Express Transportation starting Dec 7th

[Goofyernmost]

This is meant for supplemental income for retirees or those that just need part time work. That is why it does not pay as much as full time driver.

Full time drivers start at the same thing. They do get benefits that are not given to part timers. The only drivers that make much more then that, and I doubt it is above $15.00 would be someone that has been there a long time and has built up some seniority. Turn over is high because of the hours and the pay from what I understand. Very few of them "need" the income, it's extra money is handy and they love or loved the idea of working for Disney and being able to go there for no charge. People that really need the income are constantly looking for something with more substantial and secure hours.

 

[flynnibus]

How do you know this
(bolded)? The CM told the guest that there were fewer buses because of a "test." .

1) Because front-line CMs are notoriously in the dark
2) there isn't that many buses tied up in the test.. certainly not enough to say all routes are running slower because of it
3) Disney has plenty of buses.. its not the buses that are the constraint (as I said before)

 

[Creathir]

1) Because front-line CMs are notoriously in the dark
2) there isn't that many buses tied up in the test.. certainly not enough to say all routes are running slower because of it
3) Disney has plenty of buses.. its not the buses that are the constraint (as I said before)

Also, remember we've heard people on site who talk to a CM who have said without a doubt the monorail is getting expanded and the 5th gate will be opening soon...

I agree flynnibus, this anecdotal evidence is hardly something reliable or that we could draw conclusions from. It's an interesting report, but I'd imagine slowness on the system is 100% related to this being the week of Christmas and the busiest part of the entire year.

Not the 7-10 buses being used for express service...

 

[MisterPenguin]

Not the 7-10 buses being used for express service...

Someone reported (it was either here or on reddit) that there are two buses per line. With four parks, there are six lines. Times two buses... that's 12 buses for Express.

Since there are 390 buses in their fleet, that means 3% of their buses have been diverted to Express. Well, a little less than 3% since the Express isn't operating before the parks open or shortly after they close, in which case, they could be diverted to the crowds leaving the parks going back to their resorts.

Speaking of their fleet:

2012: 319
Dec 2016: 390

Plus, their recent order of 50 isn't fulfilled fully yet, there are 10 more coming to bring it up to 400.

This means that the 12 buses diverted to Express are basically new purchases and wouldn't have had any effect on the current bus situation. Whether one thinks the busing situation was good or bad before Express... Express put no dent in it.

 

[mikeh]

Someone reported (it was either here or on reddit) that there are two buses per line. With four parks, there are six lines. Times two buses... that's 12 buses for Express.

Since there are 390 buses in their fleet, that means 3% of their buses have been diverted to Express. Well, a little less than 3% since the Express isn't operating before the parks open or shortly after they close, in which case, they could be diverted to the crowds leaving the parks going back to their resorts.

Speaking of their fleet:

2012: 319
Dec 2016: 390

Plus, their recent order of 50 isn't fulfilled fully yet, there are 10 more coming to bring it up to 400.

This means that the 12 buses diverted to Express are basically new purchases and wouldn't have had any effect on the current bus situation. Whether one thinks the busing situation was good or bad before Express... Express put no dent in it.

Hopefully this bit of logic puts the argument to rest. It's a staffing issue, not a supply issue.

If you don't like waiting, pay the <$3.50 per day and have one of the best transportation experiences of your life. Seriously, it's wonderful.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Bus Drivers receive a starting rate of $12.65/hour.

A lot less than any fairly large city bus driver.

Not really as a starting salary for part-timers in Florida:

 

[jensenrick]

This is meant for supplemental income for retirees or those that just need part time work. That is why it does not pay as much as full time driver.

What a horrible cop-out.

 

[_ZJ]

What a horrible cop-out.

No one is forcing people to take the job, so they can decide for themselves whether it is a fair wage.

 

[Kman101]

For those arguing back that we don't know why busses are taken off line (if that's even true to begin with), in that same breath, how do you know for a fact they aren't? It works both ways IMO. So unless you know for a fact, it's speculation on both ends.

 

[Goofyernmost]

For those arguing back that we don't know why busses are taken off line (if that's even true to begin with), in that same breath, how do you know for a fact they aren't? It works both ways IMO. So unless you know for a fact, it's speculation on both ends.

Not worth the effort. Believe what you want. Do your best not to be disappointed.

 

[drizgirl]

It doesn't matter how many buses Disney has. What matters is how many buses Disney is willing to run at a given time and whether they were willing to budget additional dollars for this new program or if some smart MBA decided they could carve this new program out of the existing allocation of bus routes. And none of us knows the answer to that. Although I do find the anecdotal story from the CM to be quite interesting.

 

[Bandini]

I agree flynnibus, this anecdotal evidence is hardly something reliable or that we could draw conclusions from. It's an interesting report, but I'd imagine slowness on the system is 100% related to this being the week of Christmas and the busiest part of the entire year.

The person who reported this visits the parks at the same time every year. So he is making a comparison to previous trips at a busy time. Everyone's right, this is anecdotal. However, it will be interesting to see if other guests report the same experience.

 

[flynnibus]

For those arguing back that we don't know why busses are taken off line (if that's even true to begin with), in that same breath, how do you know for a fact they aren't? It works both ways IMO. So unless you know for a fact, it's speculation on both ends.

Because we know how dynamic load systems work to start with - Not speculation
Because we know Disney already uses dynamic routing - Not speculation
Because we know the # of buses involved here is very small compared to the total buses in use
Because we know Disney doesn't use 100% of their buses at all times - because then they'd never have enough for peak periods

So it makes the 'where is the bus being taken from' pretty irrelevant to the big picture. What matters is the staffing level and how they are tracking to actual demand... as it always is.

 

[Bandini]

This is meant for supplemental income for retirees or those that just need part time work. That is why it does not pay as much as full time driver.

In the medical field, part timers are offered higher hourly rates because the company isn't paying for insurance. IMO this is a crap wage, for a pretty stressful job. I can't imagine driving a bus on roads with oblivious tourists.

 

[Bandini]

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So it makes the 'where is the bus being taken from' pretty irrelevant to the big picture. What matters is the staffing level and how they are tracking to actual demand... as it always is.

Well, then if Disney is pulling Drivers from other routes to staff the Express routing, then the conclusion is there are fewer buses and drivers in the dynamic queuing system.
When I think of Disney's dynamic bus system, I think of both the drivers and the buses. After all the number of individual drivers available is irrelevant if there aren't enough buses or vice versa.

 

[Kman101]

Guess I was told ... lol

 

[Bandini]

Guess I was told ... lol

I like the nanny nanny boo boo response. It cuts off all further discussion.

 

[Kman101]

I like the nanny nanny boo boo response. It cuts off all further discussion.

LOL. Not really but there's no point going back and forth over this. It's still speculation on both ends as far as I'm concerned. I'm glad someone has all the answers, I guess, and I do appreciate the information. No one here is standing there counting busses or bus drivers and they don't know the routes traveled and the amount of busses used daily and where one was taken to or not. JMO. So that means it's speculation.

 

[flynnibus]

Well, then if Disney is pulling Drivers from other routes to staff the Express routing, then the conclusion is there are fewer buses and drivers in the dynamic queuing system.

No - because that conclusion assumes two things
1) no drivers were added to staffing across either pool
2) the cap for your dynamic system was already tracking to use 100% of your buses

They wouldn't be operating at 100% utilization of their pool at all times because that makes for a system that breaks on the slightest variation.

Could these new routes put more strain on the system? Sure, but I'd argue Disney handles far bigger swings all the time. These bus demands aren't even during Disney's peak times for the buses. So you aren't going to have resource starvation on buses... its all about staffing, as it always is. And on the staffing starvation front... the system always has dynamic allocation built in. So its not until the system hits its limits that things would start to have an impact.

Again we are talking a small fraction of the total bus activity on property.. if one guest can accurately measure the impact across the system with just their own personal rides and single points of reference... they are superstars

 

[MisterPenguin]

Well, then if Disney is pulling Drivers from other routes to staff the Express routing, then the conclusion is there are fewer buses and drivers in the dynamic queuing system.
When I think of Disney's dynamic bus system, I think of both the drivers and the buses. After all the number of individual drivers available is irrelevant if there aren't enough buses or vice versa.

If there are as many buses as I just posted quoting from Wikipedia with an imminent growth by ten, [and that is quite likely the case] then there are plenty of buses involved compared to last year and Express makes no dent on the rest of the bus service.

If your supposition that bus drivers are pulled from the regular routes to staff the new Express routes, then that could possibly affect the regular routes. But what if the full time bus drivers are putting in 35 hours and can now do 40 hours? And what if there are a lot of part time bus drivers looking for more hours? In that case, the new Express routes will have zero impact on the regular routes.

What if this "test" this CM mentioned is some other scheduling test that has nothing to do with Express?

There's a lot we don't know for sure. But there's a lot that we can make fairly certain suppositions. And it's fairly certain that a shift of 3% of the buses during non-peak hours isn't going to throw a noticeable monkey wrench in the regular bus routes (regardless of whether one thinks they're doing well or not... they're not being affected in a noticeable way).