WHY DO BUSES HAVE THESE NUMBERS?

Ever wonder what these numbers mean on the side of buses?
Watch this video and find out how bus companies number their buses!

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Videos Clips used from Other YouTube Channels

CTA buses

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CU MTD bus

[offrails]

During my undergrad years, I rode a city bus to class. I often took route 12, and I noticed that there were roughly four buses that served that route (two Rapid Transit Series and two Gillig Phantoms), and I recall one particular driver who took pride in his job and regularly drove one of the RTSs - he would announce stops before they installed the GPS enabled robotic voice announcer system. One day I was at work (it was a retail job) and he was out shopping in my department, still in his bus driver uniform. I mentioned to him, "I think I ride your bus in the morning" and he responded, "Yes, number 12", and I responded with "Number 515", and I think he was surprised I even knew his bus number. Many years later, when I took the bus less often, I actually rode on his bus (a different bus, but still an RTS) once and he still remembered me. Yes, I'm on the autism spectrum

For small general aviation planes, pilots and ATC often refer to them by the last three characters of the tail number, usually using the phonetic alphabet. If you were flying a Cessna with registration N1245DF, the tower might tell you "Cessna Five Delta Foxtrot, I need you to extend your downwind". The "N" indicates that this is a civilian plane registered in the US. Other countries will use different letters. In the UK, for example, "G" is used, e.g. "G-BBDG" was the registration for one of the prototype Concordes (referred to as Delta Golf), Many countries use two letters, such as Japan, that prefixes all tail numbers with JA

[BusDriverLife]

In Sacramento..the lower display is our “block” or run/schedule number for that particular bus and operator! I think I’ll make a video explaining it a little more thanks to this video giving me the idea! 😎

[phucm]

Love the video James! One small correction, the "N number" on the tail of the plane is actually the country code for aircraft registration, we called it the "tail number". For example N is for planes registered in the US, F for France, HL for South Korea and so on.

[FDSixtyNine]

Back when I was in school, the school buses were known by both bus number (eg 450) and an animal (eg. Octopus). The number was to show what year the bus was made and what order in the assembly line was (2004, #50). The animal was random and to help the younger kids know what bus to get on. As us students got older, we learned to associate the bus' number with it's route rather than the animal.

[thegodblogger]

Greyhound used to number theirs as 4 digits with the first 2 denoting which division "owned" the coach. For instance 4915 may have been from Eastern, 5500 from Southern, 3812 from Central, and 6515 from Western. On longer distance runs where the buses operated through multiple divisions they were considered "on loan" while operating through that division.

[trubtravels]

Im from the UK and I work for a large bus company called Stagecoach which employs around 24, 000 people and has around 8300 vehicles. So when you start every employee is given a number unique to you so not to confuse you with anybody else with the same name. This is mainly for payroll purposes. You are given a "ERG" card so you can log on your ticket machine, these too have an unique identifier and a 4 digit pint number which you use to log on to your ticket machine so you can collect fares and the office know how much revenue you have taken on your duty. Our Duties have also have numbers assigned to them. 1* - Split duty, 4** - long duty around (10hrs), 5** - standard duty (7 to 9 hours) & 6** new driver rota.

Our buses also have unique 5 digit national fleet number assigned to them to help quick identification when fueling and their place in the whole national fleet.
Double Deckers start with the number 1
Single Deckers start with the number 2 (around 40 to 50 seats)
Midi Buses starts with the number 3 (around 30 to 40 seats)
Mini Buses starts with the number 4 (around 20 to 30 seats)
Coaches start with the number 5
Electric single decks and New Routemaster start with the number 6
Electric midi buses start with the number 7
Electric double deckers start with the number 8
Ancillary vehicles starts with the number 9

[michaelcooknell]

Back when I worked for Greyhound Canada, some employees had nicknames for some of our buses. 1234 we called The Sesame Street bus, 1224 was the Christmas Eve bus and 1225 was The Christmas Bus.

[brandonhurley]

Occasionally Greyhound buses will have letters in front of the unit number like "GA86610". If you see a bus like this it means it's owned by the state that's abbreviated (GA being Georgia for example). It also means those buses are only supposed to be operated in the surrounding area but that doesn't always happen

[charlescorey]

Great video James. As per the numbers in the lower right windshield, I asked a Washington DC Metro driver about those a few years back when I was regularly commuting. He told me that on their system, the number represents your "block number" and that supervisors use that "block number" to check the buses to see if they are in the right place at the right time. He said supervisors do not go by schedules or bus number but by "block number" -- where a supervisor can look at an instantly determine if a bus is in the right place at the right time and on schedule or out of sequence.

[joebutchko]

On charters with multiple buses it's easier for passengers returning to the bus to remember "princess annabella" (for example) rather than some number.

[narglefargle]

One thing I learned from my younger days as a mail carrier: USPS vehicles have a year indicator on their fleet numbers, but it's only one digit. The first digit of the number is the last digit of the build year. So, if you know anything about cars (and if you know that the ubiquitous mail truck, the Grumman LLV, was only built between 1987 and 1994), you can instantly tell the build year of any USPS vehicle. So if you see an LLV with the number 9202911, you will know that it was built in 1989.

Also, love the channel. Bus stuff is cool, but the Star Trek references are cooler. Needs more DS9 and Lower Decks, though 😁

[Cory-]

Hey James, On City Transit Buses, the lower/smaller lit up box sitting inside the lower passenger side of the windshield with either numbers or letter/ number sequence is what is called a “BLOCK NUMBER” a block number is used because on every City Transit Route there are many many Buses running that same route maybe 10, or 15, or 20, or even 30 minutes or an hour apart from each other. So that “BLOCK NUMBER” is used only by the City Transit Company and the Bus Operators to know what time slots and at what times that particular Bus Number will be Arriving and Departing from each Bus Stop on that particular Route Number on that day.
Hope that helps!
(So in short it is used only by the Transit Company and Bus Operator to help them keep them know where that Bus fits into the line of Buses Running on that Route.)

[RonnieGreher]

I’ve worked for 2 line run carriers. Bus numbers are generally 5 digits and 2 of those indicate the model year of the vehicle. Beyond that there are internal categories denoted by some of the other digits, including but not limited to where they go or what sub group they’re in within the fleet. A sharp eyed person can tell quite a bit from the vehicle number, if they know the code.

[TakingTransit]

11:05 I think the use of that sign varies depending on the transit agency. For my local agency, it shows the run number, which is used to designate the combination of specific trips and routes that bus is doing that day

[Tim_Gagnon]

@Motorcoach World Growing up my dad worked for Peter Pan Bus Lines. He told me when the buses were lined up in order by number, each bus had a word or phrase an it told the story of Peter Pan. The company operates out of Springfield, Massachusetts.

[johnstrachan]

For many transit systems the number in the lower windshield is a Run Number (Different agencies may use another name). Purpose is to identify which bus in the Route/Line that the bus is on. If the bus company was a team sport, The Destination sign identifying the Route/Line would be the team and the Run number would be your Jersey number identifying who you are on the team.

[spiwarc]

@motorcoach world your question regarding the CTA bus number sign in the front windshield IS indeed the run number. The 1st letter or number denotes which of the CTA garages the run originates from as well as the 3-digit run identifier. Also in the center of the windshield is a small white sticker that shows the same garage number/letter as the run (N = North Park, F = Forrest Glen, K = Kedzie, 6 = Chicago avenue, 7 = 74th street. So run F611 is run 611 out of the Forest Glen Garage, 6944 is run 944 out of Chicago Avenue). Also CTA trains display a 3 digit run number that identifies both the route AND the direction (ie: 9xx usually is a Northbound Red Line and 8xx is a Southbound, 0xx is a Westbound Green Line and 1xx is an Eastbound)

[tomstrat]

Hey, James--it's real simple. The number in the sign on the lower pax side windshield panel is commonly known as the block number and it refers to what the vehicle is assigned to. It's a combination of what different routes that vehicle performs in the course of its day through multiple enroute reliefs. Not to be confused with the run number which corresponds with what the driver was doing in the course of their day which can include enroute reliefs or multiple pullouts/pullins/splits, etc. I'm a veteran of Santa Clara County CA VTA That's how it works. Real simple. Thanks for your great posts!

[alblua]

For CTA, the lower display is the run number! First character (number or letter) is garage base and three digits following is the run number. Kedzie garage runs, for example, are Kxxx and Chicago garage is 5xxx

[straightpipediesel]

I believe you need to assign a CMV power unit number for various paperwork, including eLog and paper logs. It's a violation if the driver fails to record or verify the power unit number on a ELD. The eLog regulation says any alphanumeric combination from 1-10 characters (49 CFR 395 Subpart B Appendix A). Paper log requirements are in 49 CFR 395.8(f)(5).