Bus Tendering from 1996 to 2012

[runawaybus]

I am giving a talk to an association about the developments that have taken place since 1996 when the first group of routes got tendered out to a private company- ie. Outer North- Serco and Outer South- TransAdelaide.

Who here has some constructive criticism as well as general observations over the years as well as any places where I can find reports about the tendering process and what money has been saved through this process- it was claimed under the Libs the amount was $38 million or $7 million a year and that was put back to service improvements.

Some highlights for me would be the following:

* Extra bus services in some areas
* TransAdelaide corporatised and then privatised (inevitable but was denied by the Minister at the time

* New livery for buses (in fact we could say two different liveries) and buses and trams

* Go-Zones introduced

* Better marketing from 2000 to 2008 and then a very limited marketing approach from 2008 onwards

* A lot of bus stops have timetable infomation which didn't have before

* Extension of the tram to the Adelaide Railway Station and Entertainment Centre including new wheelchair accessible trams

* More Wheelchair accessible buses including Artics

* Three different style of timetables come out within a decade

* Innovative services ie. M44, J1/J2, 300, Southern Circuit, and others I can think of like Roam Zones

* Patronage increases from 2000 to 2011 and then a drop for reasons mentioned in other posts

The future is:

Electrification of the rail system except Belair

more new buses

more Go-Zones

More routes that have been introduced at the expense of low patronage services

More trams

Train extension to Seaford, Roseworthy and Gawler East

New look timetables from 2011 onwards

And lastly if not a new operators starting. For example:

1996-2005: Serco, TransAdelaide, Southlink, Torrens Transit, ATE.

2005-Oct 2011: Torrens Transit, Southlink and ATE

Oct 2011 onwards: Torrens Transit, Southlink, ATE, and Transfield

[jibb]

Should be an interesting get together.
One thing that could be improved on is bringing timetables at bus stops up to date.There are still many stops that have out of date timetables showing,and some stops that are still up that have no services using them.Also cleaning of the panels so that they can be clearly read.
Some stops at Marion Interchange are very hard to read and haven't been cleaned for several years.
There are as a result of new buses more wheelchair accessible buses and clearer electronic destination signs.

[runawaybus]

Forgot to add that bus drivers hourly rates have remained practically the sane since the year 2000

[Eagle Eye]

Forgot to add that bus drivers hourly rates have remained practically the sane since the year 2000

The same or practically insane? Insanely low may be the term you're looking for...

[The Inspector]

The same or practically insane? Insanely low may be the term you're looking for...

Now you have the answer to why there are so many problems within the services, you get what you pay for

Pay a decent wage and staff just might do their job that little bit better.

[Paul From Hull]

Same pay since 2000 !!!

How has this been allowed to happen that in nearly 12 years pay for bus drivers has stayed the same with just minor pay increases each year? Have the management of the three companies been on the same pay since 2000 (Yes I know LCB have only just started) or do they get nice pay rises every year? Why is it that the people who are out on the road doing a frontline job week in, week out are getting the raw deal?

Paul From Hull in the UK !!

[Bedford_Kid]

Bus operators wages went down when privatisation started. With regular "Cost of living" increases since then, they have only just in the last year or less started to reach parity with what they were on in 1996-7.

So to say they have remained the same is wrong. They have lost a lot of money over those last 15 years through being forced to accept paycuts when the private operators took over, and have had to slowly claw their way back to what they had 15 years ago.

Thanks, SA Government.

[Paul From Hull]

Bus operators wages went down when privatisation started. With regular "Cost of living" increases since then, they have only just in the last year or less started to reach parity with what they were on in 1996-7.

So to say they have remained the same is wrong. They have lost a lot of money over those last 15 years through being forced to accept paycuts when the private operators took over, and have had to slowly claw their way back to what they had 15 years ago.

Thanks, SA Government.

My question still has to be, how has this been allowed to happen when top management are on mega bucks? I am not one for strike action, 99% of the time it solves nothing these days and you can never make back the pay you lose whilst being on strike but these drivers are normal people, most with familes, does the management teams not care about that and are they just interested in lining their own pockets and the pockets of shareholders. If ALL bus drivers who work for the 3 companies in Adelaide were to take strike action, they could cripple the city overnight and the companies would have no choise but to increase pay to a more realistic rate if drivers were fight for better pay, the companies could not sack everyone, were would they find all the drivers they would need!
Bus drivers are the front line staff dealing with everything on a day to day basis yet the seem to be getting a very raw deal. So it is now 2011 yet drivers are on pay that they were on 5 years ago, the cost of living goes up every day, why does bus drivers wage's not reflect that?

Paul From Hull in the UK !!!

[Bedford_Kid]

The government are actually very smart. Through the privatisation and awarding of tenders to different companies, they have created a system whereby each companies drivers have a different award system, each one due for renewal at a different time. Torrens actually had about 3 different awards going at the same time. So everything is so fragmented that any time an award is due for renegotiation, it is actually only about 20-30% of the drivers involved, so the numbers are too small to have a real effect if they strike.

Very clever strategy to break up what used to be a very strong union oriented workforce 20 years ago.