A jam-packed first day of the Bus Industry Summit saw some new points raised to evolve the future of the bus and coach industry
The annual Bus Industry Summit, courtesy of the Bus Industry Confederation (BIC), in Canberra yesterday discussed a wide range of issues pertaining to the future of the industry.
After BIC Chair Tony Hopkins opened the Summit, Senator and assistant federal minister for infrastructure and transport Carol Brown gave the opening speech.
She covered a wide range of issues, including the zero-emissions transition, recruiting and retaining new workers to the sector and the development of new Australian Design Rules (ADRs).
Ken Kanofski also spoke about his recommendations for the bus and coach industry after helping redefine the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) through his discussions and report.
Following the opening session, the theme of a green future was quickly put into action on the Future Buses panel, chaired by BIC Councillor Rolf Mitchell.
The panel, containing Rahila David from the Centre for Connected and Automated Transport (CCAT), first looked at the state of automated vehicles and how they fit into the industry.
With automated vehicle trials increasing, David says the industry is only on the initial stages of automating vehicles on a six-level scale, with the last being full automation and autonomous buses.
David says the potential benefits of automated vehicles include increased safety, efficiency, sustainability, access, mobility, reduced carbon emissions and an improved economy and society.
Despite design, organisational and operational risks, she says examples such as easy-mile shuttle trials globally prove that major issues aren’t in the technology, but instead in the infrastructure and insurance of these vehicles.
John Anasis from the Commonwealth Bank Australia also discussed how banks such as CBA can help finance and loan zero-emissions buses for owners.
He says CBA is following its policy agenda after learning from the United Kingdom to help the Australian industry transition better.
“The total cost of ownership is the biggest driver of the EV transition, more so than the carbon agenda,” Anasis says.
The afternoon panels looked at new social contracts and both recruiting and retaining diverse workers in the industry.
While Keolis Downer’s James Edmiston looked at modern slavery in Australia while Christine Atkins gave tips on how to fulfil local content requirements after her experience in the rail industry as a director at NineSquared.
CDC Australia CEO Nicolas Yap discussed the major operator’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in the past year, while Sharon Stevenson from Transdev Australasia gave insights into the operator’s own RAP journey and respecting all cultures in Australia.
The final session of the day looked at women in the bus industry, with a full panel of women discussing the current challenges facing women in the sector.
But the panel evolved to hold wider talks on how to make the bus industry more attractive for younger generations and other pools of potential workers, as well as strategies to better retain employees.
While the collective of women on the panel agreed that the industry has been welcoming to them, they said that encouraging both men and women to be role models for new workers will help lure and keep more important workers from diverse backgrounds.
“I share all of the sentiments of these women up here with me today,” Volvo Bus Australia’s Sarah Forbes says.
“The work our industry does is tangible and necessary and it gives me so much pride, we just need to advertise ourselves better to show people what they could do in our sector.”