Stephensons of Essex hopes its rarely seen set-up can attract more women into the bus driving role
The driver recruitment crisis may have abated somewhat over the last couple of years, but challenges remain for operators in filling this essential role.
One solution to the problem that has been put forward is addressing the lack of representation of women in the coach and bus driver role.
According to the Office for National Statistics’ 2021 figures, only 11% of the UK’s coach and bus drivers are women, so the industry is potentially missing out on almost 50% of the job market.
Stephensons of Essex believes it has an advantage in this regard due to having an all-female driver training team – uniquely so in this country, it believes.
The Rochford-based operator, which has around 200 drivers in total, took on 12 new women drivers between 2021 and 2024. It asserts that an all-woman training team dispels the myth around coach and bus driving being a man’s job.
Jade Crace, who leads a team which also includes Jordan Hartford and Debbie Hart, says it wasn’t a deliberate strategy, but it just fell that way after she became training manager in 2021.
Leading by example
Jade, who started with Stephensons as a driver in 2019 and moved across to the training side in 2020, says: “We want to get it out there that there are women in this industry, because everyone sees bus as male-oriented. We want to show women, and young people in general, that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a male or female – the bus industry can collectively have anybody.
“I’d love to see a lot more women driving, because they can do it. They may say, ‘I’ve only driven a car; I can’t drive anything else.’
A lot of the trainees have expressed that they feel more comfortable with a woman
But you build that confidence and, once you’ve gone past that, they’re brilliant. [To some,] it screams out as being a male-oriented job … but it has changed a lot over the years.”
Aside from being role models, an all-female training team holds other advantages too, the trio believe. Jordan, who started in the industry as a bus driver in 2014 and joined Stephensons as a trainer last August, says: “A lot of the trainees have expressed that they feel more comfortable with a woman.”
Jade agrees, adding: “I think [women] have got a lot more patience and understanding. Certain people have got things outside of work that affect the training and their driving.
“But we listen to them and try to understand what’s going on and we try and help them with, not just the job, but also outside stuff. It’s like a mothering thing. I’ve been told I’m very motherly!”
Jordan adds that trainees are more likely to admit to women when they’re finding the training or other aspects of the job difficult. She says: “I think people open up more. So, if they are struggling with the learning and everything that’s going on around it, they are more likely to say so, because it’s not so embarrassing. Not that it is embarrassing, but we just seem to get more of an open perspective.”
Workplace culture
Both agree that improvements have been made in workplace culture for women but that more could be done. Jade says: “I think, in any job, especially in a male-oriented job, women are going to have to work twice as hard.”
Jordan adds: “I’ve had it plenty of times where people have looked at me on the bus and said, ‘Really? You’re driving this?’”
Recruitment campaigns
More broadly, Stephensons runs recruitment campaigns involving social media, print adverts on buses, and open days, and only around 20% of its new drivers are existing PSV licence-holders.
It also believes its status as an employee ownership trust is an attraction for would-be drivers.
Jade also thinks more could be done in schools and universities to enhance the appeal of bus driving as a career.
“I think even we as a company could do a lot more in colleges and unis to show people that they have options [such as bus driving],” says Jade.
“It’s getting harder now to recruit people, because there are so many other things they can do, like working from home or being an influencer.
“But there’s nothing like being out on the road, being your own boss, and getting to know your passengers. We were talking the other day about how much we miss service work.”
The positive impact of Women in Bus and Coach was highlighted by Jade, but she adds: “I think all of us as a collective – not just Stephensons, but all of us in the industry – have a hell of a way to go.
“There’s a lot more we should be doing to promote women … because they don’t really get celebrated as much as they should.”
The team is proud of a high rate of first-test passes, but it can be challenging, particularly with young drivers who sometimes have the wrong attitude to driving.
“They’ll have one hand on the wheel and one arm out of the window,” Jade says. “They seem to forget that they’re driving a bus.
“And they seem to forget they will be driving a bus with passengers on… We have to mould them into a professional driver.”
However, that can make the job more fulfilling. Jade notes: “What appeals to me is, when you train somebody up and they pass, it’s fantastic.
“They’ll carry that licence forever and they’ll remember you as their trainer because no one else has trained them but you; no one can take that away from you.
“[It’s seeing] the excitement in people when they learn how to drive, and you’ve taught them from scratch up to test standard and they stay on in the company for years and you see them grow.”
