturday 

Unless the coach something besides football. I’ve had weeks where I’ve driven Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday to out of town games. 

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3 hours ago, TheGodfather said:

Unless the coach something besides football. I’ve had weeks where I’ve driven Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday to out of town games. 

Well if you drive everyday its easier to enforce with E logs but if you dont it will be hard to enforce

 

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36 minutes ago, TIMRIGGINS said:

yeah but if you don't drive everyday it would be hard for them to track all your hours

It would be "until" they performed an audit. At that point it would be crystal clear. They would only need to pull payroll records and compare to Elog records. The MC and individual would then enter into "fraud" or "intentional deception" of federal motor carrier records. 

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