The bus and coach industry includes scheduled intercity, urban and suburban bus, coach and tram services, non-scheduled and charter bus and coach services.  Where the company maintains its own vehicles, engineering work falls within these industries.  It also includes the operation of terminal facilities and sight seeing coach tours.  Coach travel is usually for non-essential leisure trips, whereas bus travel is more often for an essential purpose such as getting to work or for shopping. 

Some specific job roles include:

• bus and coach drivers
• couriers/host/esses
• depot manager
• transport manager
• vehicle maintenance (including electrical/engineering)
• supervisors/shift leaders

The bus industry is dominated by the five large companies; First, Stagecoach, Go-Ahead, Arriva and National Express which together represent about 80% of employment.  These employers are less significant in the coach industry, as there are a large number of small and micro coach businesses (defined as less than 10 employees).  There is an estimated 241,000 employees in the industry.

Immediate skills needs are for driving skills (8% of companies) and vehicle engineering skills (3%).  Future skills needs are in driving (15% of companies), driving instruction (11%) and customer service skills (6%).

Recruitment and retention are significant problems for the sector.  Recruitment has been focused on Eastern Europe.  The bus and coach industry has an aging workforce, which means that a long term approach needs to be taken to address recruitment problems.  There are difficulties recruiting young people into the industry because of legislation and high insurance premiums which restrict drivers under the age of 25.

Workforce statistics:

• 13% of the workforce are employed part-time
• 17% of the workforce are female
• the average age of employees is 45.4 years
• 23% of workers are aged 55 years and over
• 12% of the workforce are from ethnic minority groups
• 55% of the Scottish workforce is qualified to at least NVQ Level 2, 52% in England, 41% in Wales and 40% in Northern Ireland

Employer statistics:

• 66% of companies employ fewer than 10 people
• 75% of the workforce are employed in companies with more than 50 staff
• smaller companies are more common in the coach industry

Source: Data from GoSkills 2007, LMI Industry fact sheets 2006 and GoSkills Skills Needs Assessment (stage 1) sector summary 2006a