To the Auckland Transport Bus Driver driving the 27H route at 1.45pm on Christmas Day – you are an arsehole!
You’ll remember me as the bloke who called you out on Christmas and gave you grief for your decision, what you won’t have realised is that I write this blog.
Look, I appreciate you must have been very pissed off having to work on Christmas Day, in fact it was my beloved 8 year old daughter who suggested that to me as a reason for your arsehole behaviour on the 25th, and I am sorry you had to drive a bus on a day when we all want to be with our family.
I also get being a bus driver is very stressful in a city that is clogged with traffic and road rage kiwi drivers.
But your behaviour on Christmas Day was bloody awful.
It wasn’t just that you sat your Bus away from the bus stop during that enormous down pour of rain while you could see waiting passengers being soaked, that was mean spirited, but what you did afterwards to that mum and her little daughter was disgraceful.
My daughter and I allowed them to get onto the 27H route at 1.45pm on Christmas Day in the city first because they were soaked and cold. When the mum got on, she explained she only had a $5 note and a $50note. Her combined fare for her daughter and herself was $5.30cents.
So what did you do?
You refused to let them on and because you didn’t have change for a $50 note, you refused to let them pay with that as well.
You turned them away for 30cents.
I said to you, ‘Mate, it’s fucking Christmas, you could have let them on rather than dumping them cold and on the street’.
You shrugged at me.
To my frustration I didn’t have any cash on me and not enough on my card to have simply swiped them through, and I didn’t have the presence of mind to ask the 5 other passengers if anyone could donate 30cents to allow them on.
It was a double decker bus with 7 passengers on it, adding another two for 30cents less wouldn’t have killed anyone.
I don’t want you to be sacked, I don’t want any punishment handed out, I just want you to reflect on how you made a cold mum and her daughter feel on Christmas and promise never to act like that again in the future.
Like I said  when I hopped off the bus, ‘Merry Christmas driver’.
Bombers to kind. Would have explained to driver 27h, that passengers careless some just another job mentality.
I’ve come to the alarming conclusion that arseholery is one of the units in theor training manual.
Except, it’s probably his bosses that make him feel like that. In terror that he might lose everything if his till is out by a dollar today. Then, the wife will go, he’ll lose the kids, etc. Who knows
You often can’t know exactly how bad someone’s life is going, or how horrible their day has been, at a glance on a chance encounter. Some people have a right to act like damaged goods because, they are. Often by the unknown persons that happen to look like yourself. So I say, anger very slowly in public, with the public, even in the face of their bizarre activity. Often they are having such a shit time they are about to explode. Pity that bus driver.
Peace to the bus driver.
I agree wiith you…he is only stating what he has too. He would possibly get a warning if he let them on the bus. Imagine how much 30 cents here , 50 cents there etc would add up too. Give the guy a break. Possibly the Mum should have broken the $50 into smaller change before catching the bus….just saying..
Not a very “Kiwi” decision … nor as you say one showing Xmas spirit.
Last time I was in Sydney I was in a wheelchair &with daughter plus partner. We caught lotssa buses & the drivers were ALL really helpful, great. They are also ALL employed by the local authority, not private companies. I too, have experienced shit from drivers in Auckland. But don’t slag them personally (although I would be angry too Bomber, & was the passenger who gave the coins to make up the fare for a young mother with kids – without being asked. We should help each other when this happens). We should be changing the buses back to social ownership- then expect a strong union & decent behaviour from drivers.
Behavioural economics is also a fallacy. Here’s why. Taking behaviour out of humans is robotic, so not fully sapient. People have a mind just like you do, so treat them like people. If you’re creating a robot to be a slave, there’s no need for it to think like a person.
Similarly, copies of you are their own people. They might start from the same point as you, but they have free will the same as you do. No matter what purpose you created them for, you should treat them the same way you do yourself.
Now, if your clone wants to do edgy stuff just to share the experiences, that’s his own choice. I’d remind him of the continuity problem, though – even if you have a backup, it doesn’t change the fact that you, personally are dead.
Follow Wellington’s example. They had free buses on Christmas day.
Which I strongly suspect were a one-off this year so the GWRC could appease their guilt over the complete fuck-up they’ve made of the buses here, and say how nice they are to us. Up to about 10 years ago (IIRC) buses/trains here were always free on Xmas day, it was a tradition, until some bean counter obviously decided they could squeeze a few more dollars out of us and normal full fares returned.
The only thing we can be grateful for here- at least in the main centres- is that we have public transport running on Christmas Day. I’m still flabbergasted that London is completely shut down for the day.
As a bus driver myself, I would have handled things differently but the presentation of a $50 or $100 note (often with a much smaller amount like $2 ready as back-up) is a common trick used by would-be fare evaders.
Do you think a supermarket would have sold a loaf of bread to someone who lacked the 30c? Why is it that so many people think bus fares are negotiable?
So how’s privatisation working out for you lot up in Auckland?
Wasn’t it meant to make everything better?
I’ve done Christmas Day both as a bus driver and later as an engine driver. It’s shit but then shit happens.
Take it from a professional; making yourself feel better by making somebody else feel worse doesn’t actually work.
Compassion does…
So isn’t this the way the poor are kept down. When we fight each other the bosses get a free pass! A driver having a bad day – they are a lot surlier than they used to be when they were well paid! And if he is on spilt shifts he is in town for 12 hours and paid for 8 on minimum wage. Yes he could have been gracious but he wasn’t, humanity is well paid!
Hey Martyn,
Send a complaint to the ‘”mystery”- Minister of Transport’ -Hon’ Phil Twyford about this as he lives in his ‘sleepy hollow in Te Atatu’, another suburb of Auckland.
Site him for his “in-action” as our “parliamentary public servant”, as he gets a top pay scale now from us all doesn’t he, but is never seen around any Rail/road issues now?
About time these lazy Politicians were put only on ‘performance pay’ and satisfaction feedback from us all rather than the payout for doing fuck-all as they do now!!!!
Not exactly a story in the best Christmas tradition!!
One hopes there were extrrnal reasons shy tge driver acted with such lack of compassion. Because if there are no external reasons, as Bomber suggested, then that leaves only his innate personality. Not exactly a better scenario.
Comments are closed.