Wages Raised Hours Reduced for Bus Drivers
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I SEE that the latest move to overcome stallshortage in the passenger transport industry is an appeal to retired drivers to work part-time on buses in Bristol.
All over the country both municipal and company-owned undertakings have been suffering from crew shortages dating back almost to the end of the war.. Very hale attempt seems to have been made to make the job attractive.
The wage for a basic week is one of the lowest in industry, and recruits can only be attracted by the offer of plenty of overtime. Any undertaking fortunate enough to obtain sufficient personnel to cut down overtime immediately loses longer serving personnel, who find it impossible to manage on a basic week's wage.
It is true that there will always be some people anxious to work overtime, however good their basic week's wage. But it is equally true that the present basic wage makes overtime working an absolute necessity for a man with family responsibilities.
The rate of £10 3s. 6d. offered to municipal drivers for 42 hours a week is shockingly low. Generally speaking it is about £2 a week less than offered for unskilled labour in industry, where a five-day week is usually worked (considerably more if shift work is involved).
Unhappy Position of Bus Drivers
If comparisons are made on a basis of total weekly earnings, the unhappy position of the bus driver is shown even more clearly.
The latest figures quoted by the Ministry of Labour put the earnings of the average industrial worker at £14 10s. for an average of 48 hours worked. For the same number of hours a municipal bus driver would earn £12 5s., and even if a Sunday shift was included his money would be only just over £13.
1 was a coach driver, and later a bus driver for 12 years. In my last driving employment 1 worked a 44-hour rota spread over six days and including extra payment for Saturday afternoon and Sunday duties. My average gross pay over 24 years of this was £9 19s. I went into a factory doing a relatively unskilled job and had every week-end off, regular hours, and averaged £12 16s. for a 424-hour week. Can you wonder that men leave the buses for manufacturing industry?
No Incentive for Co-operation
Present wages and fringe benefits in the industry certainly do not provide an incentive to crews to co-operate with management in efforts to make services economic and zfficient.
The police and the post office which, incidentally, paid wages similar to those of the bus driver in pre-war years have tackled a similar problem by offering much more generous rates of pay. Passenger transport will have to follow suit if it is to remain viable.
in my opinion bus drivers of today should be paid a minimum rate of bs. per hour, the working week should be 40 hours, allowing five eight-hour shifts to be worked, and thus provide the leisure enjoyed in other industries.
Those transport managers who throw up their hands in horror and say that this would put them into liquidation should work out how much it costs their department in overtime payments per year to cover crew shortage.
Bus driving can be a pleasant occupation. Give the crews decent wages and conditions and the staff shortage will. disappear and the public will get a much improved service.
Romford. Essex. P. F. TURNER.
Praise for B.R.S.
Lorry Driver
nN Saturday, July 22, we were travelling down the Al
between Stamford and Biggleswade when we saw a certain incident which we think deserves praise. It concerned an eight-wheeler of British Road Services, E.R.F. No. CPV 274, Fleet Number 3A 287 at approximately 10.30 a.m. The driver stopped to give assistance to a motorist whose car had failed him. After probably 15 minutes we saw the lorry towing this car down the Al to a garage which was quite some miles away.
As motorists, we felt quite proud to think we have still got some decent people left on the roads, and we would like you to publish this matter as we suppose the lorry driver never thought anyone had seen this act of goodwill, other than the person to whom he gave assistance.
Bentham, Lincs. JoHN E. WRIGHT,
C. R. GUDGEON.
Mobile Library Help Wanted
I AM preparing a textbook on the subject of mobile -11libraries and would like to ask, through your columns, for any information builders of such bodies can afford me.
Liverpool, 2. Witi-aEo H. SNAPE,
Lecturer in Librarianship, Liverpool College of Commerce.