First Bus staff in Bristol are “struggling to get to work” due to cancelled bus services, a driver has claimed. The bus driver, writing on social media, gave an insider account of the crisis facing Bristol’s biggest bus company including agency staff and “non-existent” managers.
Problems facing First Bus are growing with a huge number of vacancies for drivers, leading to the company recently scrapping many services. The driver shortage is believed to be growing, with the most recent number of vacancies in the West of England given at 200.
The bus driver, who said they have worked for First Bus for two years, posted via an anonymous account on Reddit last week. They claimed many drivers struggle to get to work and suffer from low morale, and the company relies on paying agency drivers.
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The driver said: “Been with First for two years now and this job has been the best job I’ve ever had, however the way it is at the moment makes me want to quit bus driving in its entirety. First doesn’t care and the amount of ungrateful individuals are the main contributing factors, but there are many more. I just can’t find the will to keep showing up to a job where I’m treated like s**t.
“I’m someone who very rarely lets anything wind me up. We all have those days but these days are happening more and more often at the moment. I and many drivers are just as fed up as the passengers. Loads of drivers struggle to get home or to work, because the buses are not running. The morale is so low and I just can’t see it getting better.
“First is close to having more agency drivers than normal drivers who are being paid stupid amounts more and taking all the overtime, and then wonders why the drivers are leaving left, right and centre. I’ve been looking elsewhere for a while now and I don’t want to leave, but I’m running out of reasons to stay.”
Elsewhere, the driver claimed other problems at First Bus include managers not working on weekends, and poor planning when cancelling popular services. Last month, First Bus made a shock announcement and temporarily cancelled 1,450 bus services in Bristol a week.
The driver said: “First managers are non-existent now, all seem to disappear by 3pm and are never there on the weekend. Loads of agency drivers are showing up to do a poor job and get paid loads for it, and First is out of touch as to what’s going on out there.
“They took loads of buses off busy routes and just assumed that because they’ve cancelled it that the passengers would disappear, and not the fact that you’ll have two bus loads wanting to get on one bus. They took those buses off but didn’t adjust anyone’s duties.
“Say I was meant to be driving a 75 as part of my duty but I can’t because they’ve decided not to run it, then I’ll be put down as spare meaning if someone goes off sick then I’ll cover their bit, but if not then I just have to hang around until I’m finished. It works for me but makes the bus behind that one much, much busier.”
Responding to the driver's claims, First said using agency staff was common in the industry, and the company was focusing on retaining drivers and recruiting new drivers.
A spokesperson for First West of England said: “It is never good to hear that an employee is dissatisfied and we always encourage our staff to speak to their managers if encountering any problems and we will always help wherever we can. Along with other bus operators across the country, we do have a limited number of agency staff drivers and this is common industry practice in the face of a national bus driver shortage.
"Our focus is on addressing this by improving the retention of our existing staff, with retention rates now better than before the pandemic. We are also actively recruiting so that we can increase the number of employed drivers, offering a great package which includes flexible hours and competitive rates of pay. We believe that driving a bus is a great career and many of our senior managers started as drivers."
Read next:
- WECA accused of wasting £8m on new Bristol HQ after Yate "snub"
- Major First Bus changes in Bristol begin today - full list of services affected
- First confirm 178 bus service will be scrapped
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