The shortage of drivers in coach and bus is nothing new. Recruitment since the 1950s has been a significant challenge to increasing the volume and quality of the sector’s output. My MSc dissertation around 25 years ago explored the levels of shortage and the impact that individual companies faced, and whether their varying approach paid dividends – or not.
The labour market is now a complex and fast-moving entity, with people transferring between jobs and sectors in a dynamic way. Bus drivers for life simply don’t exist anymore. Other industries, including logistics, are seemingly offering greater flexibility in work patterns, increases to salaries, and clear career planning for those who wish to see beyond the ‘job for today’.
Where does this leave us in the coach and bus sector? There are several examples of good practice out there, many of which have been canvassed in these pages. Ultimately, a number of common themes appear to drive recruitment and retention issues over the long-term – namely, working hours and flexibility, salary levels, and career structure.
Salary levels for bus are now partially tied to government support, such as the £2 fare cap scheme in England. However, the intrinsic growth starting to be seen gives optimism that salaries can increase in due course on a commercial basis.
Flexibility is now easy to achieve with modern computerised rostering software, but the presence of a human scheduler remains key to success in this area.
Capacity building will be essential for this facet of retention to become successful. Career planning is now taken ever more seriously than before. Each of the large bus groups, and other operators, have detailed plans for mentoring and development.
Government changes to vocational training may impact how this is conducted, but the Bus Centre of Excellence has new qualifications to be rolled out, which is likely to clarify this framework.
These issues, while focused on drivers, equally apply to the recruitment and training of engineering staff. That appears even more challenging in the context of a moving scene of vocational qualifications, and the complexities of the apprenticeship qualification system and use of the apprenticeship levy.
How do we look to track this and measure success in this area? Also, is recruitment performance a key measure of success given historically high turnover rates of trained staff – so should retention be the key goal here?
Local, company-specific indicators are useful, but they do not give a full picture of common trends and issues. This is where BusMark, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) bus industry benchmarking group, comes into play.
The aim of BusMark is to give a confidential space for operators large and small to identify best practice and assess their relative efficiency and effectiveness. The basis of this information is a regular members’ survey that provides a stream of suitable information.
The 2024 survey will be the first that I have led. We are looking to simplify it to ensure that it remains focused and relevant and will allow key issues to be picked up and explored further by the membership on a regular basis. BusMark membership is therefore a valuable resource for operators to exploit.
About the author
Lee White is Managing Director of Sterling Transport Consultancy, a boutique transport planning practice focused on public transport matters. He is a former bus operator and senior local government officer. Mr White is also a Director of his local Chamber of Commerce, and Vice-Chair of CILT’s Bus and Coach Forum.
