Life long friends made there. Excellent co-workers. Not great for single parents as you may not make day care or school or any social events for young children.

Pros

Free bus pass

Cons

Long or split shifts few breaks. Rushed

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Hard working dedicated employees.

Transit Operator (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 3 May 2022

Personnel are all professional and very hard working. Very friendly and supportive Operators driving buses to support their families.Most of the operators not happy with unreasonable short rest breaks.

Pros

Excellent and professional team members

Cons

long shifts with few or any breaks, or washroom breaks to the point of being detrimental to personal health.

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Insights into Coast Mountain Bus Company

Based on 19 survey responses

What people like

Feeling of personal appreciation
Inclusive work environment
Supportive environment

Good Job, Dealing with the public is the big challenge.

TRANSIT OPERATOR (Current Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 27 April 2022

Great job, fantastic benefits, supportive supervisors and a decent unionized work environment. The flexibility in choosing our schedules is unmatched. The challenge here is dealing with an unpredictable public, most passengers are good and respectful but the few who are not make some days seem endless. It is a skill dealing with people who take public transit that cannot be taught but has to be learned, sadly through difficult and trying experiences.

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Stressful work environment, especially for new drivers.

Transit Operator (Bus driver) (Current Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 30 March 2022

Impossible schedules to follow.You cannot enforce anything.It is a free for all for passengers.You are just a number, and are easily replaced.Will be stuck on split shifts and long days when first starting out on the job.

Pros

Steady paycheque. Secure job.

Cons

Split shifts & long days when you are new. Dealing with lowlife passengers.

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Once upon a time it used to be good.

Transit Operator (Current Employee) - Metro Vancouver Regional District, BC - 15 March 2022

Dealing with traffic in the city is a challenge to begin with, but dealing with people is the highest point of stress in this job.Attitudes in our society are declining toward an unbelievably foul pit.Younger generations are growing ruder every year, and makes driving people around in a city insanely stressful.

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Under paid for work that is preformed

Transit Operator (Current Employee) - Richmond, BC - 14 March 2022

Company has zero care for their employees even long term employees your just a ID number. Is run like a dictatorship. Management are puppets the the higher ups.

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Fast paced

Transit Operator (Current Employee) - Burnaby, BC - 12 March 2022

Fast paced environment,have to learn independently. Spilt shift when first started.Shift gets better over time.Good pay and benefits.Cons would be no life outside work.

Pros

Pay and benefits

Cons

Long hours, stressful

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Job gets better with seniority

Operator (Current Employee) - Richmond, BC - 8 March 2022

After 16 years of driving a bus for Coast Mountain I still enjoy what I do. I like being my own boss, I like not being in an office and the pay & benefits are good.I don't like how heavy-handed management is. Always making you feel like you're being watched (which you are) and definitely underappreciated. It's been three years since my last review. I also don't like how they took our ability to listen to music away (though i still do anyway).Overall it's a decent career. Not great, but there are certainly worse. One thing to definitely keep in mind is this: it will take you 8-12 years to get the shifts you want. Eg. Early straights with weekends off. Those took 12 years to get on a regular basis.A lot depends on which depot you work at, what time you start, days off, etc.

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beware

Administrator (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 2 March 2022

Unions will eat you alive and spit you out when they don't need you or get money from you. Environment between management and union and employees is hostile on all levels

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no life work balance

Bus Driver (Current Employee) - Lower Mainland, BC - 27 February 2022

unless u don't want any home time then this is the job for u ......at work 14 hrs/day paid for 7.5flexible in a way, sort of ...takes 2 years to get to top rate

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Unappreciated

Service Person (Current Employee) - New Westminster, BC - 22 February 2022

You are just a number to the company.There is a saying at CMBC, they spend 8 weeks training you and the rest of your career they try to fire you.No motivation to do a good jobBeen there for 18 years and it is at its worst now

Pros

Management has no idea what they are doing so you can get by doing bare minimum

Cons

Everything

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Better Company I've ever worked at

Engineering Assistant (Former Employee) - Burnaby, BC - 21 February 2022

- Great people- Great hours- Great workplaceYou see new things everydayThey have gyms next to Burnaby transit center so that's good.what more do I need to say

Pros

good hours

Cons

nothing

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This is not a good place to work for your mental health

Service Person (Former Employee) - Surrey, BC - 21 February 2022

This company is not a good company to work for. All you hear from supervisors and co-workers is "don't do this or you'll be disciplined." There's a culture of fear mongering. The service department is not what they make it out to be in the job duty description. There's no learning, no working with tools, or assisting journeymen. You fuel a bus, sweep the garbage out of it and then park it.

Pros

The wage, the schedule is 4 on 3 off.

Cons

Graveyard shifts and inability to take time off.

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Be Careful What You Wish For

Community Shuttle Operator – Casual (Current Employee) - New Westminster, BC - 25 January 2022

The job is incredibly easy, but my major issue is the job is not at all as advertised. On the Translink website it gives certain requirements for the job and also speak to the raises one gets after 8 months. What they don't tell you though is that the shifts are very early or end incredibly late and that your first raise comes after you have worked a total of 1305 hours based on a full time schedule - this would take much longer than 8 months if you're only working a few days a week. They also say on their website that one is only required to work 2 week days, even though on the 2nd to last day or training they said they also require 2 weekend days as well.My supervisor told me that they may up the minimum requirement of 4 days availability in a 2 week period up to 6 days in a 2 week period.

Pros

Easy job. Lots of alone time and it's a very low stress job.

Cons

Incredibly boring and repetitive. Long time sitting in the coach. The hours are terrible.

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Too many politics and back stabbing. It's mostly us vs. them scenarios

Transit Operator (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 23 January 2022

If you're desperate for a job and don't have ANY morals, you can work for this company. Don't do any more or less than what is asked as you will be disciplined because it is beyond the scope of your responsibility/duties. Inconsistent policies mean bad and inconsistent decisions for all disciplinary actions. Killing someone means you made a mistake and you will still be employed. Drive with more than 3 traffic infractions without hurting or killing anyone will mean you're unemployed! Defend yourself and you make yourself a target and they will do everything to get rid of you.

Pros

Benefits

Cons

Split shifts. Routes are through the worst parts of town.

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With your seniority you can move to any depo

Transit Operator (Former Employee) - Surrey, BC - 5 January 2022

It was an extremely great place to work.. Benefits and pension were one of the reasons I joined coast mountain The trainers training me were the best Everyone was so very polite and helpfulIf you were having any difficulty in any aspect of the job they would take you aside and work any issues and or difficulty’s out with you and help you in any way possible

Pros

They do have a full gym at most depo’s

Cons

No cafeteria

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It would be good place to work if you love driving

Driver (Current Employee) - Metro Vancouver, BC - 1 January 2022

Very good job if love driving. It pay decent wages and get raise pretty fast compare to other companies that i have worked before and their pension and benefits are really good compare to other employer….even better than federal agency

Pros

Flexible schedule and pay

Cons

At the beginning, you have to some split shift until you get the seniority to straight shift

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Decent job, long hours as a junior driver.

Transit Operator (Current Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 1 January 2022

Splits shifts aren't the greatest. The job itself is easy, but traffic and some passengers can be difficult. All in all a good job with solid benefits and pension.

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Good pay but stressful

Transit Operator (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 28 December 2021

Even if you are an excellent employee, computer algorithms override all else. You are just a number to them. Don't stand out and stay under the radar.

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Stressful job but good pay.

Transit Operator (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 28 December 2021

Stressful and difficult to deal with management. Used to be a good employer and one of the top 50 within BC. They have now fallen far from that level.

Pros

Good pay and benefits

Cons

Working with public, you are the enemy in the companies eyes.

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Toxic environment and extremely stressful

Conventional Transit Operator (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 21 November 2021

Takes 2 yrs to get to full wage. Crazy!! In the mean time you will get the absolute worst routes in the system, the 3,8, 20 and so on. So yeah, the Hastings runs. Recovey time is almost criminal on alot of the routes, I'm talking 5-6 minutes. Management, depending on the depot you work out of, is hit and miss. Some good, others sticklers about every petty thing. Union reps are elected on popularity votes and certain demographic. The pay is good after 2 yrs, benefits decent, pension ok. Overall, the pay and benefits don't outweigh the work culture, safety and your mental and physical well-being, unless you're very relaxed and zen all the time.