Order

"Order" (柯打) is a term used by the bus industry to refer to the arrangement whereby a bus belonging to one route in the establishment is transferred to another route at a specified time. For example, in addition to KMB's scheduled buses on Route 89D, some of them will be redeployed to Route 272S during the afternoon peak hours on weekdays to serve as guest trips, and the trips redeployed to Route 272S are known as "Order".

As Citybus and the former NWFB have more complicated service arrangements, it is quite common for buses or bus captains to serve more than one route in a day under the "vehicle-hopping" (or "interlining") mode of operation, and it is difficult to use the term "order" to summarise the situation.

Definition[]

Let's take an example of the timetable for a special running order of the Cross-Harbour Bus Route 182 (Note: The table below is for illustrative purposes only. The simplified timetable may not be able to accurately reflect the current travelling conditions of the route:)

Scheduled departure time	Route	Origin location	Arrival location
06:50	Deadheading	Sha Tin Depot	Shui Chuen O
07:10	982X	Shui Chuen O	Wan Chai (Fleming Road)
	Deadheading	Wan Chai (Fleming Road)	Chun Shek
09:10	47X	Chun Shek	Kwai Shing (East)
10:22	47X	Kwai Shing (East)	Chun Shek
	Deadheading	Chun Shek	Sha Tin Station
12:30	170	Sha Tin Station	Wah Fu (Central)
14:20	170	Wah Fu (Central)	Sha Tin Station
	Deadheading	Sha Tin Station	Central (Macau Ferry)
17:00	182X	Central (Macau Ferry)	Yu Chui Court
18:45	182	Yu Chui Court	Central (Macau Ferry)
20:20	182	Central (Macau Ferry)	Yu Chui Court
	Deadheading	Yu Chui Court	Sha Tin Depot

As can be seen from the above table, this vehicle is part of Route 182 in terms of establishment, but at the same time it has to serve Routes 47X and 170, which are not subordinate to this route. This arrangement of transferring to other routes is known as "Order". Bus operators would use the following sentences to describe the scheduling arrangement shown in the above table:

"A bus of Route 182 is required to order on Routes 47X, 170, 182X and 982X."
"The Route 170 bus departing from Sha Tin Station at 12:30 is an order bus of Route 182."

Functions[]

The number of vehicles required for the same bus route at different time slots varies, and the patronage of different bus routes at the same time slots also varies. The inclusion of "Order" arrangement between bus routes in the journey time table can help redistribute resources between routes in response to the demand of different routes, so that the service level can better meet the actual demand.

In addition, some routes have also adopted the Order from other routes to maintain the service level during meal breaks or rest periods of the bus captains. For example, in the evening, when the bus captain of LWB Route R8 withdraws itself from service for meal break, a bus from Route E32 will take over the bus, and the bus from Route E32 will be transferred back to the original route only after the bus captain of Route R8 has finished his meal break.

Special Routes and Auxillary Routes[]

Traditionally, most order journeys involve special routes. Many of these special routes, like regular routes, are individually numbered, but their service hours are limited to a few trips during peak hours, so they are not assigned with any scheduled buses.

Some KMB routes, even though they provide whole-day service, do not have their own scheduled buses because they are classified as supplementary routes to other routes in the schedule of routes and have to rely on the Order of the main routes to provide service. For example, Route 213D is classified as a special trip of Route 13D in the Schedule of Routes Order and therefore does not have its own scheduled bus. Even though there are seven dedicated buses on Route 213D (which do not actually serve Route 13D), these seven buses are still scheduled buses on Route 13D and are deployed on Route 213D on a full-time "order" basis. The same applies to Route 276B, which is a special trip of Route 276A.

Interhopping Operation Method[]

This operational arrangement is usually used on less frequent routes where the fleet is shared to minimise operating resources. In the past, KMB Sai Kung Rural Routes 94 and 99 had been operating in this mode for 26 years, with scheduled buses running between the two routes.

When returning from Nai Chung to Sai Kung on Route 99, the bus captain would put the bus into the lay-by of Route 94 and then divert it to the 00-minute headway of that route. When returning to Sai Kung from Wong Shek Pier with a 35-minute headway, it would divert it to Route 99, with a 15-minute headway every hour. However, in case of serious traffic congestion, the two routes might be "scrambled" and the station masters would adjust the vehicles according to the situation to maintain the original frequency.

In the early days, buses used rollsigns to indicate routes and destinations, and bus captains only needed to stir the route signs in the cab. However, KMB later changed to using plastic destination signs to indicate destinations, and in the case of all double-decked buses, since the sign boxes were placed in the front of the upper decks of the buses, the captains had to walk up to the upper decks every time they changed routes, which was quite inconvenient, so bus captains of these two routes later decided not to install the plastic signs in the sign box (inserting only "white board" plastic plates in the sign boxes at the front and rear of the buses), and instead inserted them in the windscreen of the front of the buses on the lower deck; and KMB also made a slight change in the allocation of buses by arranging for buses using rollsigns to be the scheduled buses of the two routes in order to solve this problem. After the popularity of electric licence plates, the problem was solved.

At present, KMB still operates four routes in the hopping mode, namely, N36 and N39, and routes 290 and 290A. The same applies to Citybus routes 798P and 798X.

Relationship with special sights[]

The biggest difference between "orders" and "special sights" is that orders are pre-scheduled, while special sights are a temporary deployment. In the past, as bus companies did not announce their service arrangements to the public, bus fans could not easily know the order of some routes. Therefore, when there is an infrequently-used model (e.g. Route 269C's special special running order P76 operates on Route 215X with a Volvo B8L order bus), bus fans would often misunderstand that the special sight is a normal order.

Similar to the cross-depot and cross-company special sights, the order may also be inter-factory or inter-company. For example, a bus on Route 968 of Yuen Long Depot is assigned to Route 112, which is not under the management of Yuen Long Depot. An example of cross-company order is Disneyland Resort routes R33 and R42 which are scheduled to be served by KMB vehicles.

In the case of green minibuses (GMBs), the use of vehicles of other subsidiaries with different Passenger Service Licence (PSL) numbers to provide support would be in breach of the Conditions of Operation and would be a rare occurrence. However, cross-subsidisation of vehicles between companies of the same series may occur from time to time, although TD seldom cares about such deployment actions:

Vehicles of Route 55K under Golden Way, a subsidiary of Ma Ah Muk, may support Route 50K of its another subsidiary Sheung Shui Public Light Bus.
The New Territories GMB Route 41 operated under Eternal Loyal Limited, a subsidiary of Yau Man Investment, has another minibus from Route 140M of its another subsidiary Extra Billion supporting during the morning peak hours. Besides, In addition, minibuses on Routes 40 and 41 are occasionally used to support Route 46 operated by the parent company Yau Man Investment in times of low demand.
As the operator of New Territories GMB Route 411, Top Billion (Asia), and the operator of Kowloon GMB Route 86, Multi Logistics, are the same organisation, vehicles will be deployed from Route 411 to support Route 86 when the supply of Route 86 falls short of demand; and vehicles of Route 86 will be redeployed to Route 411 when the demand of Route 86 falls short of demand vice versa.
Due to heavy demand on the Hong Kong Island GMB Route 69series operated by AMS Transport's subsidiary, Aberdeen Maxicab Service, there is frequent support from routes 66, 66A and 68 operated by another AMS Transport subsidiary, Fastlink Transportation.
Himwell has two passenger service licences, 5146C and 10057C, the former covering routes 68K, 68S and 69K, and the latter covering the Route 811 series, with a minibus MD8322 of Route 811 series requiring to support Route 69K on holidays.
Shine Bright Services used to have two Passenger Service Licences, 6967C and 15167C, the former covering Routes 601, 602, 603, 604, 605 and 606S, and the latter covering Route 620, with VT865 on Route 601 and LV4227 on Route 604 required to support Route 620 during peak hours, and the vehicles on Route 620 supporting Routes 601, 602 and 604 from time to time. By April 2023, Shine Bright Services has merged two Passenger Service Licences (PSLs), numbered 15988C.
During Ching Ming and Chung Yeung Festivals, Manhattan Resources' Hong Kong Island GMB Route 18M between Chai Wan Station and Cape Collinson is in great demand and is therefore supported by vehicles from its associated company, Peace Base Investment.

"Combat Buses"[]

The former China Motor Bus (CMB) called order Buses "Combat Buses" (打仗車), probably because they were extra buses that served as reinforcements for busy routes during peak hours, and were as eager to divert the huge commuter flow as if they were on the march, hence the name. However, unlike other bus companies, these "Combat Buses" would only operate during peak hours, and there are special models (e.g. BR1-2, TC1, DL1-2, late service Daimler/Leyland Fleetline (including London Fleetline), etc.) which operate on these Combat Buses, whereas normally these trips will be operated by the depot's running order buses, e.g. the special trip of Cross-Harbour Bus Route 104, which runs from Chak On to Central Market and so on. At present, some bus fans still use this name, but it is not as popular as the term "order".