u/Affectionate_Union58

​I was reviewing my new route time schedules for the upcoming school year, and I’m honestly mind-boggled by what the software came up with.

​A few highlights from my "Trip Details":

​0-minute layovers: Scheduled drop-off at the High School at 7:10 AM, with departure for the next route set for 7:12 AM. That’s supposed to include unloading ~30 high schoolers, waiting for the bus loop traffic to clear, and doing a post-trip child check... in 120 seconds.

​Teleportation between stops: Multiple stops scheduled in the exact same minute through residential neighborhoods with speed humps.

​PM Dismissal fantasy: The PM route has me departing the school loop at 3:25 PM—the exact minute we’re barely allowed to roll up to the loading zone from the layover lot, long before any elementary kids have actually boarded.

​Up until now, I always assumed the driver shortage was primarily driven by low pay, split shifts, and difficult student behavior. But seeing how management/software expects us to bent space-time just to stick to an unworkable schedule—or artificially shrink route hours—makes the whole thing much clearer. It just shows a complete disconnect from what actually happens behind the wheel of a 40-foot bus.

​Are your companies using the same fantasy-land routing software, or does your dispatch actually tweak these times to match real-world driving conditions?

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out to get some perspective on a professional concern regarding my upcoming DOT physical.

Last year, I barely passed the hearing portion of the exam. Since then, I’ve spent several months driving a school bus route where the noise levels from the students regularly hit peaks of 114 dB.

I’ve been in a difficult position: while I am required to wear my hearing aids, the ambient noise in the bus is so extreme that the devices amplify everything to a point where it becomes physically painful. This distraction and discomfort actually made me feel less safe while driving. To cope, I’ve (admittedly, against regulations) been taking the hearing aids out during those routes to manage the sensory overload and maintain my focus on the road.

I’m now feeling anxious about my upcoming medical exam and have a few questions:

1. Could this prolonged exposure to 114 dB noise levels have caused a measurable decline in my hearing over the past year, even if I haven't noticed a significant drop in my day-to-day hearing?
2. Has anyone here dealt with the combination of wearing hearing aids in a high-noise environment and the resulting DOT medical requirements?
3. Is there a risk that my hearing test results could be artificially lower due to "noise fatigue" if I’ve been exposed to that environment shortly before the exam?

I’m trying to figure out the best way to handle this. Should I be visiting an audiologist independently to establish a "baseline" hearing test away from the environment of the bus before I go in for my official DOT physical?

Any advice or experiences you could share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some professional advice regarding a persistent, frustrating issue with my vision layout. First, a bit of backstory:

I’ve needed glasses since childhood. My right eye has always been nearsighted, while my left eye has strabismus (it turns inward). As a kid, I never wore my glasses because they gave me severe headaches. Back then, my ophthalmologist told me that was "impossible." It wasn't until I was 17 that an optician finally believed me. As a result, I started wearing contact lenses in 1992 (actually, just a single lens for my right eye).

As I’ve gotten older, my vision has naturally changed. Around 2023, I went back to the optician. The result: my right eye had dropped from my original -4.25 to -5.00 on the right, and my left eye now required -1.00 on the left.

In 2025, I needed an eye exam for my commercial driver's license. The new results were -5.50 on the right and -1.50 on the left. With these stronger prescriptions, reading small print (like on food packaging) became incredibly straining and almost impossible. My old "cheat"—which was intentionally wearing weaker distance contacts to help with reading—is barely working anymore due to advancing presbyopia. A solution for reading is now inevitable.

To address this, my optician prescribed me a pair of reading glasses to wear over my distance contact lenses. Unfortunately, I absolutely cannot get used to them. They cause the exact same issue that made me refuse glasses as a child: I get bad headaches and a severe "swimming" or motion-sick feeling.

Because of my strabismus, my left eye doesn’t look through the optical center of the lens, but rather through the inner peripheral zone, which causes massive distortion. Normally, my brain compensates for the misalignment by simply suppressing/ignoring the image from my left eye. But with the reading glasses on, that fails. Now, the brain has to deal with both a misaligned angle and a distorted image. The result: if I wear the reading glasses and move my head even slightly, I feel completely drunk/dizzy within seconds.

If I close my left eye, the right eye sees perfectly sharp and stable through its lens. But with both eyes open, it's pure visual chaos.

My questions for the experts here: Are there any realistic ways to compensate for this so I can see reasonably well at both distance and near without the dizziness?

I did some research online, and multifocal contact lenses came up as a suggestion. However, I’m highly skeptical about them because I already struggle significantly with glare and halos from oncoming headlights when driving at night.

Would multifocal lenses make the night glare worse? Or are there specific lens designs for reading glasses (like very small frames or specialized digital/freeform surfacing) that could eliminate the peripheral distortion for my misaligned left eye?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some professional advice regarding a persistent, frustrating issue with my vision layout. First, a bit of backstory:

I’ve needed glasses since childhood. My right eye has always been nearsighted, while my left eye has strabismus (it turns inward). As a kid, I never wore my glasses because they gave me severe headaches. Back then, my ophthalmologist told me that was "impossible." It wasn't until I was 17 that an optician finally believed me. As a result, I started wearing contact lenses in 1992 (actually, just a single lens for my right eye).

As I’ve gotten older, my vision has naturally changed. Around 2023, I went back to the optician. The result: my right eye had dropped from my original -4.25 to -5.00 on the right, and my left eye now required -1.00 on the left.

In 2025, I needed an eye exam for my commercial driver's license. The new results were -5.50 on the right and -1.50 on the left. With these stronger prescriptions, reading small print (like on food packaging) became incredibly straining and almost impossible. My old "cheat"—which was intentionally wearing weaker distance contacts to help with reading—is barely working anymore due to advancing presbyopia. A solution for reading is now inevitable.

To address this, my optician prescribed me a pair of reading glasses to wear over my distance contact lenses. Unfortunately, I absolutely cannot get used to them. They cause the exact same issue that made me refuse glasses as a child: I get bad headaches and a severe "swimming" or motion-sick feeling.

Because of my strabismus, my left eye doesn’t look through the optical center of the lens, but rather through the inner peripheral zone, which causes massive distortion. Normally, my brain compensates for the misalignment by simply suppressing/ignoring the image from my left eye. But with the reading glasses on, that fails. Now, the brain has to deal with both a misaligned angle and a distorted image. The result: if I wear the reading glasses and move my head even slightly, I feel completely drunk/dizzy within seconds.

If I close my left eye, the right eye sees perfectly sharp and stable through its lens. But with both eyes open, it's pure visual chaos.

My questions for the experts here: Are there any realistic ways to compensate for this so I can see reasonably well at both distance and near without the dizziness?

I did some research online, and multifocal contact lenses came up as a suggestion. However, I’m highly skeptical about them because I already struggle significantly with glare and halos from oncoming headlights when driving at night.

Would multifocal lenses make the night glare worse? Or are there specific lens designs for reading glasses (like very small frames or specialized digital/freeform surfacing) that could eliminate the peripheral distortion for my misaligned left eye?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice or experiences regarding the switch to multifocal contacts. Here is a bit of background on my eyes:

My left eye has a slight strabismus (lazy eye/squint), and my right eye is highly nearsighted (now at -5.00 D). As a child, I had to wear a patch over one eyeglass lens to "train" the weaker eye. Later on, I hated wearing glasses because they gave me terrible headaches. Back then, my parents and even the optician dismissed it as being all in my head. It wasn’t until I was 17 that an ophthalmologist confirmed that this was a real issue. So, I started wearing a contact lens just for my nearsighted right eye. That was back in 1992.

Now, as I’ve gotten older, presbyopia (age-related farsightedness) has kicked in, and the vision in both eyes has worsened. I went back to the optician, who measured my prescription at -1.00 D for the left and -5.00 D for the right. I received new contact lenses, this time for both eyes. However, this created a new problem: while my distance vision became crystal clear again, reading small print (like on food packaging) became extremely straining. To fix this, I was prescribed reading glasses to wear on top of my contacts.

And that’s where my actual issue begins: Because my left eye still turns inward slightly, I don't look through the center of the eyeglass lens. Instead, I look through the peripheral part, which distorts the image. This triggers an immediate headache as soon as I put the reading glasses on and move my head.

As a temporary workaround, I went back to my old prescription: -4.25 D for the right eye and -0.50 D for the left. While my distance vision is slightly worse now, my near vision (reading distance) is much better. However, with aging progressing, I can tell this isn't a permanent solution.

Since I rarely need reading glasses and usually don't have them on hand when I do, I’d really prefer not to spend a fortune on custom reading glasses that eliminate that peripheral distortion. That's why I am considering multifocal contact lenses.

Could anyone share their experience on how big the adjustment period is when switching from regular single-vision lenses to multifocals?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

Hey everyone,

I’m driving a 2013 Thomas Built Saf-T-Liner C2 and I’ve been dealing with a really frustrating issue since early March. Like most of us, I work a split shift (morning and afternoon runs).

The issue mostly happens during my afternoon run. Right after starting the bus and taking off, the engine revs incredibly high because the automatic transmission refuses to upshift. After driving for about a mile, it usually clears up and acts normal.

However, it’s getting worse. Now it happens dynamically during the route, even after the bus has been driving fine for a while. When accelerating from a stop, it feels like the transmission completely ignores 2nd gear. The bus struggles to get moving, the engine revs like crazy until I hit about 25 mph, and then it feels like it slams straight from 1st into 3rd gear. After that, it drives fine again.

Even stranger is what happens when I'm coasting. As soon as I let off the gas and my speed drops below 30 mph, the engine suddenly screams and the RPMs shoot up to around 2500 RPM. If I were to compare it to a manual transmission car, it feels exactly like someone dumping the clutch while keeping their foot on the gas—the engine just roars, even though I'm not touching the throttle.

The weirdest part is that it’s completely intermittent. It can happen three days in a row, and then nothing for three weeks. It almost never happens during the morning run, mostly in the afternoon (maybe a thermal/heat-related issue?). Also, I'm not alone: just today, I saw a coworker leaving the yard in the exact same C2 model, and her bus was screaming and revving high just like mine.

Another critical detail: I noticed that the transmission temperature gauge seems to be completely "frozen" at around 160°F. It never goes any higher, even when the engine is screaming at 2500 RPM and putting massive stress on the transmission. Could the TCM be stuck in a limp mode due to a faulty TFT (Transmission Fluid Temperature) sensor or a wiring harness issue, causing it to use a default substitute value and mess up the shift points?

I have written this up in my DVIR three times now and even talked to our head mechanic face-to-face. All I got was a "I'll look into it," but nothing has been done—which is unusual for our shop since they usually make us sign off on every little repair.

Has anyone experienced this before? Could this be faulty input/output speed sensors, a sticking solenoid pack, or a TCM issue? Any advice or bullet points I can hand over to my shop to get them moving would be greatly appreciated!

Just to be clear: I am not a mechanic, I am just the driver. After dealing with this for weeks, you honestly start second-guessing yourself and wondering if you suddenly forgot how to drive a bus, or if there is actually a mechanical failure. I definitely don't want to tell our shop how to do their job, but I just want to understand if this is a real technical issue so I can prove I'm not just losing my mind.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out because I’m experiencing a bizarre issue with LycaMobile and wanted to see if anyone else has dealt with this.

I’m on the "33 Unlimited National Plan 2M". A week ago, I renewed my plan. Today, I received a warning that my data volume is almost exhausted (12GB+ allegedly used).

Here is the problem: I only use mobile data during my 30-minute breaks at work. The rest of the time, I’m on my home Wi-Fi. My phone’s internal data tracker shows a total usage of only 4GB since April 10th.

There is an 8GB discrepancy between my phone’s hardware logs and what Lyca claims I’ve used. This issue started exactly when I switched from a physical SIM to an eSIM in March.

I can't help but wonder if this is a systematic issue or "intentional glitch." We already know how these providers operate—like switching from monthly billing to 28-day cycles just to squeeze out a 13th payment per year. It feels like they are "miscalculating" data to force customers into buying expensive top-ups.

Has anyone else noticed their data "disappearing" much faster after switching to a Lyca eSIM? How did you get them to fix the counter? My phone logs don't lie, so I know for a fact I haven't used those 12GB.

Thanks for any advice!