National Express

[headscratcher]

i drive national express on the 021 and 007 service from dover to london,
if you work for a operator you will find pay is somewhat different through various companys,
if you work directly for national express your pay is nice but you will be worked to the bones,

all drivers have to pass the test /theory/look and tell. and the cpc course before they go on the road ,

cpc is an entitlement all ready given to some drivers like myself that have driven a bigger vehicle before the cpc was set in stone,

if i was you fella ,try and get in the gmb if your company recognises it, or stick with unite,

if you work directly for nx try and claim london weighting allowance,
i cant claim this as we are just an hour or so short of the threshold,

good luck with the test etc,

and i hope you enjoy your career move,

i at present are looking at changing to mega bus which is owned by stagecoach in the midlands,

only an interview requred as i allready work for em lol

[chrisvectra]

I work directly for national express at owned operations at heathrow on the 440/ 210 services we don't get worked to the bone and we don't get London weighting either and usually we drive old coaches as owned ops don't have to have new coaches like third party operators do which I can never fathom out lol

[headscratcher]

and how many trips do you do lol,

when i talk to some of the drivers in the drivers mess they normally moan like a load of pigs lol,

would you believe they turned me down as i live in dover and said it was to far away, {my choice i thought }

so i have to drive a 56 plate levante or 52 volvo,

best choice in my opinion is the levante,

shanme they dont have merc engines though,

[chrisvectra]

we recently got 11 plate volvo levante's but they are complete rubbish the gearbox is a joke (Ishift) the brakes are poor and they wander all over the place worse when its windy quite scary in fact lol. ive heard the merc levante's are good though. we have scania levante's and i much prefer those but they rattle and crash like you wouldnt believe lol

[merikiito]

well if you car drivers actually did 50 mph and used all 3 Lanes like your supposed to I wouldn't be up your backside now would I

I use my cruise control at 50mph and it matches my satnav speed exactly as I have also programmed the wheel size correctly. Considering most speedos are 10% under rather than over then out of most drivers I am the one nearer the correct speed limit!

considering the above why is it that I get overtaken by national express coaches who then pull away from me heading towards 60mph unless of cause they have different speedo's to the rest of the population.

Also I have video evidence as well which was given to the police as I have incar CCTV for an incident that happened a few weeks back. Not sure if anything has happened but i thought it was worth doing as I had my kids in the car at the time.

[m8internet]

I work directly for national express at owned operations at heathrow on the 440/ 210 services
usually we drive old coaches as owned ops don't have to have new coaches like third party operators do which I can never fathom out

This historically has not changed since the late 1980s, NatEx keep coaches in use until they die!
When I worked at Tayside Travel Services in the 1990s (the NatEx owned operation in Scotland bought from Stagecoach before its closure) they received new Plaxton Expressliners (G reg) and these were driven into the ground and were still in operation when Express Travel (as it was renamed) closed the Perth operations after reducing their Scotland services

Around that time I remember one of the NatEx owned Expressliners visiting Aberdeen (NXIxxxx registration number sequences)
These had Rapide Airlink across the top of the windscreen
This came about as TTS was absorbed into Express Travel
However there were some really old (by comparison) coaches operating on the London airport routes

What is the legal name of the coach operator these days?

[chrisvectra]

Coaches are fitted with tacographs that are incredibly accurate and checked by vosa as well. coaches are fitted with cruise control too!!! all our coaches are fitted with cctv that have camera's all over the coach forward facing rearward facing as well as both the o/s and n/s views too
so if you have complained they will have cctv footage to either prove or disprove your incident!

[chrisvectra]

This historically has not changed since the late 1980s, NatEx keep coaches in use until they die!
When I worked at Tayside Travel Services in the 1990s (the NatEx owned operation in Scotland bought from Stagecoach before its closure) they received new Plaxton Expressliners (G reg) and these were driven into the ground and were still in operation when Express Travel (as it was renamed) closed the Perth operations after reducing their Scotland services

Around that time I remember one of the NatEx owned Expressliners visiting Aberdeen (NXIxxxx registration number sequences)
These had Rapide Airlink across the top of the windscreen
This came about as TTS was absorbed into Express Travel
However there were some really old (by comparison) coaches operating on the London airport routes

What is the legal name of the coach operator these days?

i worked for a company called speedlink which did mainly airport routes we were brought out by national express and have been owned operations since.

[merikiito]

Coaches are fitted with tacographs that are incredibly accurate and checked by vosa as well. coaches are fitted with cruise control too!!! all our coaches are fitted with cctv that have camera's all over the coach forward facing rearward facing as well as both the o/s and n/s views too
so if you have complained they will have cctv footage to either prove or disprove your incident!

Thats good then there will be proof as well as my footage

[headscratcher]

we recently got 11 plate volvo levante's but they are complete rubbish the gearbox is a joke (Ishift) the brakes are poor and they wander all over the place worse when its windy quite scary in fact lol. ive heard the merc levante's are good though. we have scania levante's and i much prefer those but they rattle and crash like you wouldnt believe lol

i agree with some of that,
our motors do tend to wander a bit in the wind, vovlos defo stick to the road ,i found the rattling really is either the luggle rack has come loose at the front n/s or the disabled ramp comes out of the cassette, man are they hard to get back in
one or two of the levantes are a bit squiffy with the gearbox selection,makes a uncomfortable ride in london sometimes,
which is also a pain when nx ring ya asking if everthing is ok, doh,
when i take over a coach at vcs i have to remember to work the brakes on some before i get to the lights, not a nice feeling after its been sat there for 40 mins ,,,,,,,,,,,
have you got the tracker on your coaches,
i got a royal rollicking for going a different way to save to time, lol