The Government is spending $61 million to help lift bus driver wages around the country and tackle the driver shortage.
The funding, secured in Budget 22, will support the sector to standardise minimum base wage rates towards a target rate, as agreed by public transport authorities, transport minister Michael Wood has announced.
It aims to work towards base rates of $30 per hour for urban services and $28 per hour for regional services. Public transport authorities and operators will be able to access a share of funding if they contribute to the wage increases, and continue to apply indexation wage rates in the future.
“Our Government is committed to making it more affordable, easier and attractive for Kiwis to use public transport, so it’s crucial we have the drivers in place to get the system moving,” Wood says.
“Improving the conditions of drivers will make it easier to recruit and retain the workforce, allowing frequent and reliable bus services.
“The minimum terms and conditions were developed through discussions between operators, public transport authorities and unions on how best to improve conditions in the industry and stabilise the workforce.
“This will help the industry transition to standard terms and conditions for bus drivers, which currently vary widely throughout the country,” Wood says.
In recognition of different pay and conditions currently across the system, public transport authorities will also have the option of providing funding to operators, according to market share, to offer a penal rate for work after 9pm of 1.2x, or a $30 split shift allowance. This aims to deliver a level of equality between operators and regions.
“The improved driver terms and conditions will be supported by the Sustainable Public Transport Framework, announced in August, that prioritises fair and equitable treatment of employees, mode-shift and improved environmental and health outcomes,” Wood adds.
Waka Kotahi will engage with public transport authorities and bus operators to tailor the implementation of the standard.
Cancellations on the network
Meanwhile, Auckland Transport metro services group manager Darek Koper says steps to bring in more bus drivers is positive but in the short term an additional 500 drivers are still needed on the city’s network.
He says the ongoing bus driver shortfall means AT hasn’t been able to deliver the full scheduled service for some time now.
From November 6, AT’s bus service trips that are being regularly cancelled because of the national shortage of drivers will be temporarily suspended from timetables to improve service reliability and customer confidence.
“We’re not taking anything away that’s currently running. We are just temporarily removing them in the timetable, so they won’t show up and then appear as cancelled.
“We will still be running around 12,000 bus trips a day and will be adding services back to our timetables as soon as bus operators are able to recruit more drivers.
“This year we have struggled to operate our full bus timetable because of the effects of the national driver shortage, which has led to far more cancellations across our network than we would usually see,” Koper says.
“We will continue to work with the government to help address the driver shortage and we will promptly restore full timetables as more drivers come onboard,” he says.
Driver pay must be consistent
Bus and Coach Association chief executive Ben McFadgen is welcoming the initiative but says there’s still plenty more work to do.
“An agreement is something we have been working on with government, unions and industry for a long time now. It’s great to see some rubber finally hitting the road.”
“We aren’t breaking out the champagne yet though, there is still a long way to go before we get real, sustainable change in the bus industry,” McFadgen says.
“There are a few things that have to be ironed out, such as the ongoing sustainability of the pay and conditions agreement, it needs to have continued baseline funding; and there’s the question of consistency and fairness – across both metropolitan/urban and regional New Zealand.”
The agreement as it currently stands relies on both councils and operators taking up the funding according to certain conditions.
It’s also dependent on councils being able to provide local share into the funding, which may be problematic for some of the smaller councils, McFadgen says.
Furthermore, not every region is experiencing a major driver shortage, so some councils may elect not to take up the funding at all.
“This could create a lot of inconsistency around the country,” McFadgen says.
He also points out that Ministry of Education-funded school bus services are not included in any funding increase.
“The school bus sector crosses over with public transport, which means drivers can share the same depots. We are already hearing reports of school-bus drivers threatening to leave if their urban colleagues receive considerably more per-hour.
“Also, given that this uplift applies to council-run services (including school services), but not Ministry of Education ones – a driver can receive wildly different rates for exactly the same job.
“There are driver shortages in three sectors: public transport, school, and tour and charter services. We know that the Ministry of Education is looking into school bus services, and we continue to work with them to find a solution. But we need to move faster and align with public transport as the wage disparity in some regions is already creating further instability in the bus industry.
“Finally, there’s the tour and charter bus sector. There are already challenges with the availability of tour and charter bus drivers and the New Zealand tour and charter bus industry’s capacity after the last two years of little to zero income. These operators do not receive funding from the government at all,” McFadgen says.
“How are they going to be able to afford to increase pay for their drivers? Prices will have to rise significantly. How will they cope with demand if they don’t have enough drivers? We are already seeing the impact on our cruise ship sector with the lack of availability of tour coaches for day trips.”
