Sweden’s bus driver shortage puts breaks on society

Swedish bus companies took a serious hit during the Covid-19 pandemic as the number of passengers plummeted. The companies also received less state support than in other Nordic countries. 

“In Sweden, we carried on driving while other countries closed down,” says Anna Grönlund, deputy managing director at the Swedish Bus and Coach Federation.

“All of the Nordic countries gave support to their public transport operators, but it was not enough to cover lost ticket revenues. After the pandemic, we have seen a 10 per cent drop in passengers across the Nordics,” she says. 

Anna Grönlund is the deputy managing director at the Swedish Bus and Coach Federation.

“We also lost many of our drivers during the pandemic, as bus companies had to lay off people – especially in coach transport services as the authorities asked people not to travel together. Many of the bus drivers were over 60 and took the opportunity to retire.”

Cutting routes

Fewer bus drivers means fewer departures and a cut in the number of bus routes. Access to public transport is important for where people choose to live, work and study. Weaker transport links also make it harder for local companies to hire staff. 

The Nordic Labour Journal has taken a closer look at the impact the bus crisis has on public transportation in Skåne county, whose 1.4 million citizens make it the most densely populated region in Sweden after Stockholm. 

The city of Lund, with its large university, a hospital and many other major businesses, has many commuters using public transport. Changes to timetables a few weeks ago created a heated media debate and six bus driver quit their jobs.

Crisis meeting

The drivers quit because they were unhappy with stress levels and working hours and they believed it would be impossible to stick to the new timetable. Passengers were unhappy too, and the city council called a crisis meeting.

They wanted to talk to Skånetrafiken, the main public transport provider in Sweden’s southernmost region. Its mission is “to offer sustainable travel options to everyone who lives, works, and travels in Skåne,”. The city council also wanted to talk to bus operator Keolis, which, following a procurement process, has signed an agreement with Skånetrafiken to operate the city bus service in Lund. 

Keolis is owned by SNCF (France’s national state-owned railway company) with a 70 per cent stake in the company which runs bus routes in eight countries. These are some of their Stockholm buses. Photo: Keolis

The meeting resulted in re-adjusted bus schedules. These will come into effect in October, writes Skånetrafiken on their website. The reactions to the original timetable changes were clearly justified. According to the newspaper Sydsvenskan, Keoli’s quality report for Skånetrafiken showed that the city buses’ punctuality fell from more than 90 per cent to between 60 and 70 per cent.

8,100 new bus drivers needed

A report from the Swedish Confederation of Transport Enterprises gives an overview of the current state of the Swedish bus sector. It concludes that 8,100 new bus drivers will be needed over the next two years.

The Nobina group is a public transport operator that also provides bus driver training. It employs 13,000 people across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. In Sweden, Nobina employs around 8,000 bus drivers.

“The shortage of bus drivers is a national problem, and the number of training spaces is too low. This is not something that individual companies can solve on their own. It requires collaboration, and the authorities must ensure there is enough training capacity, says David Erixon, head of communications for Nobina Sweden.

“Public transport has grown and will continue to grow as we aim to reach the climate goals. That is why this is so important,” he says.

Nobina expects the authorities to provide a relevant set of rules for bus driver training and that training spaces offered through the employment service are filled without unnecessary red tape.

Municipalities must also be given the necessary resources to offer adult education to train more bus drivers, explains David Erixon, and points to the measures that Nobina have implemented in order to deal with the shortfall.

“We have good examples in municipalities where we work together with Yrkesvux [vocational adult education at upper secondary level]. We collaborate on advertising, meet people who are interested and increase knowledge about the industry. We have also been able to offer a job guarantee for all those who complete the training. This has led to more applicants and more training programs, which has led to real jobs.” 

In terms of kilometres travelled the private car is still by far the preferred mode of transport, accounting for nearly 80 per cent of kilometres travelled per person. Busses account for nearly 8 per cent. Source: The Swedish Bus and Coach Federation

The starting salary for full-time bus drivers is 26,780 Swedish kronor (€ 2,252) a month, according to the collective agreement. On top of that comes compensation for inconvenient working hours, i.e. evenings, nights and weekends. 

“It is not hard to start earning more than 30,000 kronor a month,” says David Erixon.

Divided shifts

Divided shifts have also been up for debate – when a non-working period is inserted in the middle of a shift which in turn creates a longer working day. David Erixon says arguments have become very binary and that Nobina follows the collective agreement while striving to make shifts work for employees.

“While much of the debate centres on divided shifts, and while this is an important issue, it is worth remembering that on an average day, 270 out of Nobina's around 3,000 shifts are divided. The reason is really that public transport is there for when people want to travel – often in the morning or in the afternoon.

“In the middle of the day, the need is not so great and that is when divided shifts might be used since both we and our trade union partners want to create full-time positions. Meanwhile, we are working actively with schedule reviewers to create the best possible schedules which drivers then can choose from. They can figure out what suits their life situation best."  

Trade union hoping for new negotiations

The Swedish Municipal Workers’ Union argues that long working days and stress are the main factors why driving a bus has become an unattractive choice of occupation.  

“We believe, and our members tell us, that the working hours are the reason so few people want to become bus drivers. The hours can be between 13 and 13.5 hours for divided shifts, and if we look at this in percentages we have few younger drivers because they struggle to combine private life with divided shifts,” says Mario Gavran from the Swedish Municipal Workers’ Union. 

Mario Gavran from the Swedish Municipal Workers’ Union (Kommunal). Photo: Kommunal

He has seen that working hours in the bus sector have been an issue for a long time and that it is something that keeps coming back. 

“It is possible to make changes to the collective agreement in order to change framework hours, making the bus driver occupation more attractive. If you have made cuts to your organisation that means you can’t make things work, then something else is up with the entire system,” he says. He hopes the current negotiations will improve things. 

“Our hope is that the employers will be more receptive to issues concerning working hours. Otherwise, we might end up seeing more of what has just happened in Lund,” says Mario Gavran.

A cross-Nordic challenge

Changing framework hours or not. When the Nordic Labour Journal talks to Anna Grönlund at the Swedish Bus and Coach Federation, we learn of further possible solutions to the bus driver shortages. Grönlund recently visited Iceland to participate in a meeting of Nordic bus operator organisations.

Nordic bus meeting in Iceland: Jon Stordrange, NHO Transport Norway; Michael M Nielsen, Danish Passenger Transport; Agust Elvar Bjarnason, the Icelandic Travel Industry Association SAF; Anna Grönlund, the Swedish Bus and Coach Federation; Gunnar Valur Sveinsson, SAF and Eskil Johnsrud Saeterlien, NHO Transport Norway.

“The bus driver shortage is the greatest challenge to public transport right now, and the situation is the same for our Nordic neighbours – actually in the whole of the EU. We risk seeing public transport ceasing up,” she says. 

New EU directive could be important

The EU Commission has presented a proposal to the new driving license directive. The Nordic bus operator organisations are critical to a couple of points.

“We want to harmonise the age limits for bus drivers with those in the freight transport industry, which is 18. And since Finland, Norway and Sweden have a lot of rural transport routes with large distances, we also want to abolish the 50 kilometre limit for younger drivers so that the operators’ drivers can work on all the routes. If not, it will be difficult to hire younger drivers and to create meaningful services,” says Anna Grönlund.

This is something that the Swedish Bus and Coach Federation points to in their consultation response to the new driving license directive that will be decided on in December. 

"We see work and commuting patterns that have changed somewhat as people increasingly return to their jobs, so we need to scale up public transport to meet society's needs. If our proposal is accepted, we will have the opportunity to recruit young people on the same terms as other industries. Then we can build a foundation for public transport for the future.”

Regional responsibility

Responsibility for public transport lies with Sweden's 21 regions. The regional public transport authorities are responsible for public transport in their respective regions. 

“Just like there is no common responsibility for having enough nurses in all the regions, there is also no common responsibility for bus drivers," says Anna Grönlund.