'Start organizing taxis for 40-odd people': Entitled tour leader ignores tour bus driver's legal rights, bus driver refuses to drive everyone to the airport

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    PEN 6157 BAG SEKOLAH KAF 9652
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    You want to finish late tonight and start early tomorrow? No problem
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    Hi i drive charter tour coaches for a living, our industry is VERY heavily regulated, as it should be as we carry the most valuable of cargo, your family/kids/relatives, and if I fall asleep and hit your car, well you can work it out. Now one of the rules is after a working day a minimum of time in complete rest must be given undisturbed...by law, this
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    time can be reduced but only 3 times a work period (between 2 weekly rest periods... basically between your days off). Another interesting rule is, by law, if your rest is disturbed, your rest must restart as though you have had no rest..this will be important later. It sounds confusing, but I can have only 9hrs rest 3 times a week and the rest
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    must be 11hrs, minimum, less than 11 complete hours rest period and it's treated like I had 9hrs only...even if it's 10hrs 59 mins. Because of this most tour companies keep rest periods to 11hrs minimum, looking on the reduced rest as a "just in case" we get held up and get finished late etc, so we can start on time the next day and stick to the itinerary.
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    Now we worked with one tour company, I'll call them mega-cheap tours, and their tour leaders like to squeeze every last bit of driving out of their tour hires, excursions all day to some out of the way flea pit, as long as the tour leader gets a kick-back, travel to hotel, then a dinner transfer and back to the hotel at night (none of it as the itinerary stated).
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    Most good companies eat close or in their hotel to allow the driver to rest, but for these guys, cheapest was best, and if that meant an hour there and an hour back at night...so be it, screw the driver, we are paying for him. The reason for this is the tour leader got a kick back if they ate at the tour leaders "favorite" spot, and they had one in every overnight stop. I had
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    spoken to my traffic manager about how these guys just ignored the itinerary, and was told "just do what they say, they are the customer". Now I was working with one tour leader we will call him Wan, well known for not only working you to death but also stiffing you on your gratuities (he collected them from the passengers on the last day as we
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    traveled to the airport to "help you", sat behind you then placed them into an envelope, an envelope you knew was light from experience). It's the last day of the tour, tomorrow I get rid of them all at the airport, and good riddance I thought, as the passengers are in an excursion, Wan comes to the coach.
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    "We need to go here for dinner tonight" (passes me the address) I looks at the satnav "wan that's 1hr 15mins away from our hotel tonight, you lot will be eating for 2 hours then an 1hr 15 back, then I need to shut down the coach and park it, i wont be finished until about 11pm"
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    He looks at me "i know the rules, you only need 9hrs rest, we will leave at 8am, plenty of time for a 2pm flight (international)!!". He was right of course, but remember that 3 times a week thing...he had already had me on short rest 3 times this trip owing to dinner transfers, not 9hrs but 10hrs something each time (this guy always pushed it to the max), it was
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    at this point malicious compliance kicked in, "Your right, i can work after 9hrs" I changed the subject quickly as he smiled at me thinking he had screwed me over. Well the dinner transfer was worse than I thought, heavy traffic getting there meant I was late, which meant they started eating late, which of
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    course meant they came back late, by the time i parked at the hotel it was closer to midnight. I knew what was coming in the morning so phoned my 24hr traffic department, as I expected I was told under NO circumstances was i to break the law and run without my legal rest (massive fines for the company and for me if I did). Normally I set 2 alarms
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    when I'm on reduced rest as, to be honest, it takes it toll, and i need them to get up, but tonight....I set nothing, and took my hotel phone off the hook. I went to bed, I woke up to thumping on my hotel door there was the hotel manager and a very irate Wan
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    "You stupid driver, it's 8am, everyone is outside, checked out, with luggage, and you've slept in, get dressed and get the coach" I smiled "Wan, I'm on my legal break, we got back nearly at midnight so can't start to nearly 9, but besides, I've worked 3 times after reduced rest this trip and can't go anywhere until 11hrs undisturbed rest, also you've just disturbed my
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    rest as this gentleman can confirm (I was friendly with the hotel staff, they use the same hotels every trip and the staff hated Wens trips, as he never tipped..or rather his guests did through his suggestion, but he collected it to "hand in"), which means by law my rest period re-sets and starts again, but you know this, as you know the rules right?..., so see you at 7pm
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    tonight..I'm cool for a late check out right? (I said to the manger who was nodding enthusiastically, knowing what I'd just done)" Wan's eyes nearly bulged out of his head...which was funny, "Wait, what do you mean, we, we, need to get a 2pm flight"
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    "I know" i said "Best start organizing taxi's for the 40 odd people out there, and next trip don't stitch up your driver" As i shut the door on them both. I knew what was about to happen, within 5 minutes my own phone rang, the traffic manager, asking what time I finished the night before, then saying you can start at 9, until I
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    pointed out the 3 late finishes...silence..then "Well your right, but don't expect to be doing anymore of this companies tours, they will request we never send you" I asked if he wanted me to drive without legal rest...I knew he wouldn't dare say yes, as i could be recording it.
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    "No you must take legal rest, this is the tour leaders problem, of his making if he had stuck to the itinerary's hours everything would be fine, just do me a favor and start at 11am...not 7pm, we need the coach back here tonight" I knew when to not push it any further, and said i would be happy to start at 11am, and would start
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    getting ready now and go down for breakfast. An hour later I went down and saw Wan surrounded by angry passengers screaming at him with a phone to his ear, he saw me and came over "Mr driver, please, i nor my company can get a coach to hire and it's 40 miles to the airport and our flight leaves in just over 4hrs, my company are mad I've not left you legal rest, and
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    blaming me..please help me" I couldn't resist "Wan, if you use all those gratuities you have stolen from me and everyone else over the years, you will be able to afford to hire 10 taxis no problem and make the flight, but I would be quick about it, otherwise you might get stuck with 40 odd replacement flights as
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    well as taxis" Wan gulped, eye bugle, and went white..all in one..it was funny to watch, and ran to reception asking for 10 taxis, what was funnier was when the taxi's showed up they said he needed another 4 or 5 just for the luggage (Each person had 2. massive suitcases), i just sat watching the show through the window eating my breakfast and drinking my
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    coffee. The staff thought I was a hero, and all smirked and looked on from their respective posts, i knew after this, no tips from the passengers would change hands and the cost of those taxis would hit his current fiddle bankroll hard (or so i hoped). My boss was right, i never have nor never will do this companies tours again, it was quickly passed back I
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    was not wanted, but Wan has never been back leading this companies tours either, my ex- colleagues (I knew my cards. are marked as "trouble", and found another job with another charter company VERY easily) have told me that now the tour leaders are told by their head office to NEVER give the drivers less than 11hrs off EVERY night and factor this into
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    any dinner transfers, if it can't be accommodated then no dinner transfer, and NO off itinerary excursions...period, TLDR: Got own back on tour leader using malicious compliance over-working me and stealing my tips
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    Edit 3: in the comments it has been stated I set him up and it was a move, well i saw it as his greed for a kick back set himself up...the itinerary said 9pm finish, this guy did this to me all the time. He was supposed to (as much as me) be monitoring my hours to ensure the tour stayed legal, yes I could have pointed out the night before I needed 11 hrs, but
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    sometimes you just have had enough...so I complied and did as I was told. As for possibly harming the passengers, making them miss their flight home, all this happened at 8am, 6hrs before their flight, if he had got taxi's then, which was what I wanted, him to pay. out money he wouldn't get back (and he had the money on him plus to pay for those) they would have
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    been at the airport before the coach would have got them there, no one was more surprised than me when I came down and they are all still there. If they HAD missed their flights, I assure you the tour company would have rebooked everyone on the next available plane...then came after my blood.
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    Also folks have got confused about the disturbed rest, why I didn't sit until 7pm, by the letter of the law I could claim this, and if wan had pushed it I would have, but I'm brave, not stupid, if the guy paying your wages says do him a favour and start at 11am after your first legal rest period...I start at 11am.
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    YouthfulYYam. You know it's good compliance when company policy changes as a result. You're a hero
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    SillySnowFox Gotta love when you can pull that "Federal Law" out to slap down something stupid someone wants you to do. I drove over the road semis for a decade and the number of times I'd get called up in the middle of my rest break to split a trailer off with someone else two hours away...
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    turtle_bro So are you no longer with the charter company or the tour company that contracted the charters service does not want to use you so your bosses put you on a different company's rotation?
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    Bawbag121 OP I was put on a different tour companies tours, but I knew that regardless, i would now be watched and picked apart as i was trouble in my companies eyes...anything that could upset "their" clients was a death knell
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    for the driver. Easier to just get another job, which in my industry took a couple of days.
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    Maklarr4000 ⚫ This is why you always thank the bus driver.
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