How do we save the planet if there's no one to drive the buses?

Saturday, 27 August 2022

The first trip through the extension to Auckland's Northern Busway on May 6, 2022.

Todd Niall is the senior Auckland affairs reporter for Stuff.

OPINION: Here is a join-the-dots scenario: Public transport use in Auckland needs to rise ninefold as just one ingredient in the menu for the city to meet its goal of cutting transport emissions by 64% by 2030.

On Friday August 19, a record 2185 bus services were cancelled in Auckland – about 15% of all services.

The plight of Auckland’s bus services used to be due to Covid-19 sickness and winter ailments, with a driver shortage an aggravating feature.

However, the shortage has continued to climb to around 500, or 20% of the full complement, as drivers increasingly decide to earn their crust in other jobs.

* Auckland buses: Drivers share $8 million pay rise as shortage hits services

* Climate change: The first few steps are crucial on road to cutting carbon emissions

Auckland is 20% short of the drivers it needs to run a full bus timetable. (File photo)

Joining the dots, a reasonable question to ask is: how will Auckland achieve a ninefold increase in people using public transport if no one wants to drive the buses that will carry most of the users?

In June, buses made 79% of Auckland’s public transport trips, so they are and will remain the biggest mode even after the commissioning of the City Rail Link boosts rail capacity. In short, they are critical.

There has been a lot of talk about improving working conditions for bus drivers across the country, and some small steps forward, but the numbers show things are getting worse not better.

Auckland Transport's is investing in zero-carbon buses such as a trial hydrogen vehicle. (File photo)

Legislation allows bus companies to roster drivers across 14 hours a day, with two breaks. Especially at a time of low unemployment, a broad skills and labour shortage, it’s not an appealing life.

AT has some moves it hopes will help. More off-peak services due over the next nine months will allow more drivers to work more-normal hours, rather than splitting shifts.

It raises a chicken and egg question though: will there be enough drivers for the new services?

Buses make up nearly 80% of Auckland’s public transport trips.

The government in August announced new legislation that will unwind some of the current regime under which councils contract services from private operators.

Among other things, it would enable councils to own and provide services directly – something which last happened in Auckland in 1998, when the Auckland Regional Council sold its Yellow Bus Company.

However, enabling change on that scale is one thing. Whether Auckland Council would ever consider it, and be prepared to fund it, is another.

Meanwhile, even under the current contracting regime, change will be expensive for both Auckland Transport (AT) and Waka Kotahi, which share the cost of subsidising public transport – as a shorter working day means more drivers needed.

Auckland Council recently voted to spend $8 million to help lift driver pay to $25.62 an hour, from an industry average in the city of $23.72. The money came from its climate change budget.

In 2020, Waka Kotahi agreed to top up the contract sums paid to the private companies that run the services for councils, to ensure drivers were paid at least the “living wage”, then at $22.75 an hour.

Industry-wide talks about restructuring the working life of bus drivers, which began three years ago, grind on.

Since then, the Covid-19 global pandemic arrived. One source of new drivers – migrants on work permits – dried up. Competition for available workers increased, and bus driving appears to have lost appeal.

Auckland has a problem needing more urgent attention. Every week of near-record cancellations, every week that passengers decide to give up on the buses, makes the ninefold rise in public transport less attainable, and with it, the emissions goal.