10 Things Our Guests Have Learned From Test Driving A Bus

We love to hear about people’s first-time experiences getting behind the wheel of a big yellow bus. We’ve shared these experiences with local personalities through our Celebrity Test Drive Facebook Live series, and with countless members of our communities through our Test Drive a School Bus events. It’s been fun every time, and our guests have shared a few things that they found surprising about driving a bus for the first time:

1. 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.
2. The driver seat is a lot more comfortable than the 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.
3. 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.
4. The brakes on a bus are a lot touchier than the brakes in a car! Buses have a special kind of brakes, called air brakes, which handle a bit differently than standard hydraulic brakes.
5. Air brakes are a bit more complicated than hydraulic brakes! The bus driver must take an extra step to pressurize the brakes before driving, and decompress them after parking.
6. There are many more mirrors on a bus than on a car! Buses have 7 mirrors; one interior rearview mirror and 6 external mirrors with 3 to monitor each side. Cars tend to have only 3 mirrors to worry about.
7. …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 entirety of the length of their bus, both sides, from where they sit.
8. 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 got the hang of it before the end of the test drive course!
9. 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 our test drivers have perfectly parallel parked the bus with the guidance of our great school bus trainer!
10. There are a lot more safety features on a bus than on a car! Our test drivers saw how modern school buses are programmed to prevent sleeping children from being left on the bus, among other innovative safety initiatives.

Overall, we’ve been told that driving a bus is a very unique experience. It is quite different than driving a car, but it’s not as scary or difficult as people expect! If you would like to see for yourself what it’s like to drive a bus, you can come out to the various Test Drive a School Bus events Rohrer Bus is hosting this summer! As long as you’re 21, 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!

To see Brad Kerstetter from the Harrisburg Heat test drive, click here.

To see Michael Gorsegner from CBS 21 test drive, click here.

To see PA Representative Greg Rothman test drive, click here.

To see Senator Mike Regan test drive, click here.

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