Kaiso (running out of service)

What kaiso means

Kaiso is the movement of a bus alone, with no passengers aboard, to where it needs to be. It happens in all sorts of situations before, after and between spells of revenue service: heading from the garage to the stop where service begins, returning to the garage once service is over, moving for inspection or refueling. A bus running out of service displays 回送 (kaiso) or 回送車 (kaisosha, a bus out of service) on the destination sign at the front and on the side, does not call at stops, and cannot be boarded. The idea is the same as an out-of-service train on the railways: a backstage movement made between spells of carrying the public.

Knowing the kaiso sign saves you from false hope

Waiting at a stop, when a bus in the familiar livery draws near from a distance, you naturally think "here it is." But if the sign reads 回送, that bus is going to sail right past you. Without knowing the word, you are left uneasy, wondering "why won't it stop for me?" or "have I got the wrong boarding point?" Knowing it, you can tell at a glance that "this one is not in service" and wait calmly for the next. The knowledge helps at the terminus too. The bus you came in on will not necessarily turn straight around, and if its sign changes to 回送 that is the signal that it is going home to the garage, so you can make the decision to look up your return trip separately in the timetable.

At stops and on roads near a garage, and in the morning and evening hours, you will see buses running out of service quite often. If you feel as though bus after bus goes by and you never get to board one, try checking the signs. A bus you can board displays a route number and a destination. Learning the two characters 回送 takes one irritation out of your waiting time. For the whole picture of how to tell the displays apart, see our article on how to read bus destination signs.

How this differs from deirikobin

What kaiso is easily confused with is deirikobin, in-service garage trips. Both involve movement between the garage and the routes in service, but whereas kaiso is a movement that carries no passengers, a deirikobin is revenue service that carries passengers while doubling as a run out of or back into the garage. In other words, even among buses that are equally "on their way back to the garage," you cannot board one running as kaiso and you can board a deirikobin. Tell them apart like this and you will not go wrong: 回送 on the destination sign means the former, a route number and the name of a stop mean the latter.

Common questions

Why do so many out-of-service buses pass my stop?

Most likely your stop sits on a corridor between a garage and the routes it serves. In the morning, buses head out empty from the garage to the stops where their runs begin; at night they head home empty once service ends. Routes that add extra buses for the rush hours generate still more of these trips either side of the peak. Near a garage there are times of day when out-of-service buses genuinely outnumber the ones you can ride.

Can the driver let you on if you ask nicely?

No. A bus running as kaiso is not in revenue service, so you cannot ride it even if it happens to be heading your way. What you can catch is a deirikobin, a garage run that picks up passengers from partway along its route. Once the sign flips from 回送 to a route number and destination, the bus is open for business.

Why is an out-of-service bus just sitting at the stop?

It may be waiting for its departure time or for a crew change, parked at or near the stop with the sign still reading 回送. While the doors stay shut, it has not started service. There is no need to wave it down: when a bus is ready to take passengers, it changes its sign and opens its doors.

If you are ever unsure whether that bus was out of service, the Busdoko map shows you on the spot how far away the next bus actually in service is.