Hey Hi Hello, Bus Driver Jade here!

The day I passed my test I applied to become a trainee bus driver, I was hoping I would get accepted into the training school. I met all the requirements but I was still worried I would get turned down, but to my surprise I got a phone call a few days later asking for me to come in for an interview. I was so excited it was another step closer for me to be behind the wheel of a bus. The interview consisted of a couple stages, a multi skills test, a driving evaluation and a sit down interview, I passed every single stage I was so happy, the more I accomplished the more I got excited to be behind the wheel of a bus. 

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After my interview I had to have a medical exam to make sure I was fit to drive a PCV (passenger carrying vehicle). This consisted of having my height and weight taken, a drugs and alcohol test, an eye sight test and to let the examiner know of any diagnosed health conditions. Without any worries I passed, now it was onto revising for the theory, I read the DVLA theory books to help me understand certain parts and practiced questions online. After a week of solidly revising for the multiple choice questions and the hazard perception test I booked my test for the week after. I passed with 92/100 for the multiple choice test and 90/100 for the hazard perception test, I was so pleased, only one more theory test to go. 

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I started studying for the case studies test right away, I struggled on this one a bit more as it isn't as straight forward as the other two tests, English wasn't my strong point so trying to answer questions about a certain scenario was a little difficult for me but nonetheless I was not going to be beaten by it. A week later I got a call from the training school offering a last minute slot for the case study test as someone had cancelled, I wasn't 100% confident that I would pass so I turned it down. I dwelled on the fact I turned it down all day thinking I should of maybe given it a shot but I quickly regained focus and carried on revising. A couple of days passed and I received another phone call offering another last minute test, this time I said yes! I still wasn't 100% confident but I was reaching the pass mark more often then not. To my surprise I passed 45/50 the best score I had ever got, I was shocked that I passed let alone get the highest score I had ever got whilst revising for the test.

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I was more than half way to becoming a bus driver and the excitement grew as now it was on to training for the practical test. I was in on the following Monday to start the training, the feeling you get when you sit in the drivers seat is unexplainable, looking in the mirrors to see how big the bus is, looking at all the controls on the dashboard, it's a great feeling to know that you've made it this far and you're finally behind the wheel of a bus. Of course I opted to go first in getting behind the wheel and driving the bus for the first time, it was scary but so exciting at the same time, I managed to pull off and stop safely a few times and started to get used to the dimensions of the bus. My practical training was 2 weeks long, it was intensive but I loved every minute of it and if I could give one piece of advice to anyone wanting to become a bus driver is to enjoy the training days I had a fantastic time and I would happily do it all over again, sadly you only learn how to drive a bus once so enjoy it! The day of my practical test I was nervous I wanted to pass so badly, I started off with doing the reverse manoeuvre which I felt pretty confident on, after was the driving test itself, I doubted myself at times during the test but I pushed through and drove to the best of my ability and just like that the test was over and I was being handed a pass certificate. I was over the moon with myself and only had one more test to do. The next day I had my practical demonstration test which I was pretty confident for as I had picked up the information pretty quickly and just like every other test I passed with flying colours.

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The first time driving with passengers was so surreal to me, I achieved what I went out to do and to be honest I didn't think I could really do it but not only proving my friends and family wrong but myself wrong too gave me more confidence that I can do something if I put my mind to it. I've been driving buses for just over 2 years now and I love it, everyday is different and I've learnt so much along the way that's not only made me the driver I am today but also the person that wants to go against the stereotypes in this job and especially let women know that they can do it too. I also want to share my knowledge of what I know onto to others to help people who may want to become a bus driver or improve on what they already know to avoid the mistakes I made and make the learning curve more easier and have any information that may help others understand things more accessible as I know when I was learning there was close to no information available about the theory topics and only basic videos about the driving test.

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