Fatigue from long and arduous shifts on the road is causing bus drivers to physically break down and fall ill frequently, Transport for London (TfL) has been told.
Limited breaks due to traffic, uncomfortable conditions in the cabin and a culture of working 13 consecutive days have reportedly driven many to the brink of giving up.
Earlier this year, a Unite survey found that 36 per cent of drivers experienced sleepiness while driving two or three times a week, while almost half – 48 per cent – have had a “close call” due to fatigue in the past 12 months.
Drivers speak out
In a new interview, bus drivers have laid bare the conditions they are working in.
“I’ve never been so ill as I’ve been since I’ve been a bus driver because my body, my immune system has just collapsed because of the fatigue,” Antonia Pugh-Thomas said. “And so my periods of illness have been much more than I would have ever had previously.”
Ms Pugh-Thomas, 50, quit her role last month after being behind the wheel for almost two years after finding conditions unbearable during the recent heatwaves.
She has now spoken out in favour of better conditions for her former colleagues.
Describing a typical week as a bus driver, she said workers can expect a single 40-minute break during a shift that could last anywhere from nine to 12 hours.
This could end up being even shorter depending on traffic.
“That’s your one break for you to eat something at the end of each route,” she said.
“I might have five to ten minutes to check in with my boss, go to the toilet, maybe have a snack and turn around.
“But I might not have anything at all. I might arrive 15 minutes late and go straight away. There’s no time for anything, so you don’t even have that moment where you get out of your cab, you’re not even standing up.
“As we all know, anybody who sits in traffic, it’s traffic that’s so tiring and such hard work because you are edging forward slowly. You cannot let up on your concentration for even a second.”
Working conditions
Ms Pugh-Thomas also claimed she was never told that she would be made to work several consecutive days before being given a day off.
“It’s perfectly normal for drivers to work up to 13 consecutive days,” she added. “Of course you’re going to be tired when you only have a 40 minute break off, and there seems to be no allowance. There seems to be no understanding that this is bound to make the entire system institutionally unsafe.
“I don’t understand why that’s such a hard concept for TfL to grasp and for bus operators to grasp.
“It almost feels like we’re being treated like machines. It’s all about the profit that the private bus operating companies are making, and they’re shrinking the schedules so that they can get as much out of us as possible.”
It is legal for bus drivers on local routes – those less than 50km – to work ten-hour days, with no weekly or fortnightly limit apart from one day off every two weeks. It is also legal for these staff to work 130 hours over two weeks, with only a 30-minute break after five and a half hours driving.
Dylan Carroll, who set up London Bus Forums in 2023 to push for better working conditions, said the turnaround between getting home for a shift and having to be back can sometimes be as little as nine hours.
He added: “You can have that for up to 13 days. It’s a constant cycle. ”
Union criticism and TfL response
In June, TfL’s efforts were condemned by Unite, who branded a £500,000 spend on various wellbeing initiatives as “insulting”.
The funding was made available after a 2019 study by Loughborough University examined fatigue among London bus drivers.
But the union said that any measures introduced, including sleep pods, have done little to combat fatigue.
TfL have also outlined a number of methods to identify and combat driver fatigue, including plans to ensure operators install sensors or cameras to identify signs of fatigue based on factors such as eye movements, blinking rate and head position by next year.
But Mr Carroll said the network were failing to tackle the “root cause” of fatigue and only looking to alleviate the symptoms.
“The drivers feel that those cameras are there to penalise them, that they will be sanctioned if they yawn,” he said. “We need to not be fatigued when we go out [in the first place].”
Lorna Murphy, TfL’s Director of Buses, said: “Bus drivers play a vital role in keeping London moving, and tackling fatigue is essential to the safety and welfare of drivers and everyone using the capital’s bus network.
“We rightly require operators to meet high welfare standards and we’re committed to ensuring that all staff have a fair work schedule, with safe vehicles and access to the rest facilities they need.
“We’re also committed to working with operators and Unite to trial new ways of tackling fatigue. The includes trials of cutting-edge technology on buses to provide alerts when fatigue is detected, alongside improved data gathering and analysis to understand more about fatigue, when it may happen and what evidence-based actions we can take to further support driver health and wellbeing.”
