BERMUDA'S bus service has met with complaint again, this time from a British visitor whose otherwise enjoyable stay was marred by bad experiences with its drivers.

Vacationer Avril Head spent ten waterlogged days on the island in mid-November. She said it was made obvious to her and her family that some of the drivers did not appreciate them bringing strollers onto the bus.

The group of six included two young children, one of whom, Dominic, is disabled. Born with foetal alcohol syndrome, the five year old only learned to walk last year and still has great difficulty climbing stairs or walking long distances because of a problem with one of his legs.

"We had a fantastic time, but we felt Bermuda was not really geared to families travelling with small children," Mrs. Head said.

"We were travelling on buses and some of the bus drivers really didn't like you getting on the buses with the buggy.

"We used to worry before the bus came about how the bus driver was going to behave.

"When you got a really nice one, they were wonderful but when you got a rough one . . . it was especially horrible if you'd been standing for five minutes in the rain ? at times it was absolutely torrential ? and then the bus comes. You've got to get the children out, close the buggies up, get on the bus and the driver's grumbling at you the whole time."

Yesterday Public Transportation Board (PTB) director Dan Simmons said the organisation's 137-strong force is well aware that strollers may be brought on buses.

"Strollers are permitted as long as they can fit into the designated area," he said.

"The stroller would have been, hopefully, one of those folding umbrella-type strollers. That shouldn't cause any problem. Drivers shouldn't complain about that.

"(However) I've seen some people come with a stroller that's essentially a small car without an engine ? that's entirely different and unreasonable.

"But it is reasonable for people to expect to be able to take a small umbrella-type stroller on the bus without any issues and without any drivers creating an issue."

Asked what he would say to a visitor such as Mrs. Head whose only complaint about the island was the poor bus service, Mr Simmons replied: "That you had a run of bad luck? (Such service) is not the case for the majority of visitors.

"We know that because we receive letters, there's letters written to the editor about how people had a wonderful trip and how the drivers treated them well."

Part of the problem, he said, was that there were those who simply rubbed "people the wrong way". He did not say that was an excuse for poor service, however.

"Our people are professionals. They're trained to be professionals and they should be able to manage that, but sometimes they don't for whatever reason."

Ironically, only a month prior to Mrs. Head's visit, Mr. Simmons told that complaints received by his organisation were "a little bit too high" ? 193 between April 2003 and October 2004, or 7.6 complaints per 100,000 miles.

To address that, he announced the PTB would include a personality test in its hiring to weed out miserable drivers. This, he said, was to be in addition to the Ambassador Programme ? a scheme designed to improve service.

Yesterday, Mr. Simmons acknowledged there had been an improvement since October, but said the PTB recognised a need for vigilance.

"Would I say the Ambassador Programme is a success? Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely it's a success," he said.

"The Ambassador Programme is very good at what it does, but the individual has to understand and put these skills into practice.

"I think part of our problem is that over the years we've gone through a standard hiring practice that did not take into account the attributes of the personalities we were hiring.

"What we're trying to do now is make sure we look at people even closer.

"We're going to put a screening test in place that will give us some insight to the individual's personality ? psychometric tests that they can take that would give us an indication of their personality traits."

The tests are to be distributed and analysed by a local supplier, he added.