Revealed: The London bus drivers ‘abandoned’ to the pandemic
London bus drivers have told City A.M. they were “abandoned” by their employers and unions alike and forced to fend for themselves as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the UK.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a number of drivers revealed to City A.M. the personal risks to which they have been exposed while keeping essential services running during the pandemic.
They said the pandemic had revealed the “toxic” nature of a bus industry, and accused unions such as Unite failing to stand up for their concerns due to its close connection to Transport for London.
Their comments came as drivers yesterday wrote to London mayor Sadiq Khan asking for bus drivers to be made a priority category for vaccination.
The official death toll for London bus drivers has now reached 43, although unofficial counts suggest more than 50 drivers have died.
According to the latest data from the ONS, bus drivers are among the professions most vulnerable to the pandemic. Across the country, there have been 83 bus and coach driver deaths, a rate of 70.3 per 100,000.
The situation is acute in London, where there are around 25,000 bus drivers, which suggests a death rate more than double the national average.
And a recent survey from RMT showed that 60 per cent of bus workers said their employer had taken no additional steps to protect staff safety since the emergence of the more infectious strain of Covid-19.
A number of different companies run London bus services for TfL.
‘No one would tell us anything‘
One driver, Chris*, is currently recovering from Covid, which he says he caught while out driving. He explains what happened at the start of the pandemic.
“The day after lockdown was announced there was no management on site when we went in in the morning. We were carrying cling film and sticky tape to try and seal up holes on the doors and the cabs”, he said.
It took his company until the end of April to begin sorting out the problem, but even then, he said that bus drivers were kept in the dark about safety conditions.
“No one would tell us anything about which drivers had tested positive. Obviously if we knew we’d been in contact with that person then we would have stayed away from work.”
He said during the first wave, his company continued to ferry its drivers down to their buses using cars, meaning there was no chance of social distancing.
John*, a bus driver of 18 years, said it took months for his company to begin taking the safety precautions seriously.
“Over the last couple of weeks they seem to have started to take this stuff seriously, but that’s nine months after this began. They’re starting to enforce one-way systems and social distancing.”
But early on, drivers said they had to take action to keep themselves safe, such as their decision to allow people to board only from the central doors.
“For a while, we were working with front doors being opened and many colleagues of mine took the initiative and changed to central door operating some time before it was mandated by TfL.”
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A third driver, Dan*, said the same. “The drivers have no confidence in the company, which is why they first decided to close the front doors and tell the companies, ‘Well, we’re not opening the front doors. We don’t care about the money. These are our lives at stake, rather than your livelihood’ ”, he told City A.M.
TfL enforced temporary central door operating in April, but has now returned to front door boarding based on safety upgrades.
‘My cab was like Frankenstein’s monster’
Chris*, who had to pause for breath several times during our conversation, said that it took about six weeks from the beginning of March’s lockdown for companies to begin making safety adjustments to the buses.
But because there are multiple different types of vehicle at each company, he said that there was no standard way of sealing cabs, with drivers resorting to using gaffa tape and plastic to make themselves safe.
“Cabs were like Frankenstein’s monster, and not one was the same as the rest. Instead of having a uniform system from TfL, it was down to each individual bus driver how they sealed it.”
A fourth driver, Rob*, said that despite attempts to seal drivers’ cabs, there are still problems now.
“Take a look at the doors. You’ll see that they are using sticky tape to patch up the holes and just hoping that drivers will just get on and drive. And it’s particularly bad for new drivers who might not know what the safety standards are”, he said.
All four said they had seen no evidence that TfL had taken steps to enforce its safety guidance at garages and on buses.
Chris* said: “I’ve been out there since last March and I have not had one ticket inspector, one police officer or any other official on my bus in all that time. And I know that’s the same for the whole of London.”
TfL said enforcement officers had stopped 135,000 people from getting on public transport and had worked with the companies that operate itds buses to enforce safety standards.
Safety ‘came second’ to mileage
Time and again, the drivers keep coming back to the same point. “The most important thing for the companies was that we covered the miles. Safety very clearly came second to that.”
John* said he had been threatened with being taken off a route after leaving a stand late because he had been cleaning his cab.
Part of the problem, said Rob*, was that TfL fines bus firms if they do not complete the mileage they are contracted to drive.
This means that drivers are under constant pressure from their managers to keep to time, with even small delays leading to warnings over their performance.
He added that because TfL is currently operating a Sunday service due to the decline in ridership, drivers are actually spending more time at the wheel, raising the risk of their being exposed to coronavirus.
Through the first lockdown, he said, drivers were working for up to 10 hours a day, often six or seven days in a row.
John* said the issues were a result of how drivers were perceived by the rest of the population.
“Drivers are not seen as skilled workers, and that filters down to how bus drivers are treated by management. It’s a structural problem – there is a toxic culture of low pay, long hours, and high staff turnover.”
Claire Mann, TfL’s director of bus operations, said: “Every death from coronavirus is a tragedy and our thoughts remain with the friends and families of our colleagues who have died. We will continue to do everything that is humanly possible to protect bus drivers.
“All bus companies have safety measures in place including a relentless focus on cleaning with long-lasting anti-viral cleaning fluid, limits on the number of customers onboard to allow for social distancing and sealing up of driver’s cabs, which independent UCL analysis found substantially reduces the risk of drivers contracting coronavirus.
“Throughout the pandemic, TfL and the bus companies have followed PHE advice as it has evolved. Bus operators have worked closely with the trades unions at each garage to ensure safety standards are adhered to.
“The public is well aware of the requirement to wear face coverings and we are taking tough action against the selfish minority who are still failing to comply. Our enforcement officers have stopped around 135,000 people from boarding public transport, the vast majority on buses, until they put on a face covering, and fined around 2,000 for refusing to comply.”
“We are working with the Mayor and the Government to prioritise bus drivers and other transport workers receiving the vaccine against coronavirus.”
Unite ‘ran away’ from drivers
The drivers also agreed that union Unite had not done enough to back them up through the period, saying that they thought the body would have done more if London’s mayor was a Conservative.
John* said: “I get the impression that Unite the union exists purely as a funding arm for the Labour Party. And since we’ve got a Labour mayor in the moment, it’s not in their interest really to attack the Mayor.”
Two of the four drivers that City A.M. spoke to said they had left Unite as a result of its inaction during the pandemic.
Chris* said: “I was scared to go into work. We all were – we went home praying that we wouldn’t take it back to our families. We were trying to comfort each other, but our union just ran away. Because no one knew what to do, no one did anything.”
Unite lead officer for London buses John Murphy said: “To even suggest that Unite has in any way failed in its duty to ensure London bus driver safety is a complete distortion of the facts.
“From before well before the first lockdown Unite was instrumental in introducing safety measures for a health challenge unlike anything workers had previously experienced.
“Unite ensured that buses became middle door entry only (which had a huge negative effect on Transport for London’s income), the seats around the driver were placed out of bounds, the number of passengers was restricted, the drivers screen was fully sealed and a new air conditioning system was introduced to separate the air drivers breathe from that of passengers.
“In addition Unite’s safety reps have been undertaking a full-time role ensuring that enhanced cleaning regimes are maintained and that bus workers are able to maintain social distancing at all times.
“Unite has also consistently campaigned and lobbied for far greater enforcement on the rules on mask wearing and to prevent overloading of bus to further improve safety. This should not be the responsibility of the driver but undertaken by the bus operators, TfL and the police.
The union also said it was part of the crusade to include bus drivers as those who should be prioritised for the Covid-19 vaccine.
“What is beyond doubt is that without Unite’s absolute commitment in ensuring the safety of London bus workers, fatalities would have been even higher.”
*all driver names have been changed in this article.