Brighton and Hove Buses said that it was putting in place a series of measures to tackle recent driver shortages.
The company said: “Brighton and Hove Buses recently apologised to customers for the disruption in service due to driver shortage.
“The company been taking action to resolve this and has been working closely with other local operators to support specific services.
“We can confirm that from (Wednesday) 20 July until (Saturday) 10 September Compass Travel will be operating route 7X and from (Saturday) 23 July until (Saturday) 10 September Seaford and District will be operating route 77.
“At weekends open top and heritage vehicles will be used on route 77.
“Compass Travel and Seaford and District will be using their own vehicles, so please look out for the destination boards which will clearly identify the route number.
“All fares and scheduled times will remain the same and all ticket types will be accepted as normal.
“In addition to obtaining support from other bus operators, our colleagues at Metrobus in Crawley will be providing additional drivers.
“We also are looking at how we can speed up our recruitment and at hiring short-term ‘stop-gap’ drivers through an agency.
“We are planning to recruit a further 30 full-time drivers and currently have seven drivers in our training facility, with an additional 29 at various stages of the recruitment process.
“We employ more than 800 drivers and the team has been working really hard to cover additional shifts to keep our services running as fully and smoothly as possible under challenging circumstances.”
Managing director Martin Harris said: “I sincerely apologise to all our customers for the current dip in service levels and absolutely recognise the need to put our customers first as we always endeavour to do.
“I would also like to thank my colleagues who are making a tremendous effort to minimise disruption for our customers and express my appreciation to our fellow transport operators who are helping us.”
The same problem as last summer. Why don’t management try and look after their existing staff? And don’t forget the same parent company-The GoAhead Group- run Southern Trains….
Pay more then!!!!!!!! It is not rocket science!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Perhaps they should introduce an emergency timetable. They seem to think it will work on their trains. Or they could make their buses Driver Only Operated. Ah! Just spotted the flaw in that proposal. They already are driver only. Never mind! Back to the drawing board.
An X Driver. This is not about pay. If they stopped culling the numbers of long term drivers they have then the situation may be different. I have not seen so many drivers go out the door in the last six months than in the ten years I’ve been with the company. We are all operating under a regime of fear – “who’s next?”. Many new drivers are not staying. There are other issues at hand, but these are the main ones.
Drivers are left high and dry, no back up from the company, if someone hits your bus the driver is to blame in the companies eyes, the rubbish new buses that are a safety hazard, drivers and others have requested improvements and the company have refused. The list goes on and on, and they feel the need to cull long standing drivers to reduce wage payout and put huge pressures on new drivers
This is the same in London as before no back up from your own company risk assessment managers or as they used to be called accident prevention managers who have no qualifications in understanding how the accident happened or who is to blame they just blame the driver of the bus even when cyclists jump red lights get hit by a bus or any vehicle it’s the drivers fault now I know that taffic officers have to go under long and extensive training to be able to asses the incident and come to a just conclusion not we will take the blame and as for long time drivers the companies are letting go of them to save money putting more new inexperienced drivers out there so the accident percentage goes up
Yes….Go Ahead…same crap company in London….new drivers on a lower rate of pay even if you join them with years of experience…and will try and get rid of existing drivers if they are on the highest rate of pay for new drivers on a lower rate….i recently retired from a London company….not Go Ahead….couldnt get me to go quick enough….they are all at it and wonder why they are short of drivers.
Go ahead treat there staff like shit.. No wonder they are short staffed…
I worked for them for 13 years they have the worst reputation for the way they treat there staff. I handed my notice in now work for Arriva best thing I ever did.
THE SAME ALL OVER WITH THESE PRIVATISED COWBOYS SHARE HOLDERS AND TOP MANAGEMENT FIRST ALL THE SLAVES MUST OBEY THIS MANTRA.
Seriously fed up of delayed/ cancelled buses on route everday for work!! A few i understand but its now beyond a joke!!
The reason buses are cancelled is because drivers are leaving due to being treated badly by Go-Ahead, including me. There are plenty of other bus companies to work for, and we are doing just that. New drivers aren’t standing for it as well as those who have been there for years and are leaving soon after joining when they find out what a bad company B&H are to work for since Roger French retired.
They are talking about hiring agency drivers but they have done so recently in the past and most have had enough after a week. As long as the current MD is there you will be late for work on a regular basis.
Go Ahead Group are like the rest of the Bus Companies, Pay as little as they can get away with. pressurise at all times. Bes schedules are ridicolous, not enough time to get from A to B. Break times to be as short as they can get away it. Try to send out unsafe buses, experienced drivers dont let them, but new drivers dont know any better. Because they have no union or the union has been curtailed?? There is load of other things that they do to drivers?? I have experienced it.
Perhaps if you didn’t have the ridiculous starter rate up for experienced pcv licence holders
How about you stop sacking the experienced drivers because they are on a contract and you don’t want to pay that money to drivers?
I worked for Metrobus, I had worked there for 6 years, until a lady fell over on my bus at 3 mph, yes 3 mph. Ended up on a final 12 month written warning.