Recruitment has been one of the biggest challenges facing the coach and bus industry in recent years, but Sam Wharfe, Chief Executive Officer and founder of C9 Recruitment, perhaps raises eyebrows when he claims he doesn’t think there is a driver shortage.
C9 Recruitment started out in 2019 and has since claimed comprehensive success in the business of linking up operators with staff. It says it’s signing up around 500 drivers each week.
The Cheshunt-based outfit, which has around 90% of its business within the coach and bus industry, works with most major coach and bus operators to provide temporary, contract and permanent drivers, listing National Express, First Bus, Metroline, Abellio, Premium Coaches, Big Bus Tours, Maynes Coaches, Hearn’s Coaches and Redwing Coaches.
Sam assesses: “I don’t think there is a driver shortage, if I’m honest. We’re having masses of drivers still on our waiting list and we don’t have enough places to put them. I think the issue is reputation of agencies and not allowing them to help. That’s based on bad reputation, but we operate very differently from other agencies. We give that consultancy approach to the client.”
Although Sam is new to the industry, he has brought on staff with a wealth of experience in transport recruitment. For example, Chief Operating Officer Antony Knox-Hooke has been recruiting for 14 years.
Antony says: “A lot of our recruiters here have come from diverse backgrounds and agencies in the sector. Collectively, we’ve put our experiences together to form this and provide a better service to the clients. As recruiters, we are known by the clients already.”
He notes changes in the industry over the years as far as recruitment is concerned. “I’ve been in it since it was very easy and I’ve seen the struggles change over the last 10 years,” he says. “You’d put an advert out and you’d get so many different people. Now it’s about attracting the correct talent. You can get drivers, but you need to vet them correctly to make sure that they’re suitable to the client in question.”
Finding the right driver for the client is crucial to the business and it is C9’s roots as a technology company that helps in that regard. Applicant Tracking Systems help operators to automate repetitive tasks, save time in recruiting and avoid unconscious bias. C9 also uses artificial intelligence to ensure that vast amounts of data can be analysed and used to match up operators with suitable drivers.
C9 provides driver trainees to certain clients like Abellio and it will expand on this to launch C9 Academy this month to upskill drivers. “We’re not trying to be greedy recruiters,” Sam says. “We’re trying to help the transport community.”
A major problem for the industry is the high average age of drivers but C9 believes it is helping to remedy that. Antony says: “We are recruiting a lot of younger people, especially with our training programme with Abellio, for example. We do get a lot of young people applying for that and that seems to be working very well.”
![[1] C9 recruitment Antony Knox-Hooke, Sam Wharfe, Caolan Davey, and Cassie Bedford](http://www.route-one.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1-C9-recruitment-Antony-Knox-Hooke-Sam-Wharfe-Caolan-Davey-and-Cassie-Bedford.jpg)
The team says operators who would otherwise have had to turn down work are instead able to pitch for more because of C9’s involvement. “I think the key thing is we’re enabling our clients to win more business,” says Sam.
“We’re giving them that chance to do it. So many clients before they came on board were turning away work. Since coming on board they’re now winning more work because of us.”
Antony adds: “Three Star Coaches said to us they don’t do rail-replacement services because they can’t find the drivers, so that was one of the key selling points for us because we predominantly are so good at doing rail replacement.”
Sam further adds about the company’s success in this regard: “There was one week we had a demand to fill in 110 duties in a week and we filled in 105 of them.”
Sam and his team can meet last-minute contracts too. He recalls helping out Redwing Coaches with an urgent request. He says: “I don’t really make cold calls very often, but I had a bit of free time, so I had rung Redwing.
“I spoke to the right person the following day and they said they needed drivers for jobs the next week. They told us on the Thursday they needed people for the Friday, Saturday and Monday and we filled it all within the space of an hour.
“Once you save a client last-minute like that you tend to have a great ongoing relationship. What we’re doing seems to be working very well.”
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