(05 Oct 2021, 9:21 am)Andreos1 wrote We all know the industry has had traditionally high attrition levels. It has done for years. 
You just need to look at the driver training fleet, open days and recruitment events held by GNE. If attrition was low - it could be argued that those events wouldn't be needed and the training fleet wouldn't be as hard pushed as they have been.

It has, and whilst other industries have also suffered, it never seems to be as bad as bus drivers. Whether that be down to pay, conditions or culture (or even a mixture of all three)

Another problem is the race to the bottom culture when bidding for public contracts. This isn't unique to transport operators, but the idea of most economically advantageous bids, leads businesses to reducing costs as much as possible in their bid for the work. The biggest cost is always going to be staff, which is why we've probably seen things like low-cost units develop, in order to 'remain competitive' to win contracts. The downside of that of course, is that you end up creating a multi-tier workforce as a result, where workers doing the same job are paid different rates of pay. The only way you'll really solve this is if sectoral collective bargaining is used, as it is in other parts of Europe.