What does a bus attendant do?
A Bus Attendant performs a variety of support tasks to ensure that passengers get to receive optimal services. Although the extent of their responsibilities depends on their place or industry of employment, it typically revolves around answering questions about bus routes and other services, directing passengers on and off the bus, assisting passengers with special or particular needs, adjusting seats, and handling documents. Bus Attendants must prepare and hand out refreshments, distribute blankets or pillows, and operate wheelchair lifts.
Bus attendant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real bus attendant resumes:
- Implement speech, occupational and ABA therapy strategies.
- Attend certification class for first aid, CPR, equipment, and kindergarten/first grade training.
- Transport patients utilizing safety, equipment and protocols throughout HFWH
- Examine injure persons and administer first aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, if necessary, using training and medical supplies and equipment.
- Attend all essential workshops that are requested for ESE attendants.
- Examine injure persons and administer first aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, if necessary, using training and medical supplies and equipment.
Bus attendant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 27% of Bus Attendants are proficient in Cleanliness, Safety Rules, and CPR. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Physical health, and Visual ability.
We break down the percentage of Bus Attendants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Cleanliness, 27%
Maintained cleanliness and organization of assigned station and service areas.
- Safety Rules, 24%
Provided support, instructions, and behavior management to help students understand and comply with school bus safety rules.
- CPR, 13%
Administer Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) when required and seek emergency medical help when needed.
- Emergency Situations, 6%
Reacted appropriately and independently in emergency situations.
- Seat Belts, 4%
Secured students and/or their equipment (e.g., wheel chairs), to seat belts to ensure their safety and well-being.
- Incident Reports, 3%
Prepared reports, seating charts of assigned riders, incident reports, passenger misconduct for the purpose of documenting activities.
"cleanliness," "safety rules," and "cpr" are among the most common skills that bus attendants use at work. You can find even more bus attendant responsibilities below, including:
Customer-service skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a bus attendant to have is customer-service skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "bus drivers regularly interact with passengers and must be courteous and helpful." Bus attendants often use customer-service skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "assist bus driver and students while utilizing customer relations skills. "
Physical health. Many bus attendant duties rely on physical health. "federal and state regulations do not allow people to become bus drivers if they have a medical condition, such as high blood pressure or epilepsy, which may interfere with their operation of a bus," so a bus attendant will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways bus attendant responsibilities rely on physical health: "work with students with physical, sensory, emotional or learning disabilities. "
Visual ability. bus attendants are also known for visual ability, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to bus attendant responsibilities, because "bus drivers must be able to pass vision tests." A bus attendant resume example shows how visual ability is used in the workplace: "ensured the safety and proper transport of special needs children performed daily visual inspections of bus equipment and assistive devices"
The three companies that hire the most bus attendants are:
- Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES6 bus attendants jobs
- ABM Industries2 bus attendants jobs
- Sonesta Hotels2 bus attendants jobs
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Compare different bus attendants
Bus attendant vs. Light rail controller
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a bus attendant are more likely to require skills like "cleanliness," "safety rules," "cpr," and "seat belts." On the other hand, a job as a light rail controller requires skills like "financial statements," "a/b," "light rail system," and "control strategies." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Light rail controllers tend to reach higher levels of education than bus attendants. In fact, light rail controllers are 16.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Bus attendant vs. Dining car steward
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, bus attendant responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "cleanliness," "safety rules," "cpr," and "emergency situations." Meanwhile, a dining car steward has duties that require skills in areas such as "kitchen equipment," "fine dining," "meal preparation," and "electronic devices." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Dining car stewards earn similar levels of education than bus attendants in general. They're 1.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Bus attendant vs. Passenger representative
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, bus attendants are more likely to have skills like "cleanliness," "safety rules," "cpr," and "emergency situations." But a passenger representative is more likely to have skills like "customer service," "administrative assistance," "dod," and "customer complaints."
Most passenger representatives achieve a higher degree level compared to bus attendants. For example, they're 7.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Bus attendant vs. Ground host/hostess
Types of bus attendant
Updated January 8, 2025
