While it can’t be denied that some movement has occurred within bus and coach in recent years, significant, meaningful change continues to challenge the industry. The Bus Industry Confederation team aims to be that outside force.
To this end, we have been putting our own wheels in motion over the last year, bolstering connections and augmenting our knowledge base to better manoeuvre into a position of influence, enabling us to enact the kind of change the sector has been missing. Here’s some of what we’ve been up to.
- Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive the latest news and classifieds from Australasia’s bus and coach industry
- Don’t miss a second and subscribe to our monthly ABC magazine
In October, the BIC was invited to participate at a United Nations Working Group (UN IWG) addressing Children Left in Vehicles (CLIV), which set both the UN ECE (European) and Global Technical Regulations (GTRs). Held in Brisbane, the working group welcomed delegates from all over the world to mitigate the risk of children being left in vehicles, including buses, resulting in injuries and fatalities.
Welcoming the opportunity to share Australian expertise ranging back to 2013, the BIC presented current solutions and countermeasures mandated on Western Australian school buses and more recently in New South Wales. Reassuringly, the same system principles have been adopted in countries like South Korea, Japan and some states in the USA.
The workshop reminded us that regulation is recommended as a countermeasure to counter children being left in vehicles, with a focus on bus. The final regulation will be determined in the next phase of development, with current Australian practices well acknowledged.
Closer to home, we’re happy to introduce our new National Industrial Relations Manager, Kirsten Jongsma, who joined the Secretariat in October. With over 15 years’ experience in people leadership, Kirsten brings a certain level of dynamism to industrial relations cultivated from a career in service-led industries which span insurance, hospitality, transport and the resource sector.
No stranger to public transport or bus and coach, Kirsten previously headed up the recruitment, training and employment relations for the operator of the Sydney Light Rail, playing an integral role in its successful launch while overseeing people and culture for the Inner West Light Rail network. Her love for the bus industry began during her time at Buslink VIVO in Darwin and she also served on BIC’s own Australian Public Transport Industrial Association (APTIA) Working Group.
First-off the rank for Kirsten in the public arena was leading the discussion on industrial relations and workforce development at this month’s BIC National Conference in Hobart. It was heartening to see our members introducing themselves and offering their support, as well as bringing to Kirsten’s attention some of the more persistent IR-related issues affecting the industry.
Kirsten takes the reins from Ian ‘Macca’ MacDonald – well-known and highly regarded among fellow bussies for well over 30 years as a proponent of innovation in the Australian industrial relations space – who will mentor her transition until his official departure from the BIC at the end of the year.
Kirsten is excited to be joining bus and coach at a time of so much change. There is so much to do, least of which will be managing APTIA, the BIC’s industrial arm, and overseeing the progress of 2024’s recruitment and retention project into the new year. For now, Kirsten is stretching her legs and getting a sense for where her skills and experience will suit the industry best.
Now it’s time to set your own wheels in motion: Be sure to reach out to Kirsten and make yourself known.