![]() ![]() ![]() “If you have enough seniority, you can set your own hours. The OCTA allows drivers to bid on shift assignments three times a year. In addition to independence, Whittington, now 52, likes being able to set her own hours. But when you are driving a route you are in control, and as long as you get where you are supposed to go on time, there are no supervisors hovering over you.” Whittington says that sometimes the job can be stressful, “especially if something puts you behind schedule in the morning and you have a bus full of passengers who need to get to work on time. It’s good to see them getting out and doing what they can for themselves.” “A lot of seniors and handicapped people depend on the bus for transportation, and I’ve come to enjoy them most of all. “Some have been riding the bus for years, and it always makes them so happy when I remember their names,” she said. But during her 14 years as a driver, Whittington has found many things to like about her job, particularly the passengers. “When they called, I wasn’t absolutely sure I wanted to be a bus driver, but I thought I might like it better than giving parking tickets, so I accepted.”Īt first there were a lot of adjustments, such as memorizing routes, dealing with passengers and, of course, learning to maneuver the bus. “After I applied I didn’t hear anything back for seven months,” said Whittington, who was then employed by the Fountain Valley Police Department traffic division. But with four children to rear, she needed a job that would pay well and have flexible hours, so she decided to give it a try. Judy Whittington had never driven anything larger than a car when she put in an application for a bus-driving job with the Orange County Transportation Authority in 1979. ![]()
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