If you run a coach hire business and you’re finding it harder to put a driver on every job this autumn, you’re not imagining it. The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), the industry’s main trade body, says the UK is short of more than 4,000 bus and coach drivers — a 12.4% vacancy rate for coach roles alone, against 3.4% for bus. For operators fielding school runs, private hire and Christmas party season bookings all at once, that gap is showing up directly in how far ahead customers now need to book.
Why the shortage keeps biting
Coach work is seasonal by nature, and demand doesn’t wait for the labour market to catch up. CPT’s own figures show full order books at many operators alongside rising passenger numbers on some routes — good news for the sector, but it means every driver vacancy is now a booking an operator can’t take rather than just a rota headache. Smaller operators feel this hardest: a single driver off sick or leaving can mean turning away a wedding run or a school trip with no one else qualified to cover it.
The rule that’s holding recruitment back
Part of the problem is structural. Drivers aged 18 and 19 are currently restricted to regular services of no more than 50km, which rules them out of the private hire, tours and excursion work that makes up most of what a typical coach hire firm actually does. CPT has been pushing the Department for Transport to scrap the limit entirely, arguing that age isn’t what determines safe driving — experience and training are. The DfT has floated only a partial change, lifting the cap for regular scheduled services but leaving it in place for occasional and private hire work, which industry bodies say misses most of the jobs young recruits could actually be doing. Until that’s resolved, a genuinely willing 18-year-old with a fresh licence still can’t be rostered on the private hire and excursion jobs a coach hire business relies on.
What operators can do now
Waiting on government isn’t a recruitment strategy. CPT’s own recruitment and retention guidance for members points operators toward a few practical levers: apprenticeship routes that bring in candidates before they’d otherwise consider a PCV licence, faster and clearer onboarding so a new recruit isn’t left waiting weeks between passing their test and starting paid work, and retention basics — decent facilities, predictable rotas, and a route to progression — that keep an existing driver from being tempted away by a competitor. None of this fixes the shortage overnight, but it’s the difference between a firm that’s merely short-staffed and one that’s actively losing capacity it can’t win back.
What it means if you’re booking a coach
For businesses and event organisers searching for coach hire near me, the practical upshot is simple: book earlier than you think you need to. Operators with tight driver availability are increasingly turning away late enquiries rather than stretching an already full rota, particularly for weekend and evening private hire. That’s true whether you’re arranging transport in Gravesend, Fraserburgh or Sherburn in Elmet — the shortage is a national picture, not a local one, so the same booking-ahead advice applies wherever you are.
The driver shortage isn’t going to resolve itself through a single policy change, and CPT’s own position is that even the DfT’s partial proposal doesn’t go far enough. For now, the operators coping best are the ones treating recruitment as an ongoing job rather than a response to the next vacancy — and the customers coping best are the ones who’ve stopped leaving their booking until the last fortnight.
Source: CPT, “Government action to make it easier to hire bus and coach drivers”.
