This post was updated Aug. 25 at 11:54 p.m.

From passing out kindness bracelets to listening to people share their grief, BruinBus drivers do more than transport students to class.

Last year, BruinBus operators provided 294,339 rides to students, faculty and the general public. For many UCLA bus drivers, the job requires patience, awareness and a love for talking to people.

Alexis Powell said she has been driving at UCLA for five months. She added that she looked for a new job after driving a bus from LAX to Downtown Long Beach for LA Metro, working six days a week and over 12 hour shifts because passengers would frequently remain on the bus after her last stop.

“My final straw was when a man hit me on the bus,” Powell said. “I just felt stuck.”

But driving at UCLA could not be more different, with students open to conversation and most just wanting to get to class, she said. She added that the job at UCLA also came with a higher salary, $23.92/hour – a $4 raise from Metro – and weekends off. After receiving her first check from UCLA, she said she went shopping.

Daly Herrera, who has been a bus operator at UCLA for five months, said driving a bus at UCLA brings her pride.

“I’m a woman, a single mother – to show my daughters that women can do whatever we want,” she said. “The girls look at me driving a big bus, and I see on their faces how happy and proud (they are).”

Before UCLA, Herrera drove for public transportation and made deliveries for LA County, she said. She added that when she got the job at UCLA, she jumped up and down and cried with her husband and daughters.

However, the path to UCLA was not an easy one for Herrera. Growing up in Honduras, Herrera said she came to an age when her friends were attending school to become lawyers, engineers and teachers. Deciding her country was too dangerous to remain in, she came to the United States and started working, she added.

Even though Herrera missed out on pursuing her own education, she said she feels blessed to take UCLA students to their classes, students who will one day also become teachers, lawyers and engineers.

Gabriel Ha, who has been driving at UCLA for five years, said one of the privileges of driving a bus at a university is getting to see people go through their entire college journey. Ha added that this included a law student who recently graduated and a linguistics professor who he often drove along the apartment route.

But his most memorable experience, Ha added, was when a student shared his grief with Ha after his father died from a heart attack.

“In some ways, you’re a therapist on wheels,” Ha said.

Melvina Okoh, who has been driving buses for 10 years, said when she first started driving, she was afraid of not being able to reach everything because of her height.

Now having been a driver at UCLA for a year, she said her favorite memory is of a student who called Okoh her teacher, as they practiced English together at the front of the bus every day. Okoh dropped the student off at Murphy Hall along the U2 route – a route that had a total of 61,786 passengers last school year.

Okoh said that when she drove for public transportation, the job was tiring – having to navigate difficult situations with passengers and once getting jumped by two individuals. She said the incident, and especially the police’s lack of concern for it, led to her leaving public transportation and driving for Mount Saint Mary’s University.

Okoh added that the most important quality to have as a bus driver is a positive personality and to not take things personally. As a driver at UCLA, where she hopes to work until retirement, she said she loves meeting people and once handed out bracelets to students that said “Kindness matters.”

“If I could just bring on kindness to make the world a little bit better, I’d like to do that,” Okoh said.

Ha added that conversing with students helps to ease the boredom of driving the same route every day.

“The thing that keeps me going a lot of times is the passengers and conversations with them and getting to know them,” he said.

Despite their love for their jobs, the bus drivers said their roles do not come without bumps in the road.

Okoh said it is difficult to drive while so many distracted students walk around Westwood.

“The skateboarders, the walkers, the cell phone users – everybody has their head down,” Okoh said. “Nobody pays attention so we have to be extra cautious, extra careful.”

Ha added that the main difference between driving a bus and a car is that the wheelbase, or the distance between the front and rear wheels, is a lot longer on a bus, so the driver has to watch their back end to make sure that the vehicle clears any cars or curbs when turning. Powell added that when driving a bus, one has to heavily rely on their mirrors to see their surroundings and can only make turns in the shape of an “L.”

The bus operators also said they can run into difficulties with needing to use the bathroom while on route.

Powell said that when she drove for Metro, she could easily leave the bus to use the bathroom when needed. But now, she said she must put the needs of students getting to class before her own and will wait to run into a building after her last stop. Ha added that over the years, he’s learned to adjust his fluid intake so he is prepared for a long route without a break.

Although Ha enjoys driving buses at UCLA, he said the job also comes with a lot of pressure, as he always has to be attentive and aware of all surroundings. But in the end, he added that he hopes to bring what he’s learned as a bus driver to other parts of his life.

“Be the best person you can be in whatever job that you’re doing, whether it’s custodial, whether it’s pumping gas or driving buses,” he said.