Are Bus Drivers Wages Increasing?

[rogerout]

Well I think the average pay outside London is around 11/12 ph. When you think that the supermarkets are now paying that or close to that, considering you don’t need to have an additional driving qualification for driving a 3.5 tonne delivery van.
I know Stagecoach in Merseyside have successfully got a pay rise recently announced.
Will wages substantially increase from the big operators? Or will there be little change, atleast in the next few years.

I personally changed to HGV driving last year as I could earn more money. However, if the bus pay increased, I’d seriously have considered staying as apart from a lot of things I didn’t like, I actually quite enjoyed my times on the buses.

And are operators struggling to retain staff?

[rogerout]

Bump

[ServerKing]

Bus Operators are losing out to HGVs and delivery work as there's great demand of late, but you can make up to £35k a year on the buses, that's £10k more than what I get in my IT job (though looking to move on this year)...

[capitalomnibus]

Sept 4, 2022 18:18:16 GMT rogerout said:

Well I think the average pay outside London is around 11/12 ph. When you think that the supermarkets are now paying that or close to that, considering you don’t need to have an additional driving qualification for driving a 3.5 tonne delivery van.
I know Stagecoach in Merseyside have successfully got a pay rise recently announced.
Will wages substantially increase from the big operators? Or will there be little change, atleast in the next few years.

I personally changed to HGV driving last year as I could earn more money. However, if the bus pay increased, I’d seriously have considered staying as apart from a lot of things I didn’t like, I actually quite enjoyed my times on the buses.

And are operators struggling to retain staff?

Operators are struggling to retain staff, been well documented here in a lot of threads. The incentives the government threw out just after the pandemic to get HGV drivers on board, virtually swiped a lot of bus drivers to go and do it who would have similar experience of driving a heavy vehicle. It also saw a few HGV drivers who left he trade over the years to drive buses go back to HGV's.