Enclosed driver's cabs are becoming widespread around the world but, as for
trams and trains, they have to come with prepaid or tap-on fares and
removal of involvement of the driver with any revenue function. All door
boarding is also progressively reducing the interaction of drivers with
passengers, though the drivers' unions are opposed to all door boarding in
NSW, but not in other states and territories.

It's taking a long time for the penny to drop among some people that the
shortage of professional heavy vehicle drivers in general is an
Australia-wide and world-wide issue. This article summarising some of the
issues is about truck drivers but the problem includes bus drivers:

https://asstra.com/press-centre/news/2023/3/global-driver-shortage/

One can find many other news items on the subject, including highlighting
the most fundamental issue that more older drivers are retiring from the
industry than there are young drivers entering it, such as:

https://czechdaily.cz/czech-republic-faces-severe-shortage-of-25000-professional-drivers/

https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/driver-shortage-is-deviating-for-the-eu-economy-warn-business-and-politicians

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/25/1195858259/why-are-so-many-school-districts-struggling-to-find-good-bus-drivers

And none of our remaining government bus operations are immune, so it's not
"privatisation":

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-21/bus-cancellations-driver-shortages-brisbane/102245434

It's a huge problem for heavy road vehicles because full automation, which
eliminates the issue in a growing number of commuter railways and will come
to trams during this decade, is a way off. Railways are fortunate:

https://wiki2.org/en/List_of_driver-less_train_systems

Tony P

On Monday, 11 September 2023 at 18:21:21 UTC+10 Andrew Highriser wrote:

> It seems so logical to give proper protection to bus drivers and would

> hardly be expensive. Who can forget this horrific incident,

> https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-28/driver-dies-after-bus-catches-fire-in-brisbane/7974172 It

> would have been so simple to prevent by having the driver isolated in a

> secure driver cabin.

>

> Andrew.

>

> On Mon, 11 Sept 2023 at 15:38, Mark Skinner eme...@...> wrote:

>

>> What's got me beat is that buses in Australia, with few exceptions,

>> have extremely poor driver protection as might be found in Europe. Unless I

>> was a big bloke, I wouldn't touch commuter bus driving after hours for

>> double that amount. It's too dangerous.

>>

>> If, as they say, it's hard to get people doing the job, surely a cab

>> enclosure would help, and relatively inexpensively?

>>

>> Mark Skinner

>>

>> On Mon, 11 Sept 2023, 2:08 pm TP, histor...@...> wrote:

>>

>>> Can't read it, but I'm guessing it's bus driving. The same problem in

>>> Europe, labour shortage and lots of incentives, but they still can't get

>>> them. The problem extends beyond bus drivers to heavy vehicle drivers

>>> generally.

>>>

>>>

>>> https://www.iru.org/news-resources/newsroom/global-driver-shortages-2022-year-review

>>>

>>> It's not so obvious with tram drivers as their numbers are tiny compared

>>> to road vehicle drivers.

>>>

>>> Tony P

>>>

>>> On Monday, 11 September 2023 at 13:54:02 UTC+10 Greg Sutherland wrote:

>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-s-a-100-000-job-but-nobody-wants-it-and-it-s-making-you-late-a-lot-20230907-p5e2yg.html

>>>>

>>>>

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>