In the bus transit company I work in, we also use smaller cutaway vans. We have one which the headsign outside is constantly blinking, so we named it "Blinky".
During my undergrad years, I rode a city bus to class. I often took route 12, and I noticed that there were roughly four buses that served that route (two Rapid Transit Series and two Gillig Phantoms), and I recall one particular driver who took pride in his job and regularly drove one of the RTSs - he would announce stops before they installed the GPS enabled robotic voice announcer system. One day I was at work (it was a retail job) and he was out shopping in my department, still in his bus driver uniform. I mentioned to him, "I think I ride your bus in the morning" and he responded, "Yes, number 12", and I responded with "Number 515", and I think he was surprised I even knew his bus number. Many years later, when I took the bus less often,I actually rode on his bus (a different bus, but still an RTS) once and he still remembered me. Yes, I'm on the autism spectrum For small general aviation planes, pilots and ATC often refer to them by the last three characters of the tail number, usually using the phonetic alphabet. If you were flying a Cessna with registration N1245DF, the tower might tell you "Cessna Five Delta Foxtrot, I need you to extend your downwind". The "N" indicates that this is a civilian plane registered in the US. Other countries will use different letters. In the UK, for example, "G" is used, e.g. "G-BBDG" was the registration for one of the prototype Concordes (referred to as Delta Golf), Many countries use two letters, such as Japan, that prefixes all tail numbers with JA
Fun fact to add to this (I'm a private pilot myself), pilots can only shorten the tail number to the last 3 digits/letters if ATC does it first. Until ATC does it, we have to use the full tail number!
@motorcoach world your question regarding the CTA bus number sign in the front windshield IS indeed the run number. The 1st letter or number denotes which of the CTA garages the run originates from as well as the 3-digit run identifier. Also in the center of the windshield is a small white sticker that shows the same garage number/letter as the run (N = North Park, F = Forrest Glen, K = Kedzie, 6 = Chicago avenue, 7 = 74th street. So run F611 is run 611 out of the Forest Glen Garage, 6944 is run 944 out of Chicago Avenue). Also CTA trains display a 3 digit run number that identifies both the route AND the direction (ie: 9xx usually is a Northbound Red Line and 8xx is a Southbound, 0xx is a Westbound Green Line and 1xx is an Eastbound)
The buses my company usesd were 5 diget ... the first 2 numbers were the passenger seat count for the vehicle type . Made it easy to determine ada ,coaches, gretches and vans.
In Sacramento..the lower display is our “block” or run/schedule number for that particular bus and operator! I think I’ll make a video explaining it a little more thanks to this video giving me the idea! 😎
@@MotorcoachWorld the old bus company that used to serve my school district had a couple coach buses with specific names. They had a white coach they called the white beast, mainly because it broke down too often, and a black coach that ran really well they called The Black Beauty. These motorcoaches were owned by our former district owned company Marshfield Bus Service. Unfortunately, they ended their contract with district in 2020 and Wisconsin's second largest bus line service Kobussen Ltd. took over.
@@MotorcoachWorld For SamTrans, each driver has a sequentially issued ID number always embroidered on their uniform sleeves, and duplicated on the interior scrolling info sign. AND they have a different number shown in the bottom left corner of the front window. I asked a supervisor/trainer on a bus what it was, and she said it was yet another driver ID number that followed them across routes. Couldn’t get any more details than that. Trivia: most drivers have IDs up above 1000 now, latest are above 1700. About 3 years ago though, I had a driver with “49” on his sleeve! And last week I saw one with “1234”! (He hates the number and was so mad about me asking that he half-jokingly said he was going to have to start throwing people off the bus!)
@Motorcoach World Growing up my dad worked for Peter Pan Bus Lines. He told me when the buses were lined up in order by number, each bus had a word or phrase an it told the story of Peter Pan. The company operates out of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Im from the UK and I work for a large bus company called Stagecoach which employs around 24,000 people and has around 8300 vehicles. So when you start every employee is given a number unique to you so not to confuse you with anybody else with the same name. This is mainly for payroll purposes. You are given a "ERG" card so you can log on your ticket machine, these too have an unique identifier and a 4 digit pint number which you use to log on to your ticket machine so you can collect fares and the office know how much revenue you have taken on your duty. Our Duties have also have numbers assigned to them. 1* - Split duty, 4** - long duty around (10hrs), 5** - standard duty (7 to 9 hours) & 6** new driver rota. Our buses also have unique 5 digit national fleet number assigned to them to help quick identification when fueling and their place in the whole national fleet. Double Deckers start with the number 1 Single Deckers start with the number 2 (around 40 to 50 seats) Midi Buses starts with the number 3 (around 30 to 40 seats) Mini Buses starts with the number 4 (around 20 to 30 seats) Coaches start with the number 5 Electric single decks and New Routemaster start with the number 6 Electric midi buses start with the number 7 Electric double deckers start with the number 8 Ancillary vehicles starts with the number 9
Love the video James! One small correction, the "N number" on the tail of the plane is actually the country code for aircraft registration, we called it the "tail number". For example N is for planes registered in the US, F for France, HL for South Korea and so on.
The only such letter that was never assigned, that I know of, is D. As Germany wasn't allowed aviation at the time the system was set up they were not assign a letter. But no country was allocated D and do when Germany was allowed civil aviation they assumed the letter D.
Back when I worked for Greyhound Canada, some employees had nicknames for some of our buses. 1234 we called The Sesame Street bus, 1224 was the Christmas Eve bus and 1225 was The Christmas Bus.
First time I’m watching one of your videos. As a big Trekkie, cudos on all the Star Trek clips!! In my country (The Netherlands), transit busses have an “omloopnummer” (sort of ride number) which is a combination of the line number and a unique identifier for that particular ride.
Great video James. As per the numbers in the lower right windshield, I asked a Washington DC Metro driver about those a few years back when I was regularly commuting. He told me that on their system, the number represents your "block number" and that supervisors use that "block number" to check the buses to see if they are in the right place at the right time. He said supervisors do not go by schedules or bus number but by "block number" -- where a supervisor can look at an instantly determine if a bus is in the right place at the right time and on schedule or out of sequence.
On charters with multiple buses it's easier for passengers returning to the bus to remember "princess annabella" (for example) rather than some number.
10:46.. out Transit busses don't have that extra display... but we DO have a Operator #, we use it to log into fare box and Clever devices.. Looks more like one of our 'Block' Numbers.. The numbers on our city busses tell us what type they are... 81XX are Artic busses for example... other numbers would be associated with Gillig or New flyer busses/ and the model
11:05 I think the use of that sign varies depending on the transit agency. For my local agency, it shows the run number, which is used to designate the combination of specific trips and routes that bus is doing that day
Back when I drove school bus, my district numbered all the district vehicles with a letter for division that 'owned' the vehicle, such as Plant, Transportation, Admin. Then whatever number, which was usually just sequential of when they acquired the vehicle. So our busses were T??? due to the size of the fleet. The letter was important in how they tracked fuel usage. The school routes were also 3 digits and did not align with the bus number. Usually route numbers were on 6"x8" metal signs that were placed in holders on the side and front of the bus (sides of the door basically). That was so that you could swap in a different bus either due to maintenance or a driver being out and a substitute having their own preferred bus.
Hey, James--it's real simple. The number in the sign on the lower pax side windshield panel is commonly known as the block number and it refers to what the vehicle is assigned to. It's a combination of what different routes that vehicle performs in the course of its day through multiple enroute reliefs. Not to be confused with the run number which corresponds with what the driver was doing in the course of their day which can include enroute reliefs or multiple pullouts/pullins/splits, etc. I'm a veteran of Santa Clara County CA VTA (driver/dispatcher/instructor). That's how it works. Real simple. Thanks for your great posts!
Hey there. This is my first time commenting on your channel. First off love you channel ! I have been a city transit operator in Portland Oregon for 30 years. I recommend your Chanel to all my friends. I see it has been answered about the numbers in the passenger side window. Just to explain TriMets numbers. That’s our block number as well. It’s what identifies us on the road. I’m not sure how they pick their vehicle numbers. I just appreciate them not using the vin number when assigning the bus. Keep up the great work ! Stay safe and keep the dirty side down.
Hey E Lewis. Thanks for the comment. Appreciate your support also. Means a lot. Stay safe out there. I have a lot of respect for all of the transit operators out there.
You know James I was going south on I-55 last week and saw one of your busses and decided to look over, and I think it was you! Idk I just thought it was weird this was recommended to me after that
In sydney ex government buses have a holder on the dash that has a letter followed by 3 numbers indicating the depo and shift number for example: W184 that means the bus is from Waverley depo and is on shift 184
Greyhound used to number theirs as 4 digits with the first 2 denoting which division "owned" the coach. For instance 4915 may have been from Eastern, 5500 from Southern, 3812 from Central, and 6515 from Western. On longer distance runs where the buses operated through multiple divisions they were considered "on loan" while operating through that division.
In my fire departement, we (obviously) refer to the rigs with their "function" - or radio call sign. So there might be "Engine 14", "Engine 2", "Tower 32" or "Medic 12" and so on... However, for fleet services this isn't good enough. Because whenever they need to service a rig, they give a replacement rig to that station. So let's say "Engine 14" has to undergo maintenance and is taken to the shop, then another engine is placed at the station and performs as "Engine 14". To differentiate which rig is where and doing what duty, fleet services therefore refers to all FD rigs by their (shortened) license plate numbers. In my country all license plates start with the area code, then one to three letters and then a string of numbers - but because the issuing agency is the municipality, they just issue all fire apparatus within their area code the letters FD. So inside the fire departement you can always refer to "the 262" and it will be a fleet-wide unique vehicle. Example of a fleet services sentence: "The 262 was damaged in the wildland interface operation yesterday, so we placed the 255 at Station 14."
where I live in Halifax Canada, the small box number in the window is used as run number, then there is route number in the larger sign, operator number is usually displayed in the bus, however the 3 or 4 numbers that the busses have on them are series number, ie. 1000 series busses are non articulated, 500 series are the rural route busses, 600 series (now retired) are brt or high speed busses, 700 series are articulated, etc...
Here in Corpus Christi TX the city buses have 10 or 9 as the first digit(s) they represent length 10 = 40 foot and 9 =35 then followed by bus number, we didn’t have the lower display but our drivers did have plates with out operator number on it displayed inside bus
Hey James! 👋🏾 it's Dane from Checker Elite Inc/Titan Coach i love the videos.... I number my buses according to the length and order that I purchase them 😁 for example we all know that Motorcoaches are usually 45 feet long so I number them 4501, 4502 etc etc
Hi in Richmond, VA. on Our buses in the City of Richmond. For Our bus company they use that little box display for what they call a Block number. Which is the order in line of the Route that a driver is on. Each Route could have anywhere from 4 to 9 buses on a particular route assignment. I'm not a driver, but a frequent rider of the local public transit service.
Back when I was in school, the school buses were known by both bus number (eg 450) and an animal (eg. Octopus). The number was to show what year the bus was made and what order in the assembly line was (2004, #50). The animal was random and to help the younger kids know what bus to get on. As us students got older, we learned to associate the bus' number with it's route rather than the animal.
The bus number matters on field trips, recreation department trips, etc. When a group charters a bus to a place like the Milwaukee County Zoo, a Brewers game at American Family Field or a theme park, there are a lot of buses parked in the same area. Thus, the group needs to know the name of the bus company and the bus number. I've been on trips such as these where the driver said the bus company had more than one bus going to the Brewers game that day.
In my state, it used to be very common for school buses to be numbered with a two digit year, a hyphen, and one to three digit sequential fleet number. Some schools went further and had a separate route number displayed on the bus (with a magnet or seven segment display), so substitute vehicles could be used but display just one route number, reducing the change communication necessary. For motorcoaches, I have seen it many times where the owner derived their fleet number from the last three or four if the VIN. That method makes a lot of sense to help sinplify cross referencing.
that number in the lower front window of a city bus, is what Calgary Transit called a "key number" - so it would be Route 2 Key number 14 since there are several buses running on Route 2
One of these days I'd like too see a video going over motor coach crash safety features and test's. I already know you covered emergency exits but I don't think you've covered this yet. Anyway this was a quality video as always :)
I like your explanation of the numbers. As a former Fixed Route, Line drive, and OTR Charter driver I can help explain some of these numbers. On metro busses here in Austin, the number in the lower windshield is the Block Number. It denotes what section of the route it starts. Usually it was Block 1, 2, 3, 4. If it was a peak bus morning was 030, midday was 060, and evening was 090. As for Trailways busses, they were assigned numbers based on geographic location and route destinations. Now they usually utilize a 3XX number sequence for thier busses. One of the most unique numbering system I have seen was with my time at Roadrunner Charters. The numbers are 5-6 digits and start with PAX seats, then model year, then sequence number of purchase. So 562318 would be a 56 pax 2023 and 18th in the fleet for that year.
For CTA, the lower display is the run number! First character (number or letter) is garage base and three digits following is the run number. Kedzie garage runs, for example, are Kxxx and Chicago garage is 5xxx
That display on the bottom of the windscreen is the unique number of that bus run on that specific day in most of the cases. This is also the number sent by the tracking system to the datacenter for real time displays and to immediately know in case of an accident or technical problem which bus it is on that given day. That "run number" also is the index for the integrated computer displaying when to be at which bus stop and to show to the driver how far he or she is late - or too much ahead of schedule due to lesser traffic than anticipated. See it as agency internal route number(s) for that particular bus.
We also have a "radio number", assigned by the public transport, where the first two digits identify the company operating the bus. You use it for the sel-call on the radio, and it is painted on the bus.
Lower number is the run number here in New York city. Enjoyed the video. Keep them coming. Bye for now from New Jersey. I'm new to your channel. Love the channel. I was a Motor coach driver for 33 years. Toured all over the U.S. and Canada. Boy do I miss the days. I worked for Academy Tours here in New Jersey. Keep your videos come. You do a good job. Be safe out there. 🇺🇸👍👍👍
Hi James ! To answer your question regarding line run box, i can't say for all transit agencies but in Montréal, it is referred at as Route sign. it is used by supervisor to see what assignment the driver is doing, it's also used by relief drivers to know which bus to switch driver with ( for example, a driver waits for the Line 90, route 01 ) On the subject of bus number, my transit agency use a simple 4 digit systems, the first 2 numbers is the year of the bus, the last 2 indicating it's arrival in the fleet (for example , 2205 is the 5th bus received for 2022 order) one of the company i used to work for many years back now runs a 6 digit fleet number, the 1st being the category of bus, the 2nd to 4th fleet number and the last 2 being the year. (For example, 303314 is a 2014 transit bus while 510019 being a 2019 minibus.) Also, if you ever would like to discuss this, i'm most curious about the different types of work a charter bus company operates (line runs, employee shuttles, emergencies, events, etc.). Great video, as always !
Another great video, James! I'm more familiar with numbering peculiarities in my native UK, e.g. buses in London carry [or used to] a small metal bracket, carrying metal plates of 2 letters (designating which garage the bus was assigned to) and 2-3 digits (its running number within that garage) - a vehicle might operate several numbered routes during a given day, but always following one 'diagram' for that vehicle and crew. The running number identified which diagram it was assigned to. The original Routemaster was specifically designed for heavy mtce/overhaul at LT's Aldenham works - a huge plant that overhauled dozens of buses weekly, employing several thousand staff. By arrangement with the authorities, as soon as a bus entered for overhaul, its body and chassis were separated and entered separate shops, unlikely to ever regain that same pairing of specific body and chassis. The license plates and registration were parted from the bus - and then applied to whichever freshly overhauled bus was next to leave the works - sometimes the same day! A remarkable setup which died off with the Routemasters - more modern buses being less suited to such modular maintenance. Closing caveat - this is to best of my recollection as an enthusiast; If anyone has better information, feel free to correct me! Finally... looking forward to the next instalment of Motorcoach World. Save driving!
For many transit systems the number in the lower windshield is a Run Number (Different agencies may use another name). Purpose is to identify which bus in the Route/Line that the bus is on. If the bus company was a team sport, The Destination sign identifying the Route/Line would be the team and the Run number would be your Jersey number identifying who you are on the team.
Here in Corpus Christi Tx CCISD school buses have 4 digit, they start with 4, 5, and 7 , regular Ed buses are 4 and 5 and special Ed ones are 7 now we do have activity buses that coaches drive and they start with 6
One thing I learned from my younger days as a mail carrier: USPS vehicles have a year indicator on their fleet numbers, but it's only one digit. The first digit of the number is the last digit of the build year. So, if you know anything about cars (and if you know that the ubiquitous mail truck, the Grumman LLV, was only built between 1987 and 1994), you can instantly tell the build year of any USPS vehicle. So if you see an LLV with the number 9202911, you will know that it was built in 1989. Also, love the channel. Bus stuff is cool, but the Star Trek references are cooler. Needs more DS9 and Lower Decks, though 😁
@@MotorcoachWorld I could tell you was tired and that's why I didn't want to keep you to long cause you had stuff to do and was tired but I'm hoping if I pass through the area I'll definitely take you up on that offer and stay a few days or a couple weeks
There run numbers it’s for dispatch and customer service to know which vehicle is on a specific route. In most cases you might have multiple buses running the same route so the run number helps identify which number is on the route. For example you might have 1 through 18 and so on. Hope that helps. Current bus operator for MV Transportation Austin Texas.
The company I work for now is into all aspects of bus transportation, we have school buses, motorcoaches and we run a transit under contract for the city on 2 Hawaiian islands, most of our vehicles have letters in front of them, RC is Robert's Coach, RV is Robert's Van, SB is of course School Bus, and the contract on Maui you will see the bus number MB in front for Maui Bus. The fleet has to be separated like that because we are State wide and if you have 200 series numbers you could use the series over for the vans as well as bus and school bus. Example SB 201 you could also use it for MC 201 and RV 201. Just saying.
Hi James , About 5 years ago I was in London , England. We were walking by some parked Greyhound buses I noticed that they had been named. The one I remembered was named after the Michael Jackson song Called Billie Jean. But I noticed back here in the states that Greyhound does not name their buses. Thanks for the great videos I haven't missed any of them
First Student school bus company uses the last 8 of the vin, i.e KCKW2006 and so on. My district, however uses 2 digits right now, and we go up every year, like our newest buses are 68, 69 and 70, but this year we're getting 71, 72 and 73.
Occasionally Greyhound buses will have letters in front of the unit number like "GA86610". If you see a bus like this it means it's owned by the state that's abbreviated (GA being Georgia for example). It also means those buses are only supposed to be operated in the surrounding area but that doesn't always happen
I’m a truck driver and the company I work for they do custom jobs. Some of the trucks have names on them in addition to the truck number like one guy over here has Red Rooster above the windshield and the bumper
I used to drive for Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) and our fleet was numbered sequentially from 1901 with the 500 series bring 30 foot, 600 being 35 foot, 700 being special trolley replica, and 800 being BRT units. Unit 1901 has his own name of "His Eminence" as in "I'm driving His Eminence 1901". The story goes that the predecessor to TANK, Greenline, had its last bus as 1900 but TANK skipped 1901. The unit that is 1901 now is an old GMC New Look that served on the Greenline fleet but had been sold many years ago, repurchased and restored. There was also 1225 that served as our Santa special.
I’ve worked for 2 line run carriers. Bus numbers are generally 5 digits and 2 of those indicate the model year of the vehicle. Beyond that there are internal categories denoted by some of the other digits, including but not limited to where they go or what sub group they’re in within the fleet. A sharp eyed person can tell quite a bit from the vehicle number, if they know the code.
In Vancouver BC, the number in the corner is called a block number, it's used for each route and helps the drivers, mechanics, supervisors and planners to identify the unit and shows what time the coach needs to be at stop Vancouver doesn't use digital blocks, it is changed manually by the driver
NYCT the 3 digit number is the run number ..example 301 would be that bus route scheduled time for that run . And will get changed if drivers runs more the one route. It also for transient to identify that bus . So when the call you the will say 142 on the 1 you know that message is for you .
I remember when I was a teenager, one of our (few) local busses had the same fleet number as the road number for most of its route. I believe it was a coincidence, because the road number was not on road signs, but mostly used by the road maintenance agency. I remember working at a company with less than a handful of cars in their fleet. They mostly used the license plate as a fleet number, mostly for admins, because the handle external documents using license plate numbers. As well as color and/or brand/model, mostly drivers/others, because there was no need for further identification.
I believe you need to assign a CMV power unit number for various paperwork, including eLog and paper logs. It's a violation if the driver fails to record or verify the power unit number on a ELD. The eLog regulation says any alphanumeric combination from 1-10 characters (49 CFR 395 Subpart B Appendix A). Paper log requirements are in 49 CFR 395.8(f)(5).
The Milwaukee County Zoological society used to run day’s trips to Chicago. Often times more than 5 buses. Rather than advising everyone to refer to the fleet number, each bus was assigned either a cartoon animal or color. I guess they thought we were kindergarten dropouts in that they couldn’t use numbers or letters or just have us remember the fleet numbers. Well done as always James.
Hey James, On City Transit Buses, the lower/smaller lit up box sitting inside the lower passenger side of the windshield with either numbers or letter/ number sequence is what is called a “BLOCK NUMBER” a block number is used because on every City Transit Route there are many many Buses running that same route maybe 10, or 15, or 20, or even 30 minutes or an hour apart from each other. So that “BLOCK NUMBER” is used only by the City Transit Company and the Bus Operators to know what time slots and at what times that particular Bus Number will be Arriving and Departing from each Bus Stop on that particular Route Number on that day. Hope that helps! (So in short it is used only by the Transit Company and Bus Operator to help them keep them know where that Bus fits into the line of Buses Running on that Route.)
During my school years, my bus company had an interesting way of numbering their units. They had three digit numbers across the bus for the fleet number, but they also had a “full” five digit number which displays the year on the hood, the first two digits displaying the year, last three for the bus itself. They also had a three digit number on the side and back windows to display the route that bus ran. They got rid of that hood number for all their newer buses nowadays for whatever reason.
In my school district buses and drivers run multiple routes both morning and afternoon. They use a cardboard sign displaying ALL the routes. Kids know their route (or they should) so they look for that particular bus. Also if the regular assigned bus is OOS, they just yank the cardboard sign out and tape it to the window of the replacement bus.
Just to pick up on something you said regarding numbers on buses & people realising that the number related to the year of manufacture; here, in Ireland, we simplified our registration system for ALL vehicles, back in 1987 & slightly updated the format from January, 2013 & there's NO disguising the year of the vehicle; eg. 131-L-1234, denotes that the vehicle was manufactured during 2013 (13) & the 1, following the "13," shows that the vehicle was manufactured within the first 6 months of the year (132, being a 2013 vehicle, manufactured during the 2nd half of the year. The letter, eg."L," shows the county & the actual number, eg. 1234, shows that, that particular vehicle was the 1,234th vehicle registered in the county. It doesn't matter whether the vehicle is privately owned or is part of a business fleet, or an emergency vehicle; all vehicles are registered in sequence, with no special numbers reserved for emergency vehicles. The ONLY EXCEPTION made, is for the Mayor of each county; eg. the Mayor of Limerick will ALWAYS have the FIRST registration, each year; eg. this year, 221-L-1.
Hey Ger. Very interesting. Thanks for describing how things work in your part of the world. I've always wanted to visit Ireland. It's on my bucket list
Apologies for the long-winded explanation of our vehicle registration system, but I thought, seeing as your vlog was about numbers & other registration markings on buses, that you MIGHT be interested in how they work, here in Ireland... Yeah; you should come over, but if/when you do, make sure to pack rain wear because, even during the Summer, dry, sunny weather is NOT GUARANTEED!!! 👍😄
Thank you for this video!! I was always wondering where the numbers came from. Something cool I noticed recently is that the numbers are re-used after a bus is retired. I recently saw that bus 238 and 270 this year have the same numbers as the older D models used last year!
For our company, the number on the bottom right corner of the windshield is the "CAR" number. For exemple, Car 894 will do run 59, 65 and 371 (city bus line with a time of start and arrival)
I live in Salzburg, Austria and their trolley busses have numbers on them, too. They're 200s, 300s and 400s - every one of them a different brand of bus (Van Hool, Solaris and Hess) - they are on different series, the latest ones (Hess trolleybusses - 400s) are built from 2019 to now. Every new bus gets the following number like a series is 401-422, the next series 423-449 and the next 450-467, you get it... So the driver gets the info - Line 5, bus 421 instead of the license plate he has to look for...
Sent the video to friends as soon as I saw you had Star Trek clips. 😊😊 Edit to add: BAHAHAHAHA Passengers will never look at the destination board sign. (at least in my experience with municipal transit.)
The number displayed in the lower right windshield displays what work the bus is assigned to cover in its work day. Busses are able to work shifts that are longer than the shift that a driver can legally work. This number helps drivers identify the correct bus that they need to take over from another driver when their shift ends. This dash number is also used by supervisors and managers to identify what work that that bus is assigned to cover on any particular day.
What some of the Operators here in NSW Australia do, They assign fleet numbers to match the number plates. So if the bus has the Registration / Number plates of say “MO5561” it’s fleet number will be 5561, If it’s say “MO8131” it’s fleet number will be 8131. That way the fleet number matches the registration details, So any maintenance work they can just go ok 5561 needs 2 new front steer tyres. Then it’s just a matter of either looking at the fleet number or the number plate and going yeap thats 5561 done. As here in NSW Australia We have 3 types of Registration / Number plates for buses / Coaches being “ST” With 4 numbers which is “State Trsnsit” (Government owned and operated services which have sadly disappeared due to privatisation), “MO” with 4 numbers being “Motor Omnibus” either as MO1234 or 1234MO Format which are the most common on Route Buses and Coaches. Then the other type is “TV” with 3 or 4 numbers or 3 numbers and a letter, Being “Tourist Vehicle” which are common in the Charter sector and are in the TV123 TV1234 or TV123A format. Quite often once a bus hits 25 years old which is the max age for Route buses to be used in NSW, If the bus is in good nick Some operators will swap them from “MO” to “TV” plates and run them for another 5 years. Exclusively on say rail replacement, School Charters / Morning and afternoon runs etc where it’s fine to run a “High floor” bus so they can keep the wheel chair accessible low floor buses on Regular Route Service. As We also don’t have Dedicated School Buses, It’s the norm for a regular Route bus to do a School run. Finish the school run and change the Destination board from “School bus S123” to it’s Route and be on its merry way, That way the buses are run all day everyday and they are not sitting for weeks on end during school holidays. Plus Our Route Buses and coaches are built to a high safety standard, As after the Clybucca Bus disaster in December 1989 where 35 people were killed and 41 injured when 2 buses slammed into each other head on at 100kph. Major changes were made inclusive of the highway duplication from Sydney to the NSW / QLD border which is 800km or so worth, Which they are still working in today with only I think Coffs Harbour bypass to do now.
School bus driver here. My County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland has Board of Ed buses and also private contractor buses. Our numbering system is single digit, double digit, and triple digit starting with 1 are regular Ed buses. 3 digit starting with 2 are paid spares, meaning you get paid, by the Board, to have a spare bus ready to be used if a driver needs a spare bus. 3 digits starting with 4 are unpaid spares. 3 digits starting with 5 are Special Ed buses.
Hong Kong's Kowloon Motor Bus number their bus by letters (represent model) and number (by sequence joining the fleet). they also label their maintenance center with circled letter code where the bus do their maintaining on the windscreen. The other bus companies there just use 3 or 4 digit code. Some bus fans remember the codes with the license plate numbere and know which route the bus usually runs
Hey James. Very interesting story about Peoria and it’s numbering . Another good video. Talking about stuff animals you should do a collage about drivers and their pet stuff animals who ride with them. I got two a cat called Trixie and Nessie The Loch Ness Monster I got while visiting the lake of the famed monster
The four-digit thing with the year seems to be very common all over the world. In Germany it used to be (maybe still is?) a recommendation by the VDV, the transit operators association, to do it like that. But I'm sure they weren't the first to come up with it (and many German transit operators use different systems anyway).
We have assigned numbers in consecutive order... When I started in 2000, the lowest number was bus 158 and newest was 309... Around 2005, we started to rearrange seating from a 56 seat coach to 48 seats... We then denoted 56 pax buses with a 4th digit of 1... Thus bus numbers became like 3491 instead of just 349... Our newest buses are up to 4071, so I have seen over 100 buses over my 23 years ... The most interesting thing about our Indian Trails buses is that every motorcoach has a real life historical Indian Chief name from Michigan on them... We have buses with names like Chief Pontiac, Chief Wasso, and Chief Ortony... The names get rotated as we trade in and buy new ones... Also, all our line run buses run consecutive numbers and start with MI- ... So we have buses like MI- 141 to MI - 163... The MI is because there are purchased by State of Michigan and leased to us
I personally loved the idea that u name them, "Chiefs!" I don’t know if these guys were chiefs or not. "Blue Jacket" (war chief) "Red Cloud" and "Crazy Horse". Thanks for ur time.
During my school days, we had three-digit bus numbers, but now I notice that they have four digits. This change was probably necessary because Lee County in FL is so large. Interestingly, all the handicap buses during my high school years (1997 and before) had numbers starting with 1 or 2. Presently, I use the city bus, and the first buses in Lee County were in the 200 series, followed by the 300 series. Now, we have the 400 series, which goes up to 459. Additionally, there are hybrid buses in the 500 series, but the city is not satisfied with them, so they have reverted to the 400 series. The higher 400s are the newer buses, and the newest ones are from bus 431 upwards. The reason for the numbering system is that the bus routes end with a zero, such as 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 240, 410, 490, 515, 590, and LinC - Route 600.
Not a driver but a once long time passenger who had chats with drivers and mechanics. PSTA in Pinellas county, Florida uses a 4 or 5 digit fleet number (with some exceptions). It changed a few times but currently, some buses are 2XXX where the first two digits denote the model year of the bus omitting the intervening double zero. So a bus from 2006 could be 2611. For 2010 and up, they switched to a 5 digit number. So a bus from 2017 might be 17101. Their buses with trolley body kits had 3 digit numbers up until 2009 where the first digit was the last digit of the model year like a 2008 one might be 821. The new trolley buses don’t seem to have fleet numbers on the outside but I haven’t seen one up close. The plate in the bottom of the windshield seems to just indicate the route numbers that vehicle is assigned to. Most of the time that’s just one route so on a route 4 bus it’ll just say “4.” But some shorter routes get run back to back so a bus might have a sign there that says “715” indicating that at some point in a shift that vehicle and driver operate both route 7 and 15 switching to the other route at a terminus (back in the day routes 7 and 15 shared a terminus in downtown St. Petersburg but that terminal is long gone now). Pinellas county schools packs a lot of info into their 5 digit fleet numbers. The first digit is a body type. Most are “2” denoting a standard school bus with a truck nose. “1” is a full length school bus with with a wheelchair lift. Those two I am 100% sure of. Less sure about these: “5” I think we’re short body buses, “4” were transit style buses, and I think “3” was for short buses with wheelchair lifts. I haven’t seen anything other than 2s and 1s on the road in a long time. The second and third digits are the model year, and the last I think are just sequential. So 21907 is a standard body 2019 model and the 7th of those purchased.
In my operator, they had 59, 60, 61, 62 and beyond until the 05s, when it changed to 435, 436... all the way to 850 (buses to 578, and 621, 823 and 824 have been sold to other operators or to the scrap god). They are consecutively numbered upon their arrival at the operator's hands.
James in Philadelphia that number in the lower right hand side of the window is your block number so the supervisor can see if your late or early. I’m a train operator so our block numbers is also our run numbers. Great video. Trailways buses had 5 numbers the first 2 numbers was the division the 3 was the series of the bus and the last 2 was the number of how many was brought!
Very interesting to watch and learn! Thank you! The last airline I worked for had recently redone its internal fleet numbers. We were fortunate that our N-numbers (N being the header assigned to the United States) all followed a sequence. Some airlines end up with an odd one because let's say a private pilot already took one out of their block. Further, each plane has to be registered with each country it will fly to... not a separate tail number, but basically an operating license of sorts - more about paying them paperwork fees and/or taxes. We redid our fleet numbers from just being the 3 numerals in the N number to a four digit number with the first digit signifying the type of aircraft and type of engine, followed by the 3 numbers from the N number. With the new geared turbofan engines they are slightly different size and mounted a slight distance different from the fuselage on the wing than the current engines. Airlines can also get vanity N numbers like you would a personalized plate, if available. Some do to honor a key person from their history or maybe an airline absorbed through merger/acquisition. Kind of like the two letter codes that each operator is assigned (and usually is part of the tail number) many have a story. Like Southwest is WN which they say stands for "We're Nuts." Spirit Airlines is NK which stands for "Ned's Kids" after the airline's founder Ned Homfeld and how the employees referred to themselves back in the day. I love the parallels between the different modes of transportation and thank you for teaching the details!
Having "more meaning" in tail numbers is not exclusive to the US though. If you look at Lufthansa's fleet, their numbers make sense too. As all planes registered in Germany, they start with D- (for the German name of Germany, Deutschland), the first following letter is usually an A, which is legally assigned to (if I remember correctly) all fixed-wing aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight about 20 metric tons. (Helicopters would have an H in that spot for instance, smaller aircraft have different letters) The remaining three letters however, are "free to use", as long as they are unique. Lufthansa uses the first of the three letters to indicate the manufacturer of the plane, with B being used for Boeing and I used for Airbus. With the remaining two, they usually have a subfleet occupy adjacent letters, for example their A380s all started with the letter M. D-AIMA, D-AIMB, ...and so on. It is really interesting to see how much thought some operators put in their numbers...
@@Colaholiker Thank you, Fascinating! I know most of the IATA prefixes... C, D, PH, F, G, TF, etc., but not much about the specialization within. Interesting to know on Lufthansa, have worked managing one of their ground operations in the US but didn't know the manufacturer letter. Such stories from these tail numbers!
The "run number" is highly operator/network specific. In my home town of Frankfurt, Germany, all buses, light rail vehicles and trams have such a display, and it usually shows just a single or double digit number. The numbers are (usually) the order in which the vehicles leave the yard/depot in the morning, are unique only for vehicles operating on a route (so there may be a bus on the 36 route with the same run number as one on any other route), and they are just for drivers and dispatchers to tell the vehicles on one route apart. Otherwise they wouldn't know if that vehicle is right on schedule, or maybe exactly one schedule period late, and also when they swap drivers, the drivers know if it is "their" vehicle approaching. I was taught as a child to pay mind to that number, because even for the GP it can be helpful to remember that it was run number 4 of the U1 light rail where you forgot to grab your bag before you got off. It narrows down how many vehicles you may have to search. There is some additional information encoded in that number as well, with two-digit numbers often used for additional vehicles only in service during peak times, or if (especially in rail bound traffic) the route is split somewhere due to construction work, to indicate which of the two sides of the divide it is operating on. Other operators may be totally different there, so this is not a general description. ;-)
I work for a public transit operator descended from London Transport in the UK. Our Running Numbers work like this. Each bus duty on a route is given an identifier consisting of letters denoting the depot where it is based and a number which shows where that bus is in the day's timetable. So on my local route 405 in south London the buses have running numbers TC 431-439. Each driver will have a duty card with their duty number, the vehicle identifier and scheduled times, e.g. duty 861 takes running no. TC 431 from the depot to commence service, works to the times provided until their scheduled break when they hand over to duty 870, etc...
I have in passed few years ago, I worked and drove for the CTA here in Chicago. So, yes, I did walk around to see the fleet bus number for my report in handling that particular bus. I am glad I had the experience of driving here in Chicago.
In the UK buses have fleet numbers, before 2001, with a lot of companies, this used to be related to the number plate (licence plate) our local company added a 2 for a double decker, for example a single decker with registration plate N767 CKY would have the fleet number 767 but a double decker with registration plate D480 OWE would have fleet number 2480, i think this was done because some routes have low bridges which the double deckers wouldn't fit under, so when working out which buses will be on which route, or sending out a replacement bus for a breakdown they know not to put a 4 digit one on a service with low bridge. When First bus bought our local company they changed all the numbers. The registration plate system changed in 2001 so this way of fleet numbering wasn't possible any more, so I think they just give buses fleet numbers in order of them being bought/registered new.
The front windshield code on CTA buses is in fact the run number. The first character in that run number is the garage code, identifying which of the current CTA garages that driver is assigned. The other three characters are a three digit code that identifies the driver tells supervisors such things as the route that driver is driving (in the case of interlines it identifies the route that the driver spent most of his work in a shift), whether that driver is a full timer or part timer, and based on the sequence whether that run is operating during the day, during the evening, or during the owl (in the case of a bus on a 24 hour route) periods and if I'm not mistaken whether the driver is on a weekday or weekend shift.
So it has the same purpose as the numbers displayed on the front windshields of MTR trains here in Hong Kong. That’s the run number, allowing staff members at each station to identify the arrival of a specific departure more easily. (Since there were probably at least 5 to 10 trains running on the line at the same time, being able to easily identify the arriving departure helps with train schedule coordination.)
In Malaysia and Singapore, some bus operators don't bother with coming up with their own fleet number. They use the number in the registration number plates, and because in most of each jurisdiction the prefix letters are pretty much the same, the number is quite unique to that jurisdiction. I remembered buying tickets to go somewhere and the seller just tells me to look for the number on the number plate.
Trimet's fleet numbers have the first two digits being the purchase order number for those buses, and the second two digits being the order in which it was received. Tulsa Transit has the first two digits being the year the bus was received and the second two digits being the order in which it was received that year.
Great video. Yes generally that small number on the right is the run number. Sometimes they are even old roller one and not digital. And to answer your question in my agency and also in the mta, all drivers are assigned an ID number. In New York they have it clipped to their uniform. That’s so you don’t have to give them your name you can give them your I’d number if they want to complain
When I was in high school the district had 3 buses 2 of which were acquired in 1998 and the third in 2001. The older buses were numbered 9801 and 9802 and the newer one was simply number 2001. Then bus 2001 suffered a fire in the school parking lot, the district bought a new vehicle requesting number 2002 from the builder but got number 2001B. All of them had a car radio.
Speaking of schools, in Wyoming, all schools have designated activity buses (specifically, those that carry teams, bands, groups, etc.) throughout the state, with their own individual ID numbers. Further, they all have radios that are part of a state-wide network (like the State Troopers have). If I am driving a trip in bus #117 that's 518 miles away from home (yes, they do happen in this state), I am always able to contact local help via the radio (which is of great help as we still have many dead areas for cell phones in this state).
For city buses that will be called " a block #" or run number, bid line that the company sets up to assign that specific run to a specific driver that they track if it's running on time or delayed. It's also used to track if that time the bus was busy with passengers count.
New York City Transit (MTA) uses Run Numbers that denote which run on which route. They Runs are specific to a division(Boro) or Depot (Bus Garage) Its buses are numbered either in 3 digit or 4 digit. Numbers are assigned as soon as the bus gets ordered. Buses May get re-numbered such as when they buy used buses from other property so they can have consecutive block of numbers. Bus numbers do get re-used. For Example Bus Number 555 is currently a New Flyer C40 LF built between 2011-2014. That number was previously assigned to a 1996 Orion V bus. Bus 8923 is now a New Nova Bus LFS 40 Feet, Previously this number was assigned to a 1996 RTS. Bus 6016 is now a 60 Feet New Flyer Artic, previously it was assigned to a 1999 Orion Bus.
In the bus transit company I work in, we also use smaller cutaway vans. We have one which the headsign outside is constantly blinking, so we named it "Blinky".
During my undergrad years, I rode a city bus to class. I often took route 12, and I noticed that there were roughly four buses that served that route (two Rapid Transit Series and two Gillig Phantoms), and I recall one particular driver who took pride in his job and regularly drove one of the RTSs - he would announce stops before they installed the GPS enabled robotic voice announcer system. One day I was at work (it was a retail job) and he was out shopping in my department, still in his bus driver uniform. I mentioned to him, "I think I ride your bus in the morning" and he responded, "Yes, number 12", and I responded with "Number 515", and I think he was surprised I even knew his bus number. Many years later, when I took the bus less often,I actually rode on his bus (a different bus, but still an RTS) once and he still remembered me. Yes, I'm on the autism spectrum
For small general aviation planes, pilots and ATC often refer to them by the last three characters of the tail number, usually using the phonetic alphabet. If you were flying a Cessna with registration N1245DF, the tower might tell you "Cessna Five Delta Foxtrot, I need you to extend your downwind". The "N" indicates that this is a civilian plane registered in the US. Other countries will use different letters. In the UK, for example, "G" is used, e.g. "G-BBDG" was the registration for one of the prototype Concordes (referred to as Delta Golf), Many countries use two letters, such as Japan, that prefixes all tail numbers with JA
Fun fact to add to this (I'm a private pilot myself), pilots can only shorten the tail number to the last 3 digits/letters if ATC does it first. Until ATC does it, we have to use the full tail number!
James, you had me LOL with the “Hey Leon, your in bus vin #……….,,,,…..” and then he asked what bus was it again 😂😂😂
@motorcoach world your question regarding the CTA bus number sign in the front windshield IS indeed the run number. The 1st letter or number denotes which of the CTA garages the run originates from as well as the 3-digit run identifier. Also in the center of the windshield is a small white sticker that shows the same garage number/letter as the run (N = North Park, F = Forrest Glen, K = Kedzie, 6 = Chicago avenue, 7 = 74th street. So run F611 is run 611 out of the Forest Glen Garage, 6944 is run 944 out of Chicago Avenue). Also CTA trains display a 3 digit run number that identifies both the route AND the direction (ie: 9xx usually is a Northbound Red Line and 8xx is a Southbound, 0xx is a Westbound Green Line and 1xx is an Eastbound)
The buses my company usesd were 5 diget ... the first 2 numbers were the passenger seat count for the vehicle type . Made it easy to determine ada ,coaches, gretches and vans.
In Sacramento..the lower display is our “block” or run/schedule number for that particular bus and operator! I think I’ll make a video explaining it a little more thanks to this video giving me the idea! 😎
I can't wait to see that video!!
@@MotorcoachWorld the old bus company that used to serve my school district had a couple coach buses with specific names. They had a white coach they called the white beast, mainly because it broke down too often, and a black coach that ran really well they called The Black Beauty. These motorcoaches were owned by our former district owned company Marshfield Bus Service. Unfortunately, they ended their contract with district in 2020 and Wisconsin's second largest bus line service Kobussen Ltd. took over.
@@MotorcoachWorld For SamTrans, each driver has a sequentially issued ID number always embroidered on their uniform sleeves, and duplicated on the interior scrolling info sign. AND they have a different number shown in the bottom left corner of the front window. I asked a supervisor/trainer on a bus what it was, and she said it was yet another driver ID number that followed them across routes. Couldn’t get any more details than that.
Trivia: most drivers have IDs up above 1000 now, latest are above 1700. About 3 years ago though, I had a driver with “49” on his sleeve! And last week I saw one with “1234”! (He hates the number and was so mad about me asking that he half-jokingly said he was going to have to start throwing people off the bus!)
Same for Denver's RTD, a run block number.
😅😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
@Motorcoach World Growing up my dad worked for Peter Pan Bus Lines. He told me when the buses were lined up in order by number, each bus had a word or phrase an it told the story of Peter Pan. The company operates out of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Im from the UK and I work for a large bus company called Stagecoach which employs around 24,000 people and has around 8300 vehicles. So when you start every employee is given a number unique to you so not to confuse you with anybody else with the same name. This is mainly for payroll purposes. You are given a "ERG" card so you can log on your ticket machine, these too have an unique identifier and a 4 digit pint number which you use to log on to your ticket machine so you can collect fares and the office know how much revenue you have taken on your duty. Our Duties have also have numbers assigned to them. 1* - Split duty, 4** - long duty around (10hrs), 5** - standard duty (7 to 9 hours) & 6** new driver rota.
Our buses also have unique 5 digit national fleet number assigned to them to help quick identification when fueling and their place in the whole national fleet.
Double Deckers start with the number 1
Single Deckers start with the number 2 (around 40 to 50 seats)
Midi Buses starts with the number 3 (around 30 to 40 seats)
Mini Buses starts with the number 4 (around 20 to 30 seats)
Coaches start with the number 5
Electric single decks and New Routemaster start with the number 6
Electric midi buses start with the number 7
Electric double deckers start with the number 8
Ancillary vehicles starts with the number 9
Love the video James! One small correction, the "N number" on the tail of the plane is actually the country code for aircraft registration, we called it the "tail number". For example N is for planes registered in the US, F for France, HL for South Korea and so on.
The tail number is similar to a license plate and is sometimes used with air traffic control. Especially for private flights.
The only such letter that was never assigned, that I know of, is D. As Germany wasn't allowed aviation at the time the system was set up they were not assign a letter. But no country was allocated D and do when Germany was allowed civil aviation they assumed the letter D.
I know this fact from Germany (D-... ) and Austria (A-...)
@@Brauiz90 I didn't know about Austria.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 In Austria we have 16 airlines, most of them for private charter flights.
Back when I worked for Greyhound Canada, some employees had nicknames for some of our buses. 1234 we called The Sesame Street bus, 1224 was the Christmas Eve bus and 1225 was The Christmas Bus.
First time I’m watching one of your videos. As a big Trekkie, cudos on all the Star Trek clips!!
In my country (The Netherlands), transit busses have an “omloopnummer” (sort of ride number) which is a combination of the line number and a unique identifier for that particular ride.
Thanks Amber
Great video James. As per the numbers in the lower right windshield, I asked a Washington DC Metro driver about those a few years back when I was regularly commuting. He told me that on their system, the number represents your "block number" and that supervisors use that "block number" to check the buses to see if they are in the right place at the right time. He said supervisors do not go by schedules or bus number but by "block number" -- where a supervisor can look at an instantly determine if a bus is in the right place at the right time and on schedule or out of sequence.
i drive for a trucking company. our trucks are numbers to identify make and year and then a series to denote its order of entry into the fleet
On charters with multiple buses it's easier for passengers returning to the bus to remember "princess annabella" (for example) rather than some number.
10:46.. out Transit busses don't have that extra display... but we DO have a Operator #, we use it to log into fare box and Clever devices.. Looks more like one of our 'Block' Numbers.. The numbers on our city busses tell us what type they are... 81XX are Artic busses for example... other numbers would be associated with Gillig or New flyer busses/ and the model
11:05 I think the use of that sign varies depending on the transit agency. For my local agency, it shows the run number, which is used to designate the combination of specific trips and routes that bus is doing that day
Back when I drove school bus, my district numbered all the district vehicles with a letter for division that 'owned' the vehicle, such as Plant, Transportation, Admin. Then whatever number, which was usually just sequential of when they acquired the vehicle. So our busses were T??? due to the size of the fleet. The letter was important in how they tracked fuel usage. The school routes were also 3 digits and did not align with the bus number. Usually route numbers were on 6"x8" metal signs that were placed in holders on the side and front of the bus (sides of the door basically). That was so that you could swap in a different bus either due to maintenance or a driver being out and a substitute having their own preferred bus.
Hey, James--it's real simple. The number in the sign on the lower pax side windshield panel is commonly known as the block number and it refers to what the vehicle is assigned to. It's a combination of what different routes that vehicle performs in the course of its day through multiple enroute reliefs. Not to be confused with the run number which corresponds with what the driver was doing in the course of their day which can include enroute reliefs or multiple pullouts/pullins/splits, etc. I'm a veteran of Santa Clara County CA VTA (driver/dispatcher/instructor). That's how it works. Real simple. Thanks for your great posts!
Hey there. This is my first time commenting on your channel. First off love you channel ! I have been a city transit operator in Portland Oregon for 30 years. I recommend your Chanel to all my friends. I see it has been answered about the numbers in the passenger side window. Just to explain TriMets numbers. That’s our block number as well. It’s what identifies us on the road. I’m not sure how they pick their vehicle numbers. I just appreciate them not using the vin number when assigning the bus. Keep up the great work ! Stay safe and keep the dirty side down.
Hey E Lewis. Thanks for the comment. Appreciate your support also. Means a lot. Stay safe out there. I have a lot of respect for all of the transit operators out there.
You know James I was going south on I-55 last week and saw one of your busses and decided to look over, and I think it was you! Idk I just thought it was weird this was recommended to me after that
Haha TH-cam is stalking people. Thanks for the comment. Every once in a while I'll be behind the wheel of one
In sydney ex government buses have a holder on the dash that has a letter followed by 3 numbers indicating the depo and shift number for example: W184 that means the bus is from Waverley depo and is on shift 184
Greyhound used to number theirs as 4 digits with the first 2 denoting which division "owned" the coach. For instance 4915 may have been from Eastern, 5500 from Southern, 3812 from Central, and 6515 from Western. On longer distance runs where the buses operated through multiple divisions they were considered "on loan" while operating through that division.
In Chicago the CTA transit system has seven garages and the letter stands for the name of the garage and the number is the run number.
In my fire departement, we (obviously) refer to the rigs with their "function" - or radio call sign. So there might be "Engine 14", "Engine 2", "Tower 32" or "Medic 12" and so on...
However, for fleet services this isn't good enough. Because whenever they need to service a rig, they give a replacement rig to that station. So let's say "Engine 14" has to undergo maintenance and is taken to the shop, then another engine is placed at the station and performs as "Engine 14". To differentiate which rig is where and doing what duty, fleet services therefore refers to all FD rigs by their (shortened) license plate numbers. In my country all license plates start with the area code, then one to three letters and then a string of numbers - but because the issuing agency is the municipality, they just issue all fire apparatus within their area code the letters FD. So inside the fire departement you can always refer to "the 262" and it will be a fleet-wide unique vehicle.
Example of a fleet services sentence: "The 262 was damaged in the wildland interface operation yesterday, so we placed the 255 at Station 14."
New to channel. Greyhound bus search algorithms brought me here. Star Trek and motor coaches: a wonderful combination! 👊😊👊
@@antonsmith9788 great minds think alike lol. Thanks for the kind words. Welcome aboard.
where I live in Halifax Canada, the small box number in the window is used as run number, then there is route number in the larger sign, operator number is usually displayed in the bus, however the 3 or 4 numbers that the busses have on them are series number, ie. 1000 series busses are non articulated, 500 series are the rural route busses, 600 series (now retired) are brt or high speed busses, 700 series are articulated, etc...
Here in Corpus Christi TX the city buses have 10 or 9 as the first digit(s) they represent length 10 = 40 foot and 9 =35 then followed by bus number, we didn’t have the lower display but our drivers did have plates with out operator number on it displayed inside bus
Hey James! 👋🏾 it's Dane from Checker Elite Inc/Titan Coach i love the videos.... I number my buses according to the length and order that I purchase them 😁 for example we all know that Motorcoaches are usually 45 feet long so I number them 4501, 4502 etc etc
Hi in Richmond, VA. on Our buses in the City of Richmond. For Our bus company they use that little box display for what they call a Block number. Which is the order in line of the Route that a driver is on. Each Route could have anywhere from 4 to 9 buses on a particular route assignment. I'm not a driver, but a frequent rider of the local public transit service.
Back when I was in school, the school buses were known by both bus number (eg 450) and an animal (eg. Octopus). The number was to show what year the bus was made and what order in the assembly line was (2004, #50). The animal was random and to help the younger kids know what bus to get on. As us students got older, we learned to associate the bus' number with it's route rather than the animal.
tbh they should put pictures of animals on regular busses, my dumb brain can never remember the numbers
in my school theyre just named with numbers (like 1 or 2 digit numbers) eg: 1,2,10,etc
In elementary school, I think I was lucky. They named them after cartoon characters. I rode the Sylvester bus for most of elementary school!
@@waow.1 My schoolbus was number 12 :)
The bus number matters on field trips, recreation department trips, etc. When a group charters a bus to a place like the Milwaukee County Zoo, a Brewers game at American Family Field or a theme park, there are a lot of buses parked in the same area. Thus, the group needs to know the name of the bus company and the bus number. I've been on trips such as these where the driver said the bus company had more than one bus going to the Brewers game that day.
In my state, it used to be very common for school buses to be numbered with a two digit year, a hyphen, and one to three digit sequential fleet number. Some schools went further and had a separate route number displayed on the bus (with a magnet or seven segment display), so substitute vehicles could be used but display just one route number, reducing the change communication necessary.
For motorcoaches, I have seen it many times where the owner derived their fleet number from the last three or four if the VIN. That method makes a lot of sense to help sinplify cross referencing.
that number in the lower front window of a city bus, is what Calgary Transit called a "key number" - so it would be Route 2 Key number 14 since there are several buses running on Route 2
One of these days I'd like too see a video going over motor coach crash safety features and test's. I already know you covered emergency exits but I don't think you've covered this yet. Anyway this was a quality video as always :)
I like your explanation of the numbers. As a former Fixed Route, Line drive, and OTR Charter driver I can help explain some of these numbers. On metro busses here in Austin, the number in the lower windshield is the Block Number. It denotes what section of the route it starts. Usually it was Block 1, 2, 3, 4. If it was a peak bus morning was 030, midday was 060, and evening was 090. As for Trailways busses, they were assigned numbers based on geographic location and route destinations. Now they usually utilize a 3XX number sequence for thier busses. One of the most unique numbering system I have seen was with my time at Roadrunner Charters. The numbers are 5-6 digits and start with PAX seats, then model year, then sequence number of purchase. So 562318 would be a 56 pax 2023 and 18th in the fleet for that year.
For CTA, the lower display is the run number! First character (number or letter) is garage base and three digits following is the run number. Kedzie garage runs, for example, are Kxxx and Chicago garage is 5xxx
I should have just asked you before making this video LOL
What use does that have that it needs to displayed publicly in a place that may confuse new riders?
@@TheTrainWatch Supervisors that are monitoring the buses may need to see them, for example.
Greetings from another fellow trekkie! love how you include the star trek clips in your videos, very good!
Always a pleasure to meet a fellow Trekkie!
That display on the bottom of the windscreen is the unique number of that bus run on that specific day in most of the cases. This is also the number sent by the tracking system to the datacenter for real time displays and to immediately know in case of an accident or technical problem which bus it is on that given day.
That "run number" also is the index for the integrated computer displaying when to be at which bus stop and to show to the driver how far he or she is late - or too much ahead of schedule due to lesser traffic than anticipated.
See it as agency internal route number(s) for that particular bus.
We also have a "radio number", assigned by the public transport, where the first two digits identify the company operating the bus. You use it for the sel-call on the radio, and it is painted on the bus.
Lower number is the run number here in New York city. Enjoyed the video. Keep them coming. Bye for now from New Jersey. I'm new to your channel. Love the channel. I was a Motor coach driver for 33 years. Toured all over the U.S. and Canada. Boy do I miss the days. I worked for Academy Tours here in New Jersey. Keep your videos come. You do a good job. Be safe out there. 🇺🇸👍👍👍
Hi James ! To answer your question regarding line run box, i can't say for all transit agencies but in Montréal, it is referred at as Route sign. it is used by supervisor to see what assignment the driver is doing, it's also used by relief drivers to know which bus to switch driver with ( for example, a driver waits for the Line 90, route 01 )
On the subject of bus number, my transit agency use a simple 4 digit systems, the first 2 numbers is the year of the bus, the last 2 indicating it's arrival in the fleet (for example , 2205 is the 5th bus received for 2022 order)
one of the company i used to work for many years back now runs a 6 digit fleet number, the 1st being the category of bus, the 2nd to 4th fleet number and the last 2 being the year. (For example, 303314 is a 2014 transit bus while 510019 being a 2019 minibus.)
Also, if you ever would like to discuss this, i'm most curious about the different types of work a charter bus company operates (line runs, employee shuttles, emergencies, events, etc.).
Great video, as always !
Thank you for the answer and for your comment. Much appreciated!
Another great video, James! I'm more familiar with numbering peculiarities in my native UK, e.g. buses in London carry [or used to] a small metal bracket, carrying metal plates of 2 letters (designating which garage the bus was assigned to) and 2-3 digits (its running number within that garage) - a vehicle might operate several numbered routes during a given day, but always following one 'diagram' for that vehicle and crew. The running number identified which diagram it was assigned to.
The original Routemaster was specifically designed for heavy mtce/overhaul at LT's Aldenham works - a huge plant that overhauled dozens of buses weekly, employing several thousand staff. By arrangement with the authorities, as soon as a bus entered for overhaul, its body and chassis were separated and entered separate shops, unlikely to ever regain that same pairing of specific body and chassis. The license plates and registration were parted from the bus - and then applied to whichever freshly overhauled bus was next to leave the works - sometimes the same day! A remarkable setup which died off with the Routemasters - more modern buses being less suited to such modular maintenance.
Closing caveat - this is to best of my recollection as an enthusiast; If anyone has better information, feel free to correct me! Finally... looking forward to the next instalment of Motorcoach World. Save driving!
In New York, the numbers in the small box in the windshield are run numbers. Goes from 1 to how many runs a particular route has
For many transit systems the number in the lower windshield is a Run Number (Different agencies may use another name). Purpose is to identify which bus in the Route/Line that the bus is on. If the bus company was a team sport, The Destination sign identifying the Route/Line would be the team and the Run number would be your Jersey number identifying who you are on the team.
Here in Corpus Christi Tx CCISD school buses have 4 digit, they start with 4, 5, and 7 , regular Ed buses are 4 and 5 and special Ed ones are 7 now we do have activity buses that coaches drive and they start with 6
One thing I learned from my younger days as a mail carrier: USPS vehicles have a year indicator on their fleet numbers, but it's only one digit. The first digit of the number is the last digit of the build year. So, if you know anything about cars (and if you know that the ubiquitous mail truck, the Grumman LLV, was only built between 1987 and 1994), you can instantly tell the build year of any USPS vehicle. So if you see an LLV with the number 9202911, you will know that it was built in 1989.
Also, love the channel. Bus stuff is cool, but the Star Trek references are cooler. Needs more DS9 and Lower Decks, though 😁
Haha thanks Nick. always good to meet from a fellow trekkie!
Your editing is superb ! Glad to get to sit with you for a bit in the office back in October
Thanks Corey. It was nice to meet you in person. Im sorry I was so busy and worn out when you came. That is usually a very busy time of the year
@@MotorcoachWorld I could tell you was tired and that's why I didn't want to keep you to long cause you had stuff to do and was tired but I'm hoping if I pass through the area I'll definitely take you up on that offer and stay a few days or a couple weeks
There run numbers it’s for dispatch and customer service to know which vehicle is on a specific route. In most cases you might have multiple buses running the same route so the run number helps identify which number is on the route. For example you might have 1 through 18 and so on. Hope that helps.
Current bus operator for MV Transportation Austin Texas.
Thanks for all you do James! Much gratitude from upstate New York!
Thank you for the kind words Steven!
The company I work for now is into all aspects of bus transportation, we have school buses, motorcoaches and we run a transit under contract for the city on 2 Hawaiian islands, most of our vehicles have letters in front of them, RC is Robert's Coach, RV is Robert's Van, SB is of course School Bus, and the contract on Maui you will see the bus number MB in front for Maui Bus. The fleet has to be separated like that because we are State wide and if you have 200 series numbers you could use the series over for the vans as well as bus and school bus. Example SB 201 you could also use it for MC 201 and RV 201. Just saying.
Hi James , About 5 years ago I was in London , England. We were walking by some parked Greyhound buses I noticed that they had been named. The one I remembered was named after the Michael Jackson song Called Billie Jean. But I noticed back here in the states that Greyhound does not name their buses. Thanks for the great videos I haven't missed any of them
Maybe that bus was named after Ms. Billie Jean King, the famous tennis star?
First Student school bus company uses the last 8 of the vin, i.e KCKW2006 and so on. My district, however uses 2 digits right now, and we go up every year, like our newest buses are 68, 69 and 70, but this year we're getting 71, 72 and 73.
Occasionally Greyhound buses will have letters in front of the unit number like "GA86610". If you see a bus like this it means it's owned by the state that's abbreviated (GA being Georgia for example). It also means those buses are only supposed to be operated in the surrounding area but that doesn't always happen
Must have been when Greyhound was sold to Laidlaw (Canada). Greyhound (Dial Corp) never had special coaches for each state.
I’m a truck driver and the company I work for they do custom jobs. Some of the trucks have names on them in addition to the truck number like one guy over here has Red Rooster above the windshield and the bumper
I used to drive for Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) and our fleet was numbered sequentially from 1901 with the 500 series bring 30 foot, 600 being 35 foot, 700 being special trolley replica, and 800 being BRT units. Unit 1901 has his own name of "His Eminence" as in "I'm driving His Eminence 1901". The story goes that the predecessor to TANK, Greenline, had its last bus as 1900 but TANK skipped 1901. The unit that is 1901 now is an old GMC New Look that served on the Greenline fleet but had been sold many years ago, repurchased and restored. There was also 1225 that served as our Santa special.
I’ve worked for 2 line run carriers. Bus numbers are generally 5 digits and 2 of those indicate the model year of the vehicle. Beyond that there are internal categories denoted by some of the other digits, including but not limited to where they go or what sub group they’re in within the fleet. A sharp eyed person can tell quite a bit from the vehicle number, if they know the code.
In Vancouver BC, the number in the corner is called a block number, it's used for each route and helps the drivers, mechanics, supervisors and planners to identify the unit and shows what time the coach needs to be at stop
Vancouver doesn't use digital blocks, it is changed manually by the driver
NYCT the 3 digit number is the run number ..example 301 would be that bus route scheduled time for that run . And will get changed if drivers runs more the one route. It also for transient to identify that bus . So when the call you the will say 142 on the 1 you know that message is for you .
Yes I would like to see a licence plate video. As a foreigner this is quiet interesting.
I remember when I was a teenager, one of our (few) local busses had the same fleet number as the road number for most of its route.
I believe it was a coincidence, because the road number was not on road signs, but mostly used by the road maintenance agency.
I remember working at a company with less than a handful of cars in their fleet.
They mostly used the license plate as a fleet number, mostly for admins, because the handle external documents using license plate numbers.
As well as color and/or brand/model, mostly drivers/others, because there was no need for further identification.
I believe you need to assign a CMV power unit number for various paperwork, including eLog and paper logs. It's a violation if the driver fails to record or verify the power unit number on a ELD. The eLog regulation says any alphanumeric combination from 1-10 characters (49 CFR 395 Subpart B Appendix A). Paper log requirements are in 49 CFR 395.8(f)(5).
The Milwaukee County Zoological society used to run day’s trips to Chicago. Often times more than 5 buses. Rather than advising everyone to refer to the fleet number, each bus was assigned either a cartoon animal or color. I guess they thought we were kindergarten dropouts in that they couldn’t use numbers or letters or just have us remember the fleet numbers. Well done as always James.
Hey James, On City Transit Buses, the lower/smaller lit up box sitting inside the lower passenger side of the windshield with either numbers or letter/ number sequence is what is called a “BLOCK NUMBER” a block number is used because on every City Transit Route there are many many Buses running that same route maybe 10, or 15, or 20, or even 30 minutes or an hour apart from each other. So that “BLOCK NUMBER” is used only by the City Transit Company and the Bus Operators to know what time slots and at what times that particular Bus Number will be Arriving and Departing from each Bus Stop on that particular Route Number on that day.
Hope that helps!
(So in short it is used only by the Transit Company and Bus Operator to help them keep them know where that Bus fits into the line of Buses Running on that Route.)
During my school years, my bus company had an interesting way of numbering their units. They had three digit numbers across the bus for the fleet number, but they also had a “full” five digit number which displays the year on the hood, the first two digits displaying the year, last three for the bus itself. They also had a three digit number on the side and back windows to display the route that bus ran. They got rid of that hood number for all their newer buses nowadays for whatever reason.
Excellent video about all the numbers on a bus. Thanks for sharing.
In my school district buses and drivers run multiple routes both morning and afternoon. They use a cardboard sign displaying ALL the routes. Kids know their route (or they should) so they look for that particular bus. Also if the regular assigned bus is OOS, they just yank the cardboard sign out and tape it to the window of the replacement bus.
Just to pick up on something you said regarding numbers on buses & people realising that the number related to the year of manufacture; here, in Ireland, we simplified our registration system for ALL vehicles, back in 1987 & slightly updated the format from January, 2013 & there's NO disguising the year of the vehicle; eg. 131-L-1234, denotes that the vehicle was manufactured during 2013 (13) & the 1, following the "13," shows that the vehicle was manufactured within the first 6 months of the year (132, being a 2013 vehicle, manufactured during the 2nd half of the year. The letter, eg."L," shows the county & the actual number, eg. 1234, shows that, that particular vehicle was the 1,234th vehicle registered in the county. It doesn't matter whether the vehicle is privately owned or is part of a business fleet, or an emergency vehicle; all vehicles are registered in sequence, with no special numbers reserved for emergency vehicles. The ONLY EXCEPTION made, is for the Mayor of each county; eg. the Mayor of Limerick will ALWAYS have the FIRST registration, each year; eg. this year, 221-L-1.
Hey Ger. Very interesting. Thanks for describing how things work in your part of the world. I've always wanted to visit Ireland. It's on my bucket list
Apologies for the long-winded explanation of our vehicle registration system, but I thought, seeing as your vlog was about numbers & other registration markings on buses, that you MIGHT be interested in how they work, here in Ireland... Yeah; you should come over, but if/when you do, make sure to pack rain wear because, even during the Summer, dry, sunny weather is NOT GUARANTEED!!! 👍😄
Thank you for this video!! I was always wondering where the numbers came from. Something cool I noticed recently is that the numbers are re-used after a bus is retired. I recently saw that bus 238 and 270 this year have the same numbers as the older D models used last year!
You are very observant!
For our company, the number on the bottom right corner of the windshield is the "CAR" number. For exemple, Car 894 will do run 59, 65 and 371 (city bus line with a time of start and arrival)
I live in Salzburg, Austria and their trolley busses have numbers on them, too. They're 200s, 300s and 400s - every one of them a different brand of bus (Van Hool, Solaris and Hess) - they are on different series, the latest ones (Hess trolleybusses - 400s) are built from 2019 to now. Every new bus gets the following number like a series is 401-422, the next series 423-449 and the next 450-467, you get it... So the driver gets the info - Line 5, bus 421 instead of the license plate he has to look for...
Well about the assignement for VIN for fleet numbers, some operators in Quebec does use the last 4 digits of the VIN as the fleet number of the coach
Sent the video to friends as soon as I saw you had Star Trek clips. 😊😊
Edit to add: BAHAHAHAHA Passengers will never look at the destination board sign. (at least in my experience with municipal transit.)
The number displayed in the lower right windshield displays what work the bus is assigned to cover in its work day. Busses are able to work shifts that are longer than the shift that a driver can legally work.
This number helps drivers identify the correct bus that they need to take over from another driver when their shift ends. This dash number is also used by supervisors and managers to identify what work that that bus is assigned to cover on any particular day.
What some of the Operators here in NSW Australia do, They assign fleet numbers to match the number plates. So if the bus has the Registration / Number plates of say “MO5561” it’s fleet number will be 5561, If it’s say “MO8131” it’s fleet number will be 8131. That way the fleet number matches the registration details, So any maintenance work they can just go ok 5561 needs 2 new front steer tyres. Then it’s just a matter of either looking at the fleet number or the number plate and going yeap thats 5561 done. As here in NSW Australia We have 3 types of Registration / Number plates for buses / Coaches being “ST” With 4 numbers which is “State Trsnsit” (Government owned and operated services which have sadly disappeared due to privatisation), “MO” with 4 numbers being “Motor Omnibus” either as MO1234 or 1234MO Format which are the most common on Route Buses and Coaches. Then the other type is “TV” with 3 or 4 numbers or 3 numbers and a letter, Being “Tourist Vehicle” which are common in the Charter sector and are in the TV123 TV1234 or TV123A format. Quite often once a bus hits 25 years old which is the max age for Route buses to be used in NSW, If the bus is in good nick Some operators will swap them from “MO” to “TV” plates and run them for another 5 years. Exclusively on say rail replacement, School Charters / Morning and afternoon runs etc where it’s fine to run a “High floor” bus so they can keep the wheel chair accessible low floor buses on Regular Route Service. As We also don’t have Dedicated School Buses, It’s the norm for a regular Route bus to do a School run. Finish the school run and change the Destination board from “School bus S123” to it’s Route and be on its merry way, That way the buses are run all day everyday and they are not sitting for weeks on end during school holidays. Plus Our Route Buses and coaches are built to a high safety standard, As after the Clybucca Bus disaster in December 1989 where 35 people were killed and 41 injured when 2 buses slammed into each other head on at 100kph. Major changes were made inclusive of the highway duplication from Sydney to the NSW / QLD border which is 800km or so worth, Which they are still working in today with only I think Coffs Harbour bypass to do now.
School bus driver here. My County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland has Board of Ed buses and also private contractor buses. Our numbering system is single digit, double digit, and triple digit starting with 1 are regular Ed buses. 3 digit starting with 2 are paid spares, meaning you get paid, by the Board, to have a spare bus ready to be used if a driver needs a spare bus. 3 digits starting with 4 are unpaid spares. 3 digits starting with 5 are Special Ed buses.
Hong Kong's Kowloon Motor Bus number their bus by letters (represent model) and number (by sequence joining the fleet). they also label their maintenance center with circled letter code where the bus do their maintaining on the windscreen. The other bus companies there just use 3 or 4 digit code. Some bus fans remember the codes with the license plate numbere and know which route the bus usually runs
Hey James. Very interesting story about Peoria and it’s numbering . Another good video. Talking about stuff animals you should do a collage about drivers and their pet stuff animals who ride with them. I got two a cat called Trixie and Nessie The Loch Ness Monster I got while visiting the lake of the famed monster
The four-digit thing with the year seems to be very common all over the world. In Germany it used to be (maybe still is?) a recommendation by the VDV, the transit operators association, to do it like that. But I'm sure they weren't the first to come up with it (and many German transit operators use different systems anyway).
We have assigned numbers in consecutive order... When I started in 2000, the lowest number was bus 158 and newest was 309... Around 2005, we started to rearrange seating from a 56 seat coach to 48 seats... We then denoted 56 pax buses with a 4th digit of 1... Thus bus numbers became like 3491 instead of just 349... Our newest buses are up to 4071, so I have seen over 100 buses over my 23 years ... The most interesting thing about our Indian Trails buses is that every motorcoach has a real life historical Indian Chief name from Michigan on them... We have buses with names like Chief Pontiac, Chief Wasso, and Chief Ortony... The names get rotated as we trade in and buy new ones... Also, all our line run buses run consecutive numbers and start with MI- ... So we have buses like MI- 141 to MI - 163... The MI is because there are purchased by State of Michigan and leased to us
I personally loved the idea that u name them, "Chiefs!" I don’t know if these guys were chiefs or not. "Blue Jacket" (war chief) "Red Cloud" and "Crazy Horse". Thanks for ur time.
In the UK drivers on public transport services have a driver number assigned and the buses fleet number length depends on the operator
During my school days, we had three-digit bus numbers, but now I notice that they have four digits. This change was probably necessary because Lee County in FL is so large. Interestingly, all the handicap buses during my high school years (1997 and before) had numbers starting with 1 or 2. Presently, I use the city bus, and the first buses in Lee County were in the 200 series, followed by the 300 series. Now, we have the 400 series, which goes up to 459. Additionally, there are hybrid buses in the 500 series, but the city is not satisfied with them, so they have reverted to the 400 series. The higher 400s are the newer buses, and the newest ones are from bus 431 upwards. The reason for the numbering system is that the bus routes end with a zero, such as 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 240, 410, 490, 515, 590, and LinC - Route 600.
Not a driver but a once long time passenger who had chats with drivers and mechanics. PSTA in Pinellas county, Florida uses a 4 or 5 digit fleet number (with some exceptions). It changed a few times but currently, some buses are 2XXX where the first two digits denote the model year of the bus omitting the intervening double zero. So a bus from 2006 could be 2611. For 2010 and up, they switched to a 5 digit number. So a bus from 2017 might be 17101. Their buses with trolley body kits had 3 digit numbers up until 2009 where the first digit was the last digit of the model year like a 2008 one might be 821. The new trolley buses don’t seem to have fleet numbers on the outside but I haven’t seen one up close. The plate in the bottom of the windshield seems to just indicate the route numbers that vehicle is assigned to. Most of the time that’s just one route so on a route 4 bus it’ll just say “4.” But some shorter routes get run back to back so a bus might have a sign there that says “715” indicating that at some point in a shift that vehicle and driver operate both route 7 and 15 switching to the other route at a terminus (back in the day routes 7 and 15 shared a terminus in downtown St. Petersburg but that terminal is long gone now).
Pinellas county schools packs a lot of info into their 5 digit fleet numbers. The first digit is a body type. Most are “2” denoting a standard school bus with a truck nose. “1” is a full length school bus with with a wheelchair lift. Those two I am 100% sure of. Less sure about these: “5” I think we’re short body buses, “4” were transit style buses, and I think “3” was for short buses with wheelchair lifts. I haven’t seen anything other than 2s and 1s on the road in a long time. The second and third digits are the model year, and the last I think are just sequential. So 21907 is a standard body 2019 model and the 7th of those purchased.
In my operator, they had 59, 60, 61, 62 and beyond until the 05s, when it changed to 435, 436... all the way to 850 (buses to 578, and 621, 823 and 824 have been sold to other operators or to the scrap god). They are consecutively numbered upon their arrival at the operator's hands.
James in Philadelphia that number in the lower right hand side of the window is your block number so the supervisor can see if your late or early. I’m a train operator so our block numbers is also our run numbers. Great video. Trailways buses had 5 numbers the first 2 numbers was the division the 3 was the series of the bus and the last 2 was the number of how many was brought!
Thanks for your answer on this! Very Interesting
A lot of the greyhound buses now have five digit numbers
Very interesting to watch and learn! Thank you! The last airline I worked for had recently redone its internal fleet numbers. We were fortunate that our N-numbers (N being the header assigned to the United States) all followed a sequence. Some airlines end up with an odd one because let's say a private pilot already took one out of their block. Further, each plane has to be registered with each country it will fly to... not a separate tail number, but basically an operating license of sorts - more about paying them paperwork fees and/or taxes.
We redid our fleet numbers from just being the 3 numerals in the N number to a four digit number with the first digit signifying the type of aircraft and type of engine, followed by the 3 numbers from the N number. With the new geared turbofan engines they are slightly different size and mounted a slight distance different from the fuselage on the wing than the current engines.
Airlines can also get vanity N numbers like you would a personalized plate, if available. Some do to honor a key person from their history or maybe an airline absorbed through merger/acquisition. Kind of like the two letter codes that each operator is assigned (and usually is part of the tail number) many have a story. Like Southwest is WN which they say stands for "We're Nuts." Spirit Airlines is NK which stands for "Ned's Kids" after the airline's founder Ned Homfeld and how the employees referred to themselves back in the day.
I love the parallels between the different modes of transportation and thank you for teaching the details!
Having "more meaning" in tail numbers is not exclusive to the US though. If you look at Lufthansa's fleet, their numbers make sense too.
As all planes registered in Germany, they start with D- (for the German name of Germany, Deutschland), the first following letter is usually an A, which is legally assigned to (if I remember correctly) all fixed-wing aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight about 20 metric tons. (Helicopters would have an H in that spot for instance, smaller aircraft have different letters)
The remaining three letters however, are "free to use", as long as they are unique. Lufthansa uses the first of the three letters to indicate the manufacturer of the plane, with B being used for Boeing and I used for Airbus. With the remaining two, they usually have a subfleet occupy adjacent letters, for example their A380s all started with the letter M. D-AIMA, D-AIMB, ...and so on.
It is really interesting to see how much thought some operators put in their numbers...
@@Colaholiker Thank you, Fascinating! I know most of the IATA prefixes... C, D, PH, F, G, TF, etc., but not much about the specialization within. Interesting to know on Lufthansa, have worked managing one of their ground operations in the US but didn't know the manufacturer letter. Such stories from these tail numbers!
The "run number" is highly operator/network specific.
In my home town of Frankfurt, Germany, all buses, light rail vehicles and trams have such a display, and it usually shows just a single or double digit number. The numbers are (usually) the order in which the vehicles leave the yard/depot in the morning, are unique only for vehicles operating on a route (so there may be a bus on the 36 route with the same run number as one on any other route), and they are just for drivers and dispatchers to tell the vehicles on one route apart. Otherwise they wouldn't know if that vehicle is right on schedule, or maybe exactly one schedule period late, and also when they swap drivers, the drivers know if it is "their" vehicle approaching.
I was taught as a child to pay mind to that number, because even for the GP it can be helpful to remember that it was run number 4 of the U1 light rail where you forgot to grab your bag before you got off. It narrows down how many vehicles you may have to search.
There is some additional information encoded in that number as well, with two-digit numbers often used for additional vehicles only in service during peak times, or if (especially in rail bound traffic) the route is split somewhere due to construction work, to indicate which of the two sides of the divide it is operating on.
Other operators may be totally different there, so this is not a general description. ;-)
I work for a public transit operator descended from London Transport in the UK. Our Running Numbers work like this. Each bus duty on a route is given an identifier consisting of letters denoting the depot where it is based and a number which shows where that bus is in the day's timetable. So on my local route 405 in south London the buses have running numbers TC 431-439. Each driver will have a duty card with their duty number, the vehicle identifier and scheduled times, e.g. duty 861 takes running no. TC 431 from the depot to commence service, works to the times provided until their scheduled break when they hand over to duty 870, etc...
Looking very nice..Thank you for sharing.
I have in passed few years ago, I worked and drove for the CTA here in Chicago. So, yes, I did walk around to see the fleet bus number for my report in handling that particular bus.
I am glad I had the experience of driving here in Chicago.
Hey James, I really enjoy every single one of your videos. To establish a new bus company, all that I need is a DOT # and MC #???
In Illinois all you need is a dot number, apportioned plates. And insurance.
In the UK buses have fleet numbers, before 2001, with a lot of companies, this used to be related to the number plate (licence plate) our local company added a 2 for a double decker, for example a single decker with registration plate N767 CKY would have the fleet number 767 but a double decker with registration plate D480 OWE would have fleet number 2480, i think this was done because some routes have low bridges which the double deckers wouldn't fit under, so when working out which buses will be on which route, or sending out a replacement bus for a breakdown they know not to put a 4 digit one on a service with low bridge.
When First bus bought our local company they changed all the numbers.
The registration plate system changed in 2001 so this way of fleet numbering wasn't possible any more, so I think they just give buses fleet numbers in order of them being bought/registered new.
The front windshield code on CTA buses is in fact the run number. The first character in that run number is the garage code, identifying which of the current CTA garages that driver is assigned. The other three characters are a three digit code that identifies the driver tells supervisors such things as the route that driver is driving (in the case of interlines it identifies the route that the driver spent most of his work in a shift), whether that driver is a full timer or part timer, and based on the sequence whether that run is operating during the day, during the evening, or during the owl (in the case of a bus on a 24 hour route) periods and if I'm not mistaken whether the driver is on a weekday or weekend shift.
So it has the same purpose as the numbers displayed on the front windshields of MTR trains here in Hong Kong. That’s the run number, allowing staff members at each station to identify the arrival of a specific departure more easily. (Since there were probably at least 5 to 10 trains running on the line at the same time, being able to easily identify the arriving departure helps with train schedule coordination.)
Same at NY MTA Buses and Commuter Coaches in NYC.
Same thing they do in Baltimore and DC.
In Malaysia and Singapore, some bus operators don't bother with coming up with their own fleet number. They use the number in the registration number plates, and because in most of each jurisdiction the prefix letters are pretty much the same, the number is quite unique to that jurisdiction. I remembered buying tickets to go somewhere and the seller just tells me to look for the number on the number plate.
Trimet's fleet numbers have the first two digits being the purchase order number for those buses, and the second two digits being the order in which it was received. Tulsa Transit has the first two digits being the year the bus was received and the second two digits being the order in which it was received that year.
Great video. Yes generally that small number on the right is the run number. Sometimes they are even old roller one and not digital. And to answer your question in my agency and also in the mta, all drivers are assigned an ID number. In New York they have it clipped to their uniform. That’s so you don’t have to give them your name you can give them your I’d number if they want to complain
For my area we have that little light up board on the passenger side front window usually means the run or block that the bus is on
When I was in high school the district had 3 buses 2 of which were acquired in 1998 and the third in 2001. The older buses were numbered 9801 and 9802 and the newer one was simply number 2001. Then bus 2001 suffered a fire in the school parking lot, the district bought a new vehicle requesting number 2002 from the builder but got number 2001B. All of them had a car radio.
Speaking of schools, in Wyoming, all schools have designated activity buses (specifically, those that carry teams, bands, groups, etc.) throughout the state, with their own individual ID numbers. Further, they all have radios that are part of a state-wide network (like the State Troopers have). If I am driving a trip in bus #117 that's 518 miles away from home (yes, they do happen in this state), I am always able to contact local help via the radio (which is of great help as we still have many dead areas for cell phones in this state).
Another great video. 🎉 Thanks James.
Our city school bus has a One Foot square in the right of the windshield with a Single Letter indicating the Route.
For city buses that will be called " a block #" or run number, bid line that the company sets up to assign that specific run to a specific driver that they track if it's running on time or delayed. It's also used to track if that time the bus was busy with passengers count.
Our bus system only use block numbers on the radio. Our conner signs show the route #.
New York City Transit (MTA) uses Run Numbers that denote which run on which route.
They Runs are specific to a division(Boro) or Depot (Bus Garage)
Its buses are numbered either in 3 digit or 4 digit.
Numbers are assigned as soon as the bus gets ordered.
Buses May get re-numbered such as when they buy used buses from other property so they can have consecutive block of numbers.
Bus numbers do get re-used. For Example Bus Number 555 is currently a New Flyer C40 LF built between 2011-2014. That number was previously assigned to a 1996 Orion V bus.
Bus 8923 is now a New Nova Bus LFS 40 Feet, Previously this number was assigned to a 1996 RTS.
Bus 6016 is now a 60 Feet New Flyer Artic, previously it was assigned to a 1999 Orion Bus.