The Guild of British Coach Operators has revealed that 44% of its members’ new driver recruits require licence training to qualify to drive a coach or bus.
The data follows the launch of a new recruitment campaign staged by the Guild to help its members to attract new drivers who are at a car licence level.
The figure is made from an average of 38% of drivers recruited being new to the industry, while a further average of 6% are recruited from within member companies but are without a PCV licence.
In addition to countering an anticipated shrinkage of the pool of existing available drivers, Guild Administrator Steve Whiteway says the move to in-house training reflects a growing emphasis on attitude and customer service ethos, with operators keen to recruit drivers of “the right temperament”. A focus on matching drivers to work they enjoy forms part of that, and aims to improve retention.
In that respect, the Guild is leading the way. Of its 23 members, 18 are understood to carry out their own driver training from car licence level.
Most training takes place in-house, encompassing Driver CPC topics, familiarisation and type training in addition to the initial training required for a PCV licence.
Mr Whiteway sees such an approach as an essential long-term solution to recruitment and one that will likely be more widely adopted. “We can’t keep fishing in the same pool of existing drivers that move from place to place,” he says. “And it’s good to know that we’re recruiting new people into the industry.
“The future has to be training our own people to do the job that we want them to do. There are signs that the age profile is starting to drop, and younger people are coming into the industry, with much of that because of in-house training. We have to be flexible in how we take new people on, and find the work that suits them.”
