Photo: Guy Ackermans Everyone is indispensable on campus, but not everyone is in the spotlight every day or takes much of the credit for the hard (team) work that goes on. Resource puts these colleagues in the limelight in the Key People series. This time, meet Joppe Boon (36), a bus driver on Syntus line C3 between Ede en Wageningen.
‘I didn’t decide I wanted to become a bus driver myself. The municipality of Wageningen suggested it, after I had been applying for jobs like crazy for two years. It wasn’t a good time. I wanted to work but couldn’t get a job anywhere. I’m sure it’s because I’m hard of hearing – people think I can’t communicate.
Before this, I was an administrator and did the bookkeeping for several companies, until I was made redundant. I will never go back to a financial department, because being a bus driver is super, it really is! I enjoy everything about it, especially the contact with passengers: chatting when they come and sit diagonally behind me, being with people. My hearing is not a problem, because I can see when people want to get off from the lights. It’s nice that no two days are the same, because of the people, the changing traffic situation, and the irregular shifts.
‘There was a fight once on my bus, which was nerve-racking.. They really came to blows. I didn’t know what to do, because I didn’t want to get involved and I’m not allowed to touch passengers. “Keep calm,” I said to myself. I pulled the bus over and called the police via the switchboard. Fortunately, they came quickly and took the fighters off the bus.
Keeping calm and not interfering was my strategy when face masks were compulsory too. Otherwise you only provoke aggression. And we don’t have an obligation to enforce the law, but we do have an obligation to transport people.
Being a bus driver is really great! I like everything about it
If someone boarded without a face mask, I reported it digitally so that someone from Services & Safety could come and check. Fortunately, in the seven years that I have been a bus driver, people have never been aggressive with me. That’s because of my personality: I’m always friendly and cheerful and I act normal.
During the Covid pandemic, I sometimes drove an empty bus for the entire shift and that was boring. A bus full of people, like on King’s Day for example, is much more fun. But I was mainly glad that I didn’t have to sit at home during the lockdowns.
On the Wageningen Student Plaza Facebook page, I post information about changes to timetables, because the communication from Syntus could be better, especially for international students. Student Plaza is also handy when I find a public transport pass, so the person who lost it can pick it up from me.’
