The year’s second heatwave has arrived for some of the country. As sure as summer follows spring, with it will have come complaints from bus drivers about oven-like cab conditions. In the past those were generally batted away with a ‘that’s how it is’. No longer.
Stories that heaters are sometimes deliberately left on at such times to prevent the engine from boiling are perhaps over-egged, although it certainly has happened in the past. Heaven forbid that a radiator should see the angry side of an air duster before warm weather comes. Fortunately the bus industry has largely moved on from that.
Meanwhile, union Unite under Sharon Graham takes a hard line with operators that it believes should be doing better, efforts that generally focus on remuneration.
Its tactic has drawn multiple successes; most recently, Unite secured a pay deal for drivers at a Bee Network contractor that will see the baseline rate reach a claimed £21 per hour in 2028. For members that benefit, that result is worth every penny of their weekly dues.
Unite has now turned its attention to bus cab heat and driver fatigue, items that are closely linked. Coach drivers are more fortunate in enjoying factory-fitted air-conditioning, as are bus staff in a growing number of cases. The big problem for Unite comes when it is broken and goes without repair while the vehicle remains in service.
Such a position is in the union’s crosshairs. It has reissued a letter for drivers to present to their employer when a cab is too hot and/or air-conditioning or air cooling equipment is defective. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, the union advises them to refuse to drive such a bus. It will fully support them in doing so.
Anyone who has spent time around bus depot allocation desks will know that refusal to take a vehicle is serious business that can quickly become fractious. It would be easy to view the Unite threat as being difficult, but a closer look is necessary now the 1970s are long passed.
Solar gain through the glass that surrounds a driving cab can make the temperature within significantly higher than that without. When the latter is well over 30 degrees Celsius, and potentially closer to 40 in some cases, the effect is horrendous.
At the same time, the bus industry continues to suffer spots of staff shortage, although arguably Unite’s efforts on pay have helped to solve some of those. Couple sauna-like cab conditions with an expectation that drivers can be behind the wheel for over five hours in some cases, and a desirable working experience it is not.
What to do? Where a bus was not built with cab air-conditioning, the likelihood of it being cost-effective – or even possible – to retrofit is remote. When such equipment was there from the factory, the very least that can be expected is for it to work as intended.
It may be sabre rattling from Unite in some ways, but attention to bus cab conditions at times of extreme heat is well overdue. There is no coach or bus industry without drivers, and expecting them to increasingly often work in oppressive temperatures is not cricket.
