Hourly cost of a bus driver for the bus operator

[Jonas]

Hi all,

I need your help again for my Thesis : )
(about the coach market differences in Europe),

After asking for the average cost of new coaches in the UK, here is my question :

I found the average hourly wage of a bus driver, but how much does it cost for the bus operator (adding the taxes and social costs)?

What is the average hourly cost of a bus driver for the bus operator/employer?

Thanks in advance for your help !
And let me know if I'm not clear enough,

Best,

 

[yorkie]

I am not sure but don't forget to take into account annual leave, break times, turnaround times, empty workings to/from depots, being on standby in case of being needed to cover for staff illness, and also the cost of providing appropriate training.

Plus overheads such as recruitment & 'HR' costs etc.

 

[philthetube]

And the big ones, employers national insurance and pension contributions.
To provide one employee for a job where cover has to be available probably costs double the actual wage.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

As a very rough rule of thumb, take your hourly rate and add 40% - that should cover NI, holiday pay, sickness cover and training, and employer pensions contributions.

 

[Jonas]

Thanks all!

 

[Cesarcollie]

As a very rough rule of thumb, take your hourly rate and add 40% - that should cover NI, holiday pay, sickness cover and training, and employer pensions contributions.

Indeed. And remember that if a bus is on the road from (say) 0700-1900 = 12 hours, it’ll be considerably more than 12 hours pay due to breaks (paid or unpaid), scheduling inefficiency, sign on/sign off times etc. As a rule of thumb you can probably add 25% or more to bus hours to get pay hours.

 

[njlawley]

You wouldn't need to include NI as that is deducted from the hourly pay (including holiday pay / cover / overtime pay).

 

[Cesarcollie]

You wouldn't need to include NI as that is deducted from the hourly pay (including holiday pay / cover / overtime pay).

Eh? NI is a cost payable by the employer (in this case bus company) and is circa 13% on top of the hourly rate.

 

[Fryschocream]

For a bus hour you need to treble the cost of a drivers wage hour. If you're just working out driver cost you need to add NI pension and sick etc. Roughly double.

 

[njlawley]

Eh? NI is a cost payable by the employer (in this case bus company) and is circa 13% on top of the hourly rate.

No, National Insurance is a tax deduction from the gross pay. You'll normally find it listed on your payslip alongside Income Tax.
View media item 3476

 

[matt_world2004]

No, National Insurance is a tax deduction from the gross pay. You'll normally find it listed on your payslip alongside Income Tax.
View media item 3476

Theres an employee and employer contribution to national insurance.

 

[Fryschocream]

Employers by law have to pay ni and pension contributions on top of the employees amount.

 

[njlawley]

Fair enough, I wasn't aware of that.

(Mods, please feel free to delete the unnecessary bits in that case)

 

[MotCO]

Indeed. And remember that if a bus is on the road from (say) 0700-1900 = 12 hours, it’ll be considerably more than 12 hours pay due to breaks (paid or unpaid), scheduling inefficiency, sign on/sign off times etc. As a rule of thumb you can probably add 25% or more to bus hours to get pay hours.

And as Yorkie said earlier, you need to factor in the cost of annual leave - a driver can only work say 48 weeks a year, but gets paid 52 weeks. Also need to build in an allowance for sickness (are there any industry-wide averages available?) and maternity/paternity pay.