r/Glasgow Tools

Friday’s are a riot for traffic which means lots of cancelled services to get buses back on time or driver break adjustments to comply with legal regulations.

I would be annoyed in the same situation but the employees that are there are equally frustrated as the passenger at the bus stop. My mate is a depot manager and even at that level they are at the behest of clueless policies handed down by senior leadership, weak interdepartmental relationships and bad recruitment and retainment strategies.

They can’t keep hold of their staff. Bus industry wages stagnated or regressed. New drivers come in and think “fuck this.” Even a lot of their experienced employees are bailing out and moving to less stressful jobs that pay similar or better.

The reality is First Bus is a private company and directors are there to safeguard profit. Herein lies the problem. Vital public service being operated for shareholders and not the public who need it. The passenger is an afterthought and the employee is only a number.

To fix their issues in the short term First Bus need to pay a rate that will attract and retain good quality employees, as well as making their loyal employees feel valued.

In the long term for the sake of the city, local public transit either needs to be

1 - put back into public ownership,

2 - regulated again, London style with a franchise model and heavy subsidies

Or

3 - employee ownership where profit is reinvested in the company and it’s employees rather than ending up as a dividend is a shareholders pocket.