Disruptions and driver shortages

North East Buses Local Bus Scene Operations, Management & Infrastructure Disruptions and driver shortages

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Adrian

9,584

03 Sep 2022, 8:46 pm #1,035

(02 Sep 2022, 10:38 pm)Andreos1 There are many ways to improve buy in and loyalty beyond pay.
If pay is a motivating factor, then look at it and do something about it.
Ditto rotas, planning, routes, management, rewards, incentives, on-board driver monitoring, micro-management and many other things beyond fancy slogans and depot meetings that promise lots, but deliver little.
Ultimately, they need to value the people that keep the company alive.
Without them, it sinks.

I don't think there's an all singing, all dancing solution which will fix this problem overnight.
It's far too gone for that.

There are, and I'm sure a couple of us could give them and other bus operators a shopping list of how to improve things and get things right, but we both know they don't come without a cost.

Without sounding like a broken record, but buses in England are completely broken. The sooner operators admit this instead of continuing on with life support, the better. At least then it forces the Government's hand, similar to what they've had to do with some rail franchises. For me there's very little money left in the vast majority of routes. We've already seen massive axe swinging from Go North East and it's inevitably coming from the other two, because the Govt are tightening the purse-strings on the central handouts.

That said, regulation through franchising isn't an easy win here. It still involves people working for a private operator, and like they have done for decades and since national bargaining went out the window, they'll continue to drive down pay and conditions. For me, it's key that if franchising does come in, there's a standard rate of pay and terms across the board, proper workplace pensions are reinstated and the local authorities start to work with the Trade Unions immediately on how to dramatically improve the working conditions for all workers. Maybe then we'll be heading in the right direction of fixing the retention problems.

(03 Sep 2022, 7:36 am)Stanleyone From an ex drivers point of view, I left just over 6 months ago, opting for life as an HGV driver. 10 years I spent at GNE, Crook, CLS and finally Stanley/Consett. I loved the job but the politics of it were ridiculous, the final push to get out came after being "awarded" with a 6 month personal coaching plan (PCP) for hitting the trigger points. These trigger points being off more than 1 week more than once over a year long period. Harsh I thought seeing as those periods of absence were for 1, catching covid 2, Death of a family member and finally 3 a heart condition, but hey trigger points. Add to that the daily abuse recieved from those not happy about the bus infront not running, over 18s not getting the child fare, it all added up. Stressed coming in from work every day/Night.

Since leaving the buses, stress is no more, work/life balance is so much better. Still friends with those on the buses and it's the same talk of " the jobs sh@@ ", pay needs to go up massively but years of " we can't afford x% " are now paying off and drivers like me that have left and others that are waiting to go through their class 2 or 1 and get away.

In 16 years as a union rep, I've never heard of such an archaic way of managing sickness. If anything like this exists elsewhere in the industry, then no wonder we've got the problems we have.

If it wasn't bad enough punishing you for catching COVID; something that most reasonable employers took a stance of not counting as sickness, and something that would have been RIDDOR reportable if the Tories hadn't quickly added an exclusion, then it's beyond reproach that an employer would think it's reasonable to target someone for suffering a bereavement. I'm actually lost for words.

I'm pleased you've managed to find a role outside of the bus industry that you get a better work/life balance and job satisfaction from.

(03 Sep 2022, 2:49 pm)streetdeckfan Tbh, it's no different from when they closed Crook and all the CLS drivers were constantly going the wrong way because of the lack of route learning. Although in this case I would think they'd just allocate CLS drivers to the X21 who know the route!

I'm not usually one to blindly defend GNE, but I think it may be wise to give them a few days to get things sorted
If you're expecting them to transfer an entire depot 10-15 miles overnight and there not to be issues the next day, then you're completely deluded!

I don't always agree with you, but I think in terms of route learning, you can only teach someone a route a limited amount of time in advance of them doing it. There's no point in doing it 3 months prior to the move, because most drivers will have forgotten it having not driven it for the 3 months that follow.

You can only lead a horse to water too. I know if I'm working on something I'm unfamiliar with, I make it my business to work out what I need to be doing. As above though, when you have the morale issues that exist in the bus industry, you're not going to get that same level of buy-in of people wanting to go over and above... after all, it's the operator's responsibility to roster a service with drivers that know the route.

(03 Sep 2022, 5:44 pm)Ambassador I think we all knew today had the potential of being a disaster but today has been spectacular! We knew the switch was coming but there’s been apparent zero prep to absolute chaos

Maybe GNE need to stop playing with marketing and gimmicks and let some professionals come in and run the business because the current lot have failed beyond belief. The Durham Road corridor and kibblesworth has been abandoned today.

For all the failings of Arriva and Stagecoach, at their worst day they are a million times better than GNE and aside drivers and engineers I’d be utterly embarrassed to claim to be a employee

Excuse after excuse.,perhaps GNE can look inward and work out the problem is perhaps them

I got back to Eldon Square about 20 to 7 tonight and I couldn't believe how busy it was. Match day traffic has usually died down a bit by then, but it was absolute chaos.

The X1 on Stand E was queued all the way back to the doors at the top of the Bus Station (near Stand A) when I got there. There were well over 100 queued waiting. In addition to that, you had long queues forming on the 21/X21 stands down the bottom.

I had a bit scout on bustimes at the time, and I could see there was nothing at the Newcastle end heading South. It looks like the 17.34 went out late at 17.42, the 17.49 went out slightly late, but then absolutely nothing until the 18.45 - on a 15 minute frequency, which we were told was cut to 'improve reliability'.

The 18.45 pulled in slightly late and went out full to standing, leaving myself and around 30 others standing. You then had the domino effect, because by the time the 19.05 had pulled in, there were about 50-60 waiting. We were full to standing by the time we left Gateshead Interchange.

I'm actually pleased I got on the 19.05, because looking at bustimes, there was another 50 minute gap after that until the 19.55.

Another Saturday/match day. Another shambles. I wonder if this is the desire that everyone's favourite designer constantly refers to creating?

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Adrian

03 Sep 2022, 8:46 pm #1,035

(02 Sep 2022, 10:38 pm)Andreos1 There are many ways to improve buy in and loyalty beyond pay.
If pay is a motivating factor, then look at it and do something about it.
Ditto rotas, planning, routes, management, rewards, incentives, on-board driver monitoring, micro-management and many other things beyond fancy slogans and depot meetings that promise lots, but deliver little.
Ultimately, they need to value the people that keep the company alive.
Without them, it sinks.

I don't think there's an all singing, all dancing solution which will fix this problem overnight.
It's far too gone for that.

(03 Sep 2022, 7:36 am)Stanleyone From an ex drivers point of view, I left just over 6 months ago, opting for life as an HGV driver. 10 years I spent at GNE, Crook, CLS and finally Stanley/Consett. I loved the job but the politics of it were ridiculous, the final push to get out came after being "awarded" with a 6 month personal coaching plan (PCP) for hitting the trigger points. These trigger points being off more than 1 week more than once over a year long period. Harsh I thought seeing as those periods of absence were for 1, catching covid 2, Death of a family member and finally 3 a heart condition, but hey trigger points. Add to that the daily abuse recieved from those not happy about the bus infront not running, over 18s not getting the child fare, it all added up. Stressed coming in from work every day/Night.

Since leaving the buses, stress is no more, work/life balance is so much better. Still friends with those on the buses and it's the same talk of " the jobs sh@@ ", pay needs to go up massively but years of " we can't afford x% " are now paying off and drivers like me that have left and others that are waiting to go through their class 2 or 1 and get away.

(03 Sep 2022, 2:49 pm)streetdeckfan Tbh, it's no different from when they closed Crook and all the CLS drivers were constantly going the wrong way because of the lack of route learning. Although in this case I would think they'd just allocate CLS drivers to the X21 who know the route!

I'm not usually one to blindly defend GNE, but I think it may be wise to give them a few days to get things sorted
If you're expecting them to transfer an entire depot 10-15 miles overnight and there not to be issues the next day, then you're completely deluded!

(03 Sep 2022, 5:44 pm)Ambassador I think we all knew today had the potential of being a disaster but today has been spectacular! We knew the switch was coming but there’s been apparent zero prep to absolute chaos

Maybe GNE need to stop playing with marketing and gimmicks and let some professionals come in and run the business because the current lot have failed beyond belief. The Durham Road corridor and kibblesworth has been abandoned today.

For all the failings of Arriva and Stagecoach, at their worst day they are a million times better than GNE and aside drivers and engineers I’d be utterly embarrassed to claim to be a employee

Excuse after excuse.,perhaps GNE can look inward and work out the problem is perhaps them