All bus drivers will be able to travel for free on public transport, as part of a major overhaul by the NSW Government to support the industry and improve services by incentivising more drivers to get behind the wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NSW Government is moving forward in delivering another of the key recommendations of the Bus Industry Taskforce Interim Report, which called for action to support driver recruitment and retention, including free Opal cards for workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transport for NSW is now consulting with operators, employees and unions on the rollout of these cards, which drivers and other workers will be able to use to travel across the Opal-enabled public transport network and access all staff facilities on the Opal network throughout their shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This will ensure bus drivers have public transport travel benefits in line with Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink employees. Consultation will take place over the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, the NSW Government kicked off a new recruitment campaign in an effort to address the bus driver shortage to help improve reliability for passengers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the start of the recruitment drive, around 450 new bus driver authorities have been issued and there have been more than 56,000 visits to the Transport for NSW recruitment webpagelaunch<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NSW Government has already made it quicker, easier, and cheaper for drivers to get their bus driver authority by waiving the $70 application fee for the next 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bus operators are also working to recruit more drivers, with incentives like referral bonuses of up to $6,000 and reimbursing driver onboarding costs \u2013 such as the cost of Driver Authority training and licence upgrades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Transport Minister Jo Haylen said: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re giving bus drivers a ticket to ride, with a staff Opal card so they can travel for free on the public transport network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are doing everything we can to attract new bus drivers and support our current workforce in NSW.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a no-brainer. We are taking action to address a key recommendation out of the Bus Industry Taskforce\u2019s interim Report and support our hard-working frontline staff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDrivers and operational staff like our mechanics have told us this is what they want, and we\u2019re going to deliver on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStaff will be able to use these cards to travel across the Opal-enabled public transport network, including to and from work, and to access other facilities like train station bathrooms while they\u2019re out on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe want drivers to be able to comfortably take breaks between shifts, before getting back on the road and fulfilling their vital roles connecting the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Bus Industry Taskforce will consult with employees, unions and operators over the coming months to help ensure a smooth rollout of the cards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe rollout of these cards will mean every bus and train driver will be able to travel freely on the public transport network they proudly operate every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All bus drivers will be able to travel for free on public transport, as part of a major overhaul by the NSW Government to support the industry and improve services by incentivising more drivers to get behind the wheel. The NSW Government is moving forward in delivering another of the key recommendations of the Bus … Continue reading “Free public transport for bus drivers a major move to boost workforce”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22621,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22620\/revisions\/22621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}