I suppose it all depends on the inspectors and which ones are bus enthusiasts and remember details like which bus was traditionally used on which route and maybe some of them don't care as much. The school bus I used to get was always 313 (AXI 313) for my last 3 years at school and it still is now, 7 1/2 years altogether, an excellent run on the same route. A good few of the Downpatrick routes are quite traditional like that. I suppose things are just done the way they always have been. Getting the same bus every day for years is brilliant if you're not on that journey very much and it can suddenly take you away back in time and remind you of what was happening so many years ago. I like it anyway.
In smaller sub-depots where there aren't as many buses to pick from things can stay traditional even longer especially as the bus drivers get very attached to their buses. Since before I started school one of the two buses in Ardglass was 1008 (IXI 1008) and it always had the same driver; some mad person burned it when parked in Ardglass(!) depot in Summer 1996 and for a while after that everytime a regular passenger got on the 7:00 out of Ardglass in the morning he said to them "They burned my bus". He was very upset about it I think.
But it was replaced by 1032 (JXI 1032); that driver retired and there was one long-term temporary driver (from Downpatrick) and then one other of the Downpatrick drivers transferred permanently to Ardglass and 1032 has been there all the time through all the changes and still doing the Ardglass duties today.
Does anybody know do drivers in the small sub-depots get paid less because they have more regular working hours and don't work weekends unless there are private hires?