Bus and rail union calls for family-friendly policies to help bolster driver numbers

Issues around the recruitment and retention of bus drivers, which have led to cancellations and delays on routes around the country, are to be debated at the National Bus and Rail Union’s (NBRU) first national conference in three years in Cork this week.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin will on Monday open the union’s two-day gathering and representatives of Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Irish Rail, companies in which all but a handful of the union’s roughly 4,000 members are employed, will brief delegates on their plans for the coming years.

The need to improve access for passengers with disabilities and the introduction of a dedicated Garda transport unit will also be discussed.

The transport sector, like many others, suffered staff shortages after the pandemic and, while efforts to recruit drivers in particular have been stepped up with some success, retention remains a significant problem, according to NBRU general secretary Dermot O’Leary. He believes long and unsociable hours are among the key reasons for staff turnover.

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‘Reasonable’ pay

“If there’s a job out there that pays a reasonable amount of money, you get drivers who think they can do that and still have a bit more time with their families,” he said. “That tends to happen in the good times. We had it back in the boom and we are seeing it again, which is why we are saying to companies that they need to look at family-friendly policies that would encourage drivers to stay.”

A spokeswoman for Bus Éireann, which employs 1,700 drivers, acknowledged that the company had issues staffing some services as Ireland emerged from the disruption caused by Covid-19. The firm has launched a number of initiatives aimed at improving recruitment.

“The employment market is tight,” she said, “and we are expanding services but we offer a good place to work, with good terms and a very engaged workforce and so we have been able to recruit in.”

Industry figures believe the high cost of training and an ageing workforce are contributory factors to an ongoing shortage of drivers.

Feargal Barton, a representative for the Coach Tourism and Transport Council (CTTC), a representative body for the industry, said the cost of training and issues in relation to insurance for younger drivers were particular barriers to hiring in the private sector.

Insurance cost

A person cannot get a licence to drive a bus until they are 21, he said. Obtaining one can cost €3,000 at that stage and many insurance companies require a premium to be paid to insure drivers under the age of 25.

“We are losing out on young people because it is not a profession you can walk straight into and it is costly to get trained to be a bus driver,” he said. “We would like a system to be put in place where even if a person is employed they would be able to apply for assistance in getting their training.”

The situation had not been helped, Mr Barton added, by the fact that the average bus driver in Ireland is over 50 years of age and the availability of older drivers had been impacted during and since the pandemic.

Raymond Conlon, who runs Conlon Travel in Monaghan, said pay was a key issue for many would-be recruits but agreed the hours involved also put many off. “It’s the same with any other industry. The unsociable hours, no one wants to do it anymore.”