r/Glasgow Tools

Oh I completely agree, however, I perhaps got my experiences mixed up and didn't put that across correctly. First buses have that perspex door, however, the vastly majority of smaller bus companies don't have that. Consequently I've been touched, grabbed, and hit, all while driving. A colleague of mine has been spat on, while another was attacked with a baseball bat, leaving him with a broken arm. Passengers like to believe the CCTV on a bus works but the only one that worked, thankfully, in the incidents I've mentioned, was the one with the baseball bat, but the guy still got away with it.

But that's with a smaller company.

First, however, like to promote that there's working cctv on all their buses. There isn't. Especially on the older fleet. The cameras are there to give the impression everything is on camera, but it isn't. On the newer fleet, the CCTV does work. But on older pre-2013-ish fleet, its kinda 50/50 as to whether the cameras and audio recording work at all. Infact, in my time at First, I had two complaints from passengers. One was because I had to brake sharply to avoid a car that pulled in front of me, and another was because I pulled away from a stop too quickly, which I held my hands up to and admitted it was my fault, I wanted to get to my next timing point because I was getting behind on my time and that's a performance that you're rated on, regardless of traffic, roadworks, etc. In both instances, it couldn't be proven or disproven by cctv evidence, because none was available. In the first instance, all they had to go on was my word and the metrics that show when you're braking/accelerating too hard. In the second instance, I admitted it immediately.

Long story short - don't rely on cctv being available on the bus you're riding.