Bus drivers in Ho Chi Minh City are quitting in droves as street barriers lengthen their trips and decrease their pay.

A bus bogged down by a street barrier in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1.

Drivers said their income depended on the number of trips a day and they complained that they now drove far fewer trips each day as traffic jams around construction barriers holds them up.

“It used to take me one and half hours to drive my route, but now it takes me three hours,” said Luu Minh Hai, who drives to and from District 8 to Vietnam National University-HCMC everyday.

According to Hai, the route is now full of street barriers that trap busses during traffic jams.

“Passengers complain that we go too slowly and drivers are exhausted and stressed out,” said Ho Minh Trong, a driver on the Cho Lon Bus Station-Tan Van Junction route. “Not to mention that it burns more gas.”

Many bus cooperatives have decided to cut down on the number of trips due to worsening traffic jams, meaning that drivers’ pay has been cut as well, said Doan Minh Tam, vice director of Saigon Coach Company.

A bus driver now earns between VND3-5 million (US$162.5-270.8) a month, although they still work from early in the morning until late at night without proper breaks between trips.

“Recently many people driving my route have quit because they couldn’t stand the pressure,” Trong said.

Phung Dang Hai, director general of HCMC Bus Cooperatives Alliance, said his organization recently put nearly 100 of 1,000 buses out of service due to the lack of drivers.

He said more bus company drivers will continue to quit and it will be hard to recruit new ones due to stricter licensing requirements compared to drivers for tourism companies.

He added that many passengers no longer used busses, which they blamed for often making them late for school or work during traffic jams.

Municipal authorities should speed up construction projects to remove the hundreds of street barriers worsening traffic jams, said Hai, suggesting that bus companies may have to close their businesses if things don’t change.

Losses

Bus cooperatives said the shortage of drivers had added insult to injury as many were already suffering heavy losses.

Le Van Loc, head of Bus Cooperative No. 11, said: “Our members bought buses on an installment plan at the price of VND600-700 million ($32,493- 37,909) last year, but now we are willing to sell them for VND200 million ($10,831) because we can’t stand [the losses] anymore.”

According to Loc, the government’s huge bus subsidies weren’t effective as the money is distributed based on number of passengers. He said strong companies received little support because the funds were gobbled up by inefficient ones.

Loc also said that new subsidies, 8-9 percent higher than the old ones, had yet to be applied, although they should have taken effect on January 1, 2009, as approved by city authorities.

Total funding given to each cooperative has in the meantime been cut, thrusting even heavier losses on bus companies, according to Loc.

In a glimmer of hope, the HCMC Department of Transport has recently proposed increased funding for bus cooperatives from VND650 billion ($35.2 million) in 2009 to VND820 billion ($44.4 million) in 2010.

VietNamNet/Thanh Nien