Dereg 'causing driver fights'
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• Cut-throat competition on deregulated bus routes is leading to violence between drivers trying to win passengers, the Transport and General Workers Union has warned.
This follows an incident on Teeside when a driver working for Trimdon Motor Services allegedly hit a driver from a rival company, Cleveland Transit. Both men needed hospital treatment.
Last week the owner of Thames Transit's Oxford Tube claimed his drivers were being harrassed by a competitor, Oxford Bus Company, on the competitive M40-London route. OBC denies this.
Police are investigating the Teeside incident. Trimdon traffic manager Syd Mason con
firms there was a confrontation, but says any disciplinary action will have to wait for the result of an investigation by the police and the company. This is the first violent incident in the area, he claims, "but apart from that we would not want to comment".
The TGWU says the drivers are not to blame: "Their jobs depend on their companies getting more share of the market. The logic of competition makes well-behaved citizens do this, and the public suffer as well." These incidents could become more common as more firms enter the market and the roads become more congested, it says: "This is one way in which deregulation is leading to frustration and problems."