Driver shortages causing more bus service disruption

CT Plus has cancelled hundreds of buses over the last two months, as a driver shortage and staff illness hit services.

In recent weeks Covid rates have been dropping. But bus cancellations have not.

On Saturday more than 40 services were cancelled and yesterday nearly 50 were cancelled, including a number at rush hour.

There are about 280 bus services leaving the Town terminus each weekday, according to the timetable.

‘With something like 15% to 20% of services being cancelled, that is clearly worrying,’ said Bus Users Guernsey co-ordinator Fergus Dunlop. He noted that evening rush hour services were quite badly affected.

CT Plus is trying to lure local residents to become drivers with better rates of pay, full-time and part-time opportunities and free driver training after suffering staff shortages for the last two years.

There is also a significant driver shortage in the UK, which has slowed off-island recruitment. It takes 12 weeks to process a recruit from Europe.

The company has also seen older drivers retiring.

‘We want to make bus driving a much more attractive option for Guernsey residents, be that for people just starting out or those looking for a change of direction,’ said Kevin Hart, regional director for CT Plus.

‘We are delighted to announce an immediate increase on our basic rate of pay, and our pay for weekend and evening work. This means that a full-time bus driver could reasonably expect to earn £38,000 per year with a little bit of overtime.’

Training is provided free of charge.

‘We’re also working closely with the States of Guernsey on actively recruiting bus drivers and are exploring how to make driving more attractive as a career – including detailed discussions on bringing Guernsey’s minimum bus driving licence age to 18 in line with the UK,’ Mr Hart said.

‘Making the switch to more local staff won’t be a quick fix, but it’s the right thing to do to ensure the long-term stability of the scheduled bus service. In the meantime, we’d like to apologise to our customers for any disruption caused by the driver shortage and urge them to check our website for travel news. We’d also like to say thank you to our current staff team, who are doing everything they can to reduce the impact of the driver shortage on the travelling public.’

Mr Dunlop said the CT Plus offer could be attractive to the right person, but Brexit had reduced how many people were applying.

‘It takes time to recruit,’ he said.

‘The situation is not going to get better for a while.’