Job cuts on the buses

"The industry as a whole is suffering"

Reading Buses, which also owns Newbury & District, has announced it is planning a number of cost-saving measures to ensure it can continue to provide the best possible service in the current challenging financial climate.

This includes up to 33 job losses in various roles.

The company, like many other businesses, has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic which at one point saw customer numbers fall to lower than 10 per cent of normal.

With changes to service levels, the use of the Job Retention furlough scheme and some Government funding, Reading Buses has been able to continue to provide a service for key workers from the start of the pandemic and, as restrictions have been eased, increase to a more-or-less normal service.

However, while customer numbers are growing back slowly, the government furlough scheme will come to an end and there is no guarantee that people will return to their old routines.

The company predicts an uncertain period ahead and has created a plan to ensure that it can continue to provide the right level of service.

Reading Buses chief executive Robert Williams said: “Like many others, we have been constantly using the word ‘unprecedented’ to describe the situation we have found ourselves in.

“With hugely reduced customer numbers and changes to the way we operate, it has been a difficult period to get through.

“Our fantastic team have worked incredibly hard to ensure we could continue to run a service for key workers from the outset, but also that we could scale up later for everyone else, as leisure and tourism centres began to open up.

“However, the industry as a whole is suffering.

“Once the pandemic is over and things return to ‘normal’, we expect that some people will continue in their current pattern of using other modes of transport, working from home and internet shopping – all of which will see an ongoing reduction in both customer numbers and revenue.

“If we continue to operate with the same costs whilst waiting for customers to return, it will result in the company no longer being economically sustainable.

“It is for this reason that we have constructed a plan to allow Reading Buses to continue to serve the people of Reading and the local area by reducing as many costs as possible.”

The headline figures are:

• Up to 33 positions in the company at risk – although no driver redundancies are currently expected.
• A freeze on new recruitment, including apprenticeships.
• A freeze on investment in new vehicles.
• New ways of working for existing staff.