When I was young, a public bus was a two-man operation. And yes, in those days, it was always men.
One was the driver. It was his job to drive the bus, and to stop to pick up new passengers and let old ones get off.
The other person was the bus conductor. His job was to take bus fares and issue tickets.
In Auckland buses today, there’s usually only the driver, but sometimes there are other workers on a bus. These are the Transport Officers.
Their job is to check that passengers have tagged on and paid. There are usually two of them, but sometimes three, depending on the time of day and how busy or full the bus is. You can watch a short video about them here.
Anyway, that’s just the background to today’s post. The other day, I was getting on the bus. It was eight in the morning, and lots of young and older school kids were getting on.
I couldn’t get on, because a Transport Officer was blocking the way. He was talking to a young primary school girl. The girl got on the bus, but as I was tagging on, I heard what the officer said to the driver. He said, “I can’t leave her here. I’ll be in trouble.”
Let me explain what happened. The girl didn’t pay and didn’t have a card. She was very young, maybe around seven, and there was no adult with her. This was a problem for the officer.
His job is to stop people using the bus without paying, but if he didn’t let the girl on the bus and just left her on the street, something bad might happen to her.
If his boss heard what he did, he might lose his job. That’s what the title of this post means, but I think he did the right thing in this case. He let her on and she got to school safely.
Now Hear this. 
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