"Operational Issues"

[DD12]

https://twitter.com/firstworcester

https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/24 ... ice-30-35/

Journeys are being dropped currently.

Someone in the comments section of the W.News says it's due to a shortage of drivers, but only recently I read that WR had plenty of drivers and was sending some to drive on Bristol routes.

What's going-on please ??

[bmmoboy]

We do have a full complement of drivers, but if one driver fails to report on a Sunday, there are no spares to cover the work.

[DD12]

Thanks bmmoboy, but it wasn't just Sunday, it was 3 cancellations on Friday afternoon, several on Saturday (see the W.News link above) and one this morning.

[bmmoboy]

Once again it is down to drivers not reporting for duty, or in my case, being off sick, which I am and will be for probably the next 4 weeks.

[TimBrown]

Once again it is down to drivers not reporting for duty, or in my case, being off sick, and I will be for probably the next 4 weeks.

Sorry to hear you are unwell, hope you make a swift recovery!

Years ago, bus enthusiasts like you and I with, what were then, PSV licences were on the books as part-time casual drivers and we worked weekends (nearly always late turns of course) when not at our full time employer, sometimes being called out with an hour or so notice, usually for the dreaded and hated 15-30 144 departure to Birmingham. I seem to remember in National Bus days you had to do a number of weeks/months 'on call' part-time as proof of competence before being accepted by Management and Union for full time employment.

[bmmoboy]

Cheers Tim, my recovery isn't as swift as I would like.

[AdamH]

A number of years ago, First abolished all spare driver duties in the name of efficiency. They said at the time that the cost of having a bus sat in the garage due to no driver was less than the cost of having a spare driver if they were not needed.

Some may argue that this is a clear example of First putting short-term gain for the shareholder before the customer and the long-term sustainability of the business, and I would agree with that. One of the many reasons that passenger numbers have dropped in Worcester due to lack of trust in the service, while other operators with a more customer-focused approach continue to see passenger numbers rise year-on-year (except for the Covid blip, obviously!).

[MattW]

while other operators with a more customer-focused approach .

Pretty fundamental for a bus service I would have thought!