As usual the journey home or to school will be always the same bus that I will take. It will always be the same old routine, but this time I have decide to sit in front much more close to the bus driver so that I will be able to observe him. It is pretty interesting because I don’t bother looking at the bus driver behavior as I will always be sitting at the back sleeping or listening to my mp3. Anyways, after observing for a few days, I realize that it is actually the same driver perhaps due to the timing that I take the bus is always the same especially in the morning. Oh, the bus driver name tag is written as Mr. Tan, he is Chinese and I think should be in his 50s and he is quite fair too.
Usually in the morning the bus will be very pack and passengers inside love to occupy the space while standing as a result people can’t board the bus. I was sitting just right behind the driver and I noticed that the driver actually made an effort to tell them to move in and try to squeeze as much as possible, so as to provide space for boarding passengers. But despite his effort, no one even bothered to move an inch instead, they just carry on staring at the bus driver as if they are deaf or what. “Move in, or I will not drive the bus.” That’s what the driver shouted to the passengers inside. After a few minutes, “Move lor, move lor.” Voices were heard among the passengers and spaces were given to the boarding passengers, and the journey continues. This incident shocked me, because not many bus driver would do this, some will just drive off regardless of whether there are spaces or not.
Noticing on the driver’s seat area, there are a lot of stuffs that belongs to him are around that area, for example like newspaper, a small pouch, coffee and a radio. That’s cool because it’s like his mini desk which has the necessary items to help him along the long journey from one interchange to another. Although there is no eating and drinking on the bus, but during red lights, or traffic jams along the highway, the driver would take a sip of the coffee as to keep him awake.
Some people may think that being a bus driver is a lousy job because no one will want to be it. Well, imagine that one day when the entire bus driver crew decided to take break by quitting all their jobs, it will be disastrous as the will be no public transport. We should learn to respect any jobs that come along. If you really observe carefully on them, you will realize that it isn’t easy at all. You have to be alert all the time, making sure that spaces are being provided for passengers, fares are being paid, when people are alighting, see if anyone is flagging at the next stop. Some of them even go the distance by giving directions to passengers who are lost, telling them what bus to board in order to go their destination. While others make sure that they stop or wait for passengers who are chasing the bus from a distance. All these are duties of a bus driver, they do multi-task. So please show some respect to them because they don’t just drive the bus only, for them, it’s always their passengers come first and if you are thinking that being a bus driver is a lowly job, think again.
