In the second in our series on Women on Wheels, Sadbh spoke to Pam Prescod, who's driven a public bus for eleven years and takes no funny business from anyone. 

This interview was first published in Issue 26. You can buy the issue here or subscribe to Oh Comely here. 

When I meet Pam Prescod in the Tower Transit depot in Leyton, it’s a glaringly bright day and Pam is running around pretending to hide from management. Ducking and diving between the other drivers the heat doesn’t faze her—all she cares about is her half-faked fear of working another shift that Tuesday. “I’m not here!” she whispers, laughing.

It’s her cheekiness and pragmatism that catches my attention. Pam’s been a driver with Tower Transit for eleven years and drives the 308, the W14 and the RV1 (her favourite). The job has its ups and downs, but Pam has an impressive kind of patience and humour with which she tackles the day to day.

Why did you start driving buses? I like driving. I’ve always been driving from when I was young, so I thought, “What about doing it as a job?” So that’s what I tried to do. I didn’t pass first time, didn’t pass second time, but the examiner saw me and said, “We’re going to pass you,” because I kept missing it by one point! I’ve been at Tower Transit ever since. I’m a spare driver now. I love this job because you’re independent, even though there are lots of people watching you. You’re working freelance and you get to choose the times you work.

Eleven years is a long time. You must enjoy it. It’s good fun. Actually they had a bet when I first started that I’d only last about four months. I proved them all wrong, because they’ve gone and I’m still here! I used to cry, and they called me crybaby. Then I toughened up. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just that I’ve toughened to the point where I don’t get too emotional.

How do you deal with rude passengers? You have to educate them in your diplomatic way, and try and stay calm. I had a situation on the 308 that I had to deal with diplomatically. This guy was shouting and screaming, and I let him get on with it. The thing was that he came back and said sorry. You start on the driver because that’s your first front. You just let them cool themselves, they finish, they take a seat and then when you’ve finished getting them to their destination, they’ll come back and say, “Sorry, driver, I didn’t mean to have a go.” And I get that.

I think people assume that because there’s the glass there, it’s not a person behind it. We’re human. But they expect a robot.

So how do you show people that you’re not a robot? You have to be patient. Everyone just wants to tap and go, but you’ll get the odd one that wants to mess about, feeling their clothes for their oyster card. I call it, “Head, shoulders, knees and toes,” and I go, “Oh, you’re doing that dance! Yeah, I know that one, let’s do that together.” Then I wait a bit and say, “Listen, these people want to get to work, and you’re doing a song and dance. Let’s not go down that road, bye-bye.” I’m a character, that’s just who I am, and this job did take it out of me in the beginning. I’m the same person, but I don’t take it too deeply anymore. If someone is angry, let them get angry and move it on.

Read more in this series: Stefanie Mainey Competes on Roller Skates.