How bad is your area’s bus driver shortage? In one Sydney region, vacancies have doubled

The number of bus driver vacancies in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has almost doubled in just four months, as shortages across the city continue to cause cancellations and delays.

In April, the eastern suburbs bus region – which stretches from the city to Watsons Bay and south to La Perouse, had 33 driver jobs open. But by August, according to new data revealed in parliament, there were 60 jobs being advertised by operator Transdev John Holland – an 82 per cent increase.

Driver vacancies have also increased slightly for services on the north and upper north shore, operated by CDC and Busways. But more drivers have joined services around Blacktown and Penrith, the inner west and northern beaches.

In the inner west, vacancies fell dramatically, from 114 in April to 76 in August, amid operator Transit Systems’ finalisation of a years-long negotiation over a new enterprise bargaining agreement that brought workers onto a unified pay structure.

When driver positions are vacant, bus operators are forced to reduce the frequency of buses and encourage current drivers to work overtime.

Transdev John Holland was contacted for comment.

One driver in the region, who spoke anonymously because he was not allowed by his employer to speak publicly, said: “Staff morale is really low.”

“We talk about chucking it in, chucking sickies. You’d have at least 10 per cent of staff chuck it in [each day],” he said.