part 1 - how can it jump up to 4 different shifts in
a day?
That is why it is called jump bus. Each time the BC returns to
the interchange for mealbreak, he will drive his behind bus for his
next trip while having break in the meantime. You never know
the BC is a A/P, S, E or T shift driving the bus itself.
I try to explain in a more practical way. For
example something
like Sv 24 SBS3921Z the first trip is a A shift
driver driving, then second trip jump bus to a S shift driver
driving after that the S shift driver bring the bus back to depot.
Afternoon the same driver take the same bus out to do first
trip then second trip jump bus to a P shift driver
driving and third trip jump bus to a S shift driver which the
S shift driver will drive the bus back to depot after completing
the trip.
In other words, when you think that the bus doing an jumpbus
service is an A/P shift and somehow the bus went missing
halfway during the middle of the day, it is actually the BC who is
an S or E shift driver happen to jump to that perticular
bus and it is sending the bus back to the depot after he
completed his trip as stated in his timesheet. You have to observe
the pattern of how the jump bus works on a certain service in
order for you to know which bus will keep & which bus will
stay.
Mod's note: With the exception of 5 special services
including Service 36, most CLOWbus services do not jump except
during mealbreaks or during morning peak before the relief crew
(the driver who starts from interchange to kick-start the jumping,
usually a S or E shift on weekdays and S/E/T shift on weekends)
comes in. In fact, we try not to let S or E shift jump unless
necessary, and there exists CLOWbus services where a S or E shift
drives the same bus throughout the day:
CLOWbus also allows better management of resources i.e.
letting an E shift keep the training bus in the morning and let
another S shift take it out in the evening. This way there will not
be shifts with too little working hours.