New recruits from the Philippines and Fiji are helping address Tauranga’s bus driver shortage, but it could be months before the city’s public transport network completely returns to a regular schedule.

The Bay of Plenty Times reported in September about 50 drivers were needed to fill vacancies on the city’s bus services. About 110 drivers were working at the time.

The network has been stretched since the Covid-19 pandemic began with problems exacerbated by a nationwide driver shortage.

Go Bus director of business development Russell Turnbull spoke to the Bay of Plenty Times last week on behalf of NZ Bus, which is contracted to operate Tauranga’s bus services.

He said 30 drivers had been recruited from overseas and local drivers had also come on board.

“The majority of overseas drivers we have recruited for Tauranga are mainly from the Philippines and Fiji.”

Turnbull said the company was providing the new drivers with accommodation and transport for their first four to six weeks. The accommodation was typically “but not exclusively” in Airbnb rentals.

It was also helping with “getting the initial essentials, setting up of IRD numbers and bank accounts, etc”.

Turnbull said the increase in driver wages to $28 per hour had helped with filling the shortage.

“We have now recruited more than enough drivers to fill all the Tauranga vacancies and are working with the regional council on when full timetables can be restored.”

Several bus routes - CT, 2B/2W, 5, 40, 51, 55, 60 and 71 - returned to regular “weekday timetables” yesterday, Bay of Plenty Regional Council announced.

The Bay of Plenty Times understood, however, it may be months before the full network returns to normal schedules.

Turnbull said the new drivers came with previous passenger transport experience. Training could take up to four weeks.

“However, it can take longer than this to get drivers behind the wheel operating services as getting the appropriate paperwork processed by authorities, such as VTNZ, New Zealand Police and Waka Kotahi, can take a little longer due to the complexities of converting licences.”

Bay of Plenty Regional Council public transport committee chairman Andrew von Dadelszen. Photo / George Novak

Regional council public transport committee chairman Andrew von Dadelszen said people were frustrated with the reduced service, which had been in play since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“At the moment we are leaving people behind. Some services, they just can’t reliably get to work on time in the mornings because the service is still [based on] a weekend service.

“It’s quite a big step back.”

According to data presented to the council in March, bus patronage in Tauranga in the three months to December was down 2.9 per cent to 470,905 on the same period the year before.

Excluding schools, patronage of the urban network was up 0.1 per cent on the previous year to 337,164.

The quarter to June, reported in September, showed a 19.4 per cent drop in urban network patronage on the year before to 311,091.

Read More

Von Dadelszen said the return to a regular schedule was important to help encourage more people onto public transport and help free up the city’s congestion.

Finding the funding to be able to raise wages for drivers was part of this effort, he said.

The regional council has just finished consultation of a bus network refresh which proposes to change some routes, adjust services and make it easier to travel via bus with more at peak times and greater access to more destinations.

The findings from the feedback are expected to be released in June with the proposed changes potentially taking effect by the end of this year.