Safety 19A

It has been concluded by Samuelsen and TBOU that the depot chairman and their underlings are overwhelmed with a great workload and they are unable to cover the 19A safety issues. They are also unable to be out on the field to observe and aid the membership so we recommend that there should be an additional steward added for specific duties of 19A. As a result there should be no more excuses for blaming the bus operator about the bus whether it does not meet the 19A safety standards.

It is not practical for a bus operator to do a proper 19A pre trip inspection  from the report time till pull out which is ten (10) minutes. Lets assume the bus operator reports at 1200 then he prints the schedule, that is a minute, so we are at 1201. After s/he walks to the yard dispatcher for a minute, thus bringing us at 1202. Addressing the yard dispatcher and getting assigned to a bus, that is two minutes, so we are at 1204. Walking to the bus, that is two minutes, so we are at 1206. Thus leaving four minutes remaining for the bus operator. Can the bus operator do a detailed and required 19A, the obvious answer is no and a blind man can see that.

There is no question there will be things that are overlooked, however blaming a member is not the way to go especially from Samuelsen and TBOU. Lets assume you are an en route relief driver on the road and the bus is full of passengers, can anyone do a detailed 19A safety check? For example verifying that the fire extinguisher is present? Also verifying that the arrow on the extinguisher is in the green area? Check the rear door interlock for proper holding operation? Therefore blaming a member is not the right thing.

We recommend in the contract of 2012 that a change of the ten-minute reporting period be altered to a twenty-minute period. In addition assigning additional stewards to do the 19A safety checks and to be out on the field.