Hi Bnnopo,
Thanks for posting that. I was a lift driver myself - hence the interest in the channels - from 2004-2008, which means you would probably recognize my name. Since this is a public forum, I'll just say I'm "Jon from Region 2." And if you feel comfortable doing so, please let me know who you are... a first name is fine. I always felt like I knew you guys down there in dispatch because I spoke to you so often... and yet, I'd only met some of you in person on rare occasions. When I was in training, they took me down for a sit-along, maybe for an hour. (I'm told they don't do that anymore, but that was 2004) And another time, I had to pick something up at Nela and met one of the dispatchers.
Other than that, the only other time I went there was when you guys were nice enough to let me drop in for my lunch break on a slow Saturday, since I happened to be in the neighborhood already, and I was really curious to actually figure out "who these people are" that I talk to all the time. Truth be told, without you folks, none of us could do our job out on the road, and I really appreciated all your hard work. It's not an easy job - for the drivers or the dispatchers - and it was always amazing to me how you could keep track of all of us... and answer phones... and update manifests... and so much more, all at the same time.
I've taken classes in 911 Emergency Telecommunications at PCC and had been hoping to find my way into a job at Nela, so I could get some dispatching experience and maybe work my way into 911 later on. But unemployment being what it is, there can be hundreds of applications for even one position. I applied for and was interviewed for a starting position as a reservationist this summer - and it went really well - but they opted for someone else. I may try applying again in the future, hoping for better results. I felt sure I had it made... but jobs are scarce enough that they probably had some other exceptionally well qualified people at the top of their list already. Seems like even PhD's are applying for the low level stuff nowadays, so who knows? They probably hired someone with lots of call center experience who wouldn't need much training, although I had been hoping my 4 years as a driver would give me more of an in. But I don't quit easily, so I'll probably give it another shot in the future.
Anyway, it's a small world, and I was excited to see your post saying you'd worked in dispatch. Leah, Mike, Ken, Mo, Darlene, Sandy, Alex, Yuri, Kyler, and so many others (I'm sure I'm forgetting too many to list) were absolute lifesavers on the road for us. I know there are a lot of drivers eho complain, but in my book, we've all got to work together out there and do the best we can... which means appreciating one another, and doing what we can to help. I tried to send "will work extra" whenever I thought you guys needed a hand.
You're right about the BDS system being BEYOND ANCIENT. Drivers would constantly be re-booting... so much so that I became quite proficient at turning the master switch (below the drivers seat on the left, near the floorboard) on and off while I was driving, if I had to. They often wouldn't reboot unless you did that, so it was quite a pain. Not to mention the limited amount of info they are capable of receiving for an added ride. There were plenty of times you guys would try to send us supplemental stuff and it wouldn't come through. And of course, there's all those times in fallback, when the whole system crashes. I think they've had the BDS's since the late 1970s, and rumor had it - though it was never confirmed (as the origin of the BDS was a closely guarded secret, since the drivers might get upset if they knew) - that they were NEVER designed for use with paratransit, and that the company that made them has long since ceased to exist. Hence why the old ones were constantly being "recycled," taken from the retired buses, and even those which had been totaled in accidents... and then put right back into another bus.
Originally, I think the BDS's were older units from the fixed route - as in, BDS's that are are so old, fixed route doesn't use them either. But... all that being said, it was better than nothing, and half the time, they actually did work. Or, at the very least, they still allowed the LIFT service to function. They had their good points too.I liked being able to text message dispatch, which allowed you guys to triage the priority of the situation, like an "access problem" being more important than an RTT, and so on. All of that being said, for all the complaining about how taxpayer dollars are spent, I've got to give credit to TriMet for getting every last dollar out of those buses and computers. I drove buses with 300-400,000 miles on them, so the public definitely got it's money's worth on those, that's for sure.
I didn't start out listening to LIFT dispatch at first, and owning a scanner hadn't even occured to me... but when I was still a new driver, way back when, one of my managers called me back and said, "We appreciate your being so conscientious and trying to do your job well... but you're calling dispatch a bit too much, and they're really busy down there, so you may want to cut back on it." He was very nice about it, and he knew I was trying to do well... and I wish he'd been able to come up with a more specific example of when I should or shouldn't call. He was a great manager, but he wasn't able to tell me much more, and I think he was speaking in more general terms as something he wanted me to be aware of.
So I tried not to RTT as often, and a few weeks later, it occurred to me that maybe getting a scanner would help. If I knew more about what other drivers were - or were not - calling about, that would help me do my job better, and I could learn from their experience. So I picked up a Pro94 from Radio Shack... and once I FINALLY figured out how to program it (by hand, which took forever)... I was on my way to listening to the local trunked system... and to TriMet LIFT, whenever I was in my bus. There was a place on the lower left part of the windshield, just above the dashboard, where it seemed to fit perfectly... and would easily stay in place. So it provided me quite a bit of company along the way. And I think it made me a better LIFT driver overall, because there were plenty of "what NOT to do's" that I heard when other drivers had problems... which prevented me from making the same mistakes.
When I "retired" in 2008, I needed a break from it all, so I haven't listened to LIFT dispatch since then. And the old frequencies have long since been cleared out of my Pro94, which I rarely use anymore anyway, since Portland's has rebanded, rendering my Pro94 obsolete. I have a Pro96 now, and I absolutely love it. (This time, I made it easy on myself by using Win96 software for programming.) I continue to be AMAZED at what the men and women in law enforcement do out there, and how professional and "on the ball" their dispatchers are. Being a 911 operator takes a tremendous amount of on-the-job training, with a year of probation until they even let you work on your own. And it's similar for the police and fire people who are out on the road. So I really have to give them a hand.
But when I applied at Nela, I got curious about "what was happening with dispatch" again, especially since it had been so long since I'd listened. So I'm glad I found these frequencies again, thanks to Joe's posting above. And you're right - it's not terribly exciting, unless you're a LIFT employee or supervisor - and since they ended up hiring someone else, I've taken a break from it again. The police are far more interesting and lively.
Sorry for the long reply, and thanks again for your response above. Is Trapeze a totally separate program from the BDS and radios? Did you have 2 screens at your console, with one for each? Or did you have to constantly flip back and forth? I'm also wondering if you were on the same system as fixed route. Could you also see their buses on your screen, or were they totally separate, from a technological standpoint? Dispatching in general has always been fascinating to me, ever since I got that first scanner, so I'm curious. As you know, for most of us "common folk" (non-dispatchers), these are the greater mysteries of the universe.
