It’s 11:30 p.m. A woman gets on the Later Gator and says to the driver, “I’m sorry, I’ll try not to throw up.”
Her two friends apologize to the driver and take the woman to the back of the bus, handing her a white plastic bag — just in case.
The driver shakes her head as they walk to their seats.
“Oh my gosh,” she mutters as the woozy girl begins to hurl. Luckily, her vomit lands in the bag.
This kind of incident is the norm for Later Gator bus drivers.
Every Wednesday through Saturday, these late-night drivers see many crazy drunks, hear profanity that could hail from the high seas and smell far too much bodily fluid.
“Every driver who works the Later Gator has stories,” one driver said.
These Regional Transit System workers drive buses that cater mostly to students, providing safe passage home for the inebriated, fatigued and lazy. They drive various routes from downtown to midtown, through and around UF’s campus and back to downtown.
The night begins at 8:30 p.m. Few passengers are on board.
Two hours later, the smell of perfume and cheap beer filters through the bus as partygoers hop on, ready for a night of tomfoolery.
The women, some in high heels and cleavage-baring dresses, take pictures to document the night’s escapades. The guys, sporting button-down shirts and dark-washed jeans, discuss which bar to hit first.
The bus is like a moving gossip grapevine. Friends chat about relationships, clubbing, alcohol and sexually transmitted diseases. School is far from their minds.
At 11:20 p.m., the driver asks a group of about 10 friends if they’re getting off at the next stop, but they’re talking too loudly to hear him. At the stop, they debate for almost a minute about getting off while the driver waits.
A few thank him as they get off the bus. Others walk past.
“Be safe!” the driver shouts after them. Once again, they don’t seem to hear him.
“People are rude during the day,” he said. “Add alcohol to the equation. What do you think happens?”
But this behavior is not unusual. Later Gator drivers have experienced it all.
And even if they hand passengers a trash can, not everyone has good aim.
If the bus is contaminated by any type of bodily fluid, the driver reports the situation to dispatch and takes the bus to be sanitized by the maintenance crew at the station, said Chip Skinner, spokesman for RTS.
The drivers have been trained to respond to all kinds of situations, including when riders get “overly intimate,” he said. Each summer, they go through a training program to remind them of policies and procedures.
The go-to action is to report the issue to dispatch, he said. The night’s supervisor will then respond and meet the bus to deal with the problem, particularly if it involves a physical fight.
Skinner said drivers are allowed to turn away students who seem too unruly. RTS has a handful of students who are banned from using the bus system because of bad behavior, he said.
The buses, which stop running at 3 a.m., are free to UF students, but some drivers stop checking for Gator 1 Cards late at night.
“I’d rather they not drive,” a bus driver said.
But sometimes they have to refuse entry if the bus is too full.
Between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., students squeeze into the buses as bars start to close.
It’s a claustrophobic person’s nightmare.
As bodies are pressed together, it’s hard not to inhale an intoxicating combination of colognes, perfumes, bad breath and sweat.
Stephanie Nguyen gets off the bus on Southwest Second Avenue and welcomes the Florida heat. She said she thinks the drivers blast the air conditioning to prevent the bus from smelling.
The 21-year-old microbiology senior said she takes the bus from her downtown apartment to the bars on University Avenue at least three times a week. She has witnessed and been involved in the craziness that occurs after a fun-filled night out.
She said she has seen girls flirt shamelessly with drivers in the hopes they will stop at their doorsteps — a trick she has never seen work.
She has also seen small scuffles start and has heard passengers whine and call the driver names.
“As a bus driver, you see so much that nothing really fazes you, so you don’t feel the need to react to everything,” she said. “I feel like most people in public service jobs are underappreciated.”
Every time Nguyen waits for the bus, she said, she secretly hopes for a particular driver: the one who always seems to be in a good mood, inquires about her evening plans and reminds her to stay safe.
Not all drivers are as friendly, she said. However, their foul mood is often understandable, like the time her friend threw up into a bag that, apparently, was too small.
“We tried to clean up, but I don’t think we did a good job,” she said. “The driver clearly was not happy. She gave us a very dirty look.”
Despite the rowdy crowd, some drivers enjoy working the late shift. Skinner said many drivers like having the day free, and others need the overtime.
The shifts are assigned through bids. The senior drivers get to pick their schedules first, so the Later Gator shifts are often taken by less-experienced drivers.
He said many empathize with students, as they recall their own college days.
They understand that dealing with drunken students is part of the job. It’s not easy, but it’s routine.
It’s just another night on the Later Gator.
