(11 Sep 2023, 4:51 pm)Unber43 wrote Also a lot of people go on hoildays in September as its cheaper so that could be an additional reason.
Bus drivers generally don't have the flexibility that most of us have, in terms of using our leave, as I understand? They're allocated blocks throughout the year, and if they want a more suitable time, they have to swap it with another colleague. So again, this is something that'd be factored into the resource modelling.
When I was involved in this in the workplace (not transport), we'd always aim for 20% spare capacity to cover for sickness, annual leave and training.