OPERATIONS:

Garage Parking Lot: The parking lot entrance will be changing soon. We will have to enter from the East end. The island and gates will be removed and new signs will be put up to help with the flow of vehicles. (Terry)

Interior Lights On? Please be sure to turn your interior lights on whenever your bus is in service. On the Orion buses, one side of the interior lights may be turned off to help reduce the glare on the windshield at night. (Barb)

Parking Buses Outside during Cold Weather: When parking buses outside the garage in cold weather, the following procedures should be followed:

Leave the transmission in neutral.
Set the parking brake (do not use the rear door interlock as a parking brake).
Close all windows and roof vents.
Turn off all interior lights and fans.
Turn off the 4-way flashers.
Close the front door by reaching through the driver’s window
Close the driver’s window.

When the outside temperature is 20 degrees or below, do not turn off the bus engine. The high idle and front heat or defrost should be left on. This procedure will prevent the front windows from frosting over and diesel fuel from gelling and clogging both fuel lines and filters. (Barb)

The Art of Moving Back: As the weather gets cooler and cooler, we will need to ask our passengers to move back on the bus so more people can board. Making a request to your passenger is an ART.

Here are some sample announcements:

"May I have your attention, I have just a few more people to board if you would please move back in the aisle a few steps…Thank you."

"Good Morning, we have a lot of passengers travelling with us this morning if everyone would move back a step or two we will have room for everyone…Thank you."

Morning Orange route drivers should make this announcement after they leave the parking lot, so there is room for passengers boarding at Maple Hall. (Barb)

Holiday Time Off: With the approaching holidays we will be working with many requests for time off. Please be sure to check carefully if your requests have been covered before you leave. Talk to Jen Strohm or Joni Etheredge if you have any questions about a shift being covered. Simply submitting a request does not mean it is automatically covered.

Sign up sheets have been posted for the Thanksgiving holiday schedule. If you are interested in working extra hours you can sign up on those sheets and you will be assigned some extra hours according to your seniority.

Also be sure that you know your schedule for the Holidays. A memo will be posted explaining the Thanksgiving Holiday schedule. If you have any questions about when you work talk to Jen or Joni. (Karen)

Moonlight Express: MLX ridership continues to increase. The fixed route between campus and west Ames now operates at 20 minute intervals. The route through campustown has been modified to serve Knapp and Lynn as well as the Towers and RCA. On some evenings we are carrying over 700 passengers on the fixed route and over 400 on the door to door service. Several drivers and dispatchers had a great discussion on service options and Jason Slater is analyzing the suggestions and ridership patterns to determine if additional fixed routes should be installed. If you have any comments, thoughts, or suggestions, please contact Jason. (Bob)

Backing up buses: It is very nice to see how everyone is following our new rule when backing a bus up. It is very important to be aware of the entire area around your bus, regardless of your maneuver. (Brent)

Spring Run Pick: Spring run pick for the drivers who have class schedules which conflict with some of their work schedules will take place the first week of December. There is a sign up sheet on the memo board by the time clock. If you have a work shift that conflicts with a class(es) you have to take and there are no other sections of the class(es) available, sign up on the memo to participate in the run pick. Just a reminder: you may only drop your work shifts that conflict with classes. (Brent)

Ridership Trends: In case you have not noticed, our ridership has exploded this year with a 30% increase in the first week, and we carried 506,329 passengers the month of September, an all time record month. We have been adding extra trips where necessary to accommodate the increases.

On October 5, an extra bus was added to the Saturday evening Blue route to reduce the headway to 35 minutes. On October 6, extra buses were added to Red and Blue on Sunday nights to reduce the headway to 35 minutes. On October 14, extra buses were added to the weekday Red schedule between Kildee and the Mortenson turnaround. Buses will operate at 10 to 15 minute intervals from 7:20am to 5:00pm on this busy route. (Barb)

Bus Garage: Construction has begun. Door 11, as we know it, is permanently closed. There is however a new door being put in on the West end of the building behind the cooling towers. This door will be called door 11. This will allow us to keep buses circulating through the building during construction. Within the next four weeks we will be closing the west drive to the parking lot and putting in a fuel station in its place. Buses will come from the east side to be fueled. Please drive safely and slowly. Thank you. (Terry)