Meet our newest bus driver, Scott. He started with Young’s Bus Service earlier this month (July 2016) and after two weeks into it, he’s loving it.
Scott has 4 children and has been living in Yeppoon now for almost 2 years. He’s one of those boomerang residents though. Scott and his family grew up in the Capricorn Coast before starting his career as a diesel fitter with the Australian Navy. His most recent memories of Yeppoon date back to the 80’s. “Yeppoon didn’t have traffic lights or roundabouts back then and there was heaps of parking available in the streets. Yeppoon is definitely a much more vibrant place that has experienced lots of growth. I remember it used to be such a sleepy city.”
Before starting with us at Young’s, Scott spent 3 years driving 15 meter long luxury coaches, transporting miners all over Queensland. A usual trip for Scott would involve around 1,000 kms of travel a day, moving miners from Chinchilla, Miles and Roma to destinations like Brisbane and then return. “I pretty much drove an airport shuttle service only it was from mine sites and gas fields”.
From transporting miners to now children, we asked Scott about his new experience as a school bus driver with Young’s Bus Service.
“I’m really enjoying driving buses for Young’s, seeing different things and places, meeting different people. I’ve never used ticketing on a bus because I’ve always driven for charters but the Young’s ticketing system is really easy and fancy. I can’t even use my phone but it’s pretty easy as a driver to use the ticketing system.
I’m driving on the new Keppel Cove service. There are lots of little tiny people and most the kids are pretty friendly. There’s a few cheeky ones. I have a few students that are chatty and one keeps us very entertained. They even draw pictures for us. Here’s one I got earlier this week. We talk about footy and fishing. Some of them tell me about their fishing adventures from the weekend, catching Barramundi and the State of Origin has been a big discussion point.
Compared to driving miners, these kids are pretty good. Some miners are noisy and smelly, some are professional and some are sleepy. It’s the same for the kids really. Miners probably whinge more than the kids. {laughs}.”
Drawing of Scott by one of his student passengers, Ellah.
