School Bus
The orange school bus system has been operating in Western Australia on a dedicated contract basis since 1918. The service, which carries some 29,000 students over 143,000 kilometres per day, is underpinned by an excellent safety record, stability and reliability. It is highly valued by the many communities throughout WA that it services.
There are around 815 contracts in WA generally operated by small family businesses. Around 715 school bus contracts provide services for children attending mainstream schools and the remainder for children attending Education Support Facilities.
The orange school bus system is especially important to regional communities, where students cannot access regular public transport services and in many cases, their homes are a considerable distance from schools.
School Bus Division
The School Bus Division has approximately 350 members. The majority of members are owner-drivers. The division undertakes the following functions:
- Assists with reviews of Government policy;
- Undertakes the role of sector representative and advocate;
- Assists in the implementation of policy, changes to government policy, contractual issues;
- Acts as an Industry reference point;
- Key industry stakeholder;
- Strengthens commonality in the industry.
The School Bus Division has its own committee consisting of a Chairman and a number of zone representatives. The State is divided up into 14 zones and members are elected at an AGM to represent a zone. Representatives usually reside in the zone they represent. Staff members of the Transport Forum provide executive Support. In addition, there is a dedicated staff member equivalent to an Executive Officer to assist the Division in running its day-to-day activity.
