10 Things You Can Learn by Test Driving a School Bus
With how many big yellow buses you see on the road every day, do you ever wonder what it’s like to actually drive school buses? Driving a school bus is undoubtedly different to operating any other sort of vehicle. The following are a couple things people learn their first time driving a school bus:
Driving A School Bus For The First Time
Most school buses nowadays are automatic! This comes as a relief to most first-time bus drivers; there’s no need to worry about shifting gears during the bus drive.
The driver seat is a lot more comfortable than the infamous passenger seats. Every year, buses come out with more and more comfort features for drivers; even though the bus seems like a bumpy ride, the air shocks in the driver’s seat absorb all impact for the driver.
Acceleration is a lot slower in a bus than in a regular car! This may be one of the more obvious points, but cars are on average around 3000 pounds, whereas buses average around 36,000 pounds.
The brakes on a bus are a bit touchier than the brakes in a car! Buses have a special kind of brakes, called air brakes, which handle a little differently than standard hydraulic brakes.
In addition, air brakes are a bit more complicated than hydraulic brakes; the bus driver must take an extra minute to pressurize the brakes before driving, and decompress them after parking.
There are many more mirrors on a school bus than on a car. Buses have 7 mirrors; one interior rearview mirror and 6 external mirrors (3 to monitor each side.) Cars, on the other hand, tend to have only 3 mirrors to worry about.
…But because of how many mirrors the bus has, they don’t have as many glaring blind spots as cars! Depending on the positioning of the bus mirrors, the driver can see the entire length of their bus, on both sides, from where they sit while driving a bus.
Turning in a bus requires different technique than turning in a car. School buses make wide turns and drivers need to start turning at a different time than they would if they were turning in a car, and they need to afford 3 feet of clearance around the back of the bus. No need to worry though, our test drivers at our last test drive event got the hang of it before the end of the test drive course!
Parallel parking a bus is no harder than parallel parking a car! Drivers just need to know what to look for in their mirrors and follow the proper technique. In fact, all of the test drivers from our Celebrity Test Drive Facebook Live series perfectly parallel parked the bus on their first try with the guidance of our great school bus trainer.
There are a lot more safety features on a bus than on a car! Modern school buses are programmed to prevent sleeping children from being left on the bus, among other innovative safety initiatives. Not to mention, school buses are generally just the safest vehicles on the road!
Drive With Rohrer Bus At Our Test Drive Event!
Overall, our current drivers and guests at past Test Drive event have told us that driving a bus is a very unique experience. Driving a bus is quite different than driving a car, but it’s not as scary or difficult as people expect! In fact, most people gain a new appreciation for school buses after their first time driving a bus.
Don’t just take our word for it though, come see for yourself! Come out to one of our many locations on April 24th to do a test drive of your own! As long as you’re 21 and hold a valid Driver’s License, the event is free to you and does not require you to have a CDL. The event will have no strings attached, but applications will be available on-site if you decide you love driving a bus. We hope to see you there!
