In 1991, Jason Healey was recognised as Queensland’s youngest official bus driver. Just over 30 years later, he’s passing the baton onto his bus-loving son.
As Jason Healey drove his bus to Marsden State High School, Australia’s largest secondary school, something unusual happened.
Coming from the opposite direction was a bus driven by a young man from the same operator. As the buses moved closer, Jason soon realised he knew the person behind the wheel. It was his son, Matt Healey. A smile broke across Jason’s face.
“I saw Matt as he was getting closer,” Jason told ABC. “It was an amazing moment – we flashed our headlights and gave each other a wave.
“I never thought I’d have that memory of waving to my own son in the same company’s bus going in the opposite direction.”
This reunion on the roads has happened since and left Jason feeling proud every time.
Jason has had his own successful career in the industry. Starting as a bus cleaner and now working as a network planning manager, he has become an industry veteran. Now, his son is following in his footsteps.
Matt has gone through his own unique journey to become a fully licenced bus driver at the age of 20. He was just one day short of setting the record as Queensland’s quickest driver to get his heavy combination (HC) licence.
Matt, who fondly remembers his own pride at seeing his Dad on the road, is setting about leading the charge for the next wave of bus and coach operators.
“I’ve passed Dad a couple of times on the road and it’s a weird but great experience,” Matt told ABC. “We wave to each other and can’t hide from one another.
“People get us confused now. It’s part of what we’re both doing and our shared passion for buses.”
It’s clear Matt got his passion for heavy vehicles from his father.
Jason grew up infatuated with buses and trucks. His own father was a cartographer, but Jason admits that he went against the family career path when he fell in love with buses.
He remembers catching buses run by Redlands Transport in the east of Brisbane to and from his high school in the mid-1980s. The old Bedford bus with coach seats that Jason used to ride with still sits firmly in his mind.
“My other favourite bus was a Hino GM Coach,” Jason says. “You could hear the bus coming around from the other side of the school. To go on a ride with it was even better.”
After high school, Jason wound his way through agricultural work and car detailing in the hope of an apprenticeship before ending up at Sunliner Express and Bayside Bus Lines in Queensland.
Catching the bus into Brisbane’s Woolloongabba for work each day led to Jason leaving his passion for motor mechanic work to become a casual bus cleaner.
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Matt and Jason have always shared a passion for buses
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“I ended up getting my D-class licence when I was 18,” Jason says. “I was washing buses and coaches both day and night and then I began taking empty buses out for changeovers.
“In July 1991, the National Driving Regulations changed, which allowed me to officially drive with paying passengers. My manager said I could begin driving a bus doing road shifts. By October I’d been trained to go on the road.”
At 19 years of age, Jason became Queensland’s youngest ever official bus driver. A Channel 10 interview gave Jason popularity for his achievements. Then, just over 30 years later, his son Matt came close to replicating the feat.
Jason’s career has evolved over more than 30 years to include urban and school routes, charter, rail replacement, holiday relief driving, rostering, scheduling and network planning for 19 years at Veolia Transport Brisbane, now known as Transdev Queensland. He’s now been at Clarks Logan City Bus Services for 10 years, and earlier this year, he was joined by Matt.
REPLICATING DAD
Matt’s first memory of a bus comes pretty early. He says Jason used to take buses and trucks home for Matt to admire. He grew up around the scene. For Matt, it was transport or nothing.
“Buses have always been around my whole life, ever since I could remember,” Matt says. “The only other job I’ve done outside of transport was when I was a groundsman for six months and I didn’t like it.
“I tried to get out of the whole bus game and failed, and I’ve always been drawn back to it.”
It wasn’t always an easy ascension for Matt. He says he got bullied during high school for his passion for buses. Yet, with a family dedicated to the industry, Matt never let it bother his dreams to one day follow in his father’s footsteps.
“I’m a real bus enthusiast on the side of driving,” Matt says. “It makes people a bit curious, but I love what I do and I’m skilled at it. Why go into a job you hate and drag yourself through it? I’m in a job I love doing and I feel like I’ve never had a tough day in my life.”
Although Matt’s rise to becoming a bus driver always seem destined, the speed at which Matt got his licence shocked even himself.
At 20, he was just a year older than Jason was when he achieved the same accomplishment.
Matt went from having no licence to being qualified to drive buses in four years and one day. The Queensland record is four years to the day.
“I was proud and shocked when I received it,” Matt says. “I wanted to beat Dad’s record but I couldn’t because of Queensland government regulations.
“I thought people wouldn’t put me on as a driver because I’m young and insurance costs are way higher under the age of 25, so I’m shocked at how it has worked out.”
Matt quickly went into rail replacement driving, before diverting into route services with Clark’s Logan City Bus Services earlier this year. Now at the same business that Jason has been with for 10 years, Matt has been able to share the precious moment of passing his father on the road and waving on numerous occasions.
Jason says he is incredibly proud that Matt has quickly grown from coming with him on weekend shifts to driving his own bus. He still remembers when he had a milk crate stored away so Matt could be at the counter and hand out shift bats and buses to drivers.
“Matt’s determination to achieve his goals is truly amazing,” Jason says. “There should be more people like him in our industry – we need to promote people like Matt to get more young blood into the sector and drive motivation.”
The pair’s intertwining career paths are only going to extend in the coming years.
Jason recently bought one of the buses he used to drive at National Bus Queensland, an Austral Denning Hino RG230 57-seater bus. He and Matt will soon begin work to preserve the vehicle.
While the pair continue to facilitate their shared passion for buses, Matt is intent on forging ahead with his career as a driver. He has lofty goals.
He wants to go into tour, charter and long-distance route driving while also learning the office side of operations. His end goal is to have his own company.
“I want to eventually go into charter and tour driving and have my own company,” Matt says. “I want to go out on my own one day and have a product of my own I can show at the Bus & Coach Expo.
“If I did have my own company, Dad would be one of the first people I’d bring on. He could run the office side of operations, as I’d always have to drive and have my finger in the pie somehow. We’d work so well together because it’s all about passion and pride in what you do and we’re hands-on people.”