The Datum Report

Occupation 8212 · Process, plant and machine operatives

Bus and coach drivers

Half of full-time bus and coach drivers in the UK earn more than £36,340 a year, and half earn less.

Bus and coach drivers drive road passenger-carrying vehicles such as buses, coaches and mini-buses.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements, though candidates must be in possession of a full car driving licence. All bus and coach drivers are required to hold the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC). This incorporates a theoretical examination and assessed driving. Entrants to the CPC test must be at least 18 years old. NVQs/SVQs in Road Passenger Vehicle Driving are available at level 2.

What the work involves

• checks tyres, brakes, lights, oil, water and fuel levels and general condition of the vehicle before start of journey
• drives single- and double-decked vehicle over pre-determined route, complying with traffic regulations and keeping to time schedule
• stops and opens and closes doors at pre-arranged places to allow passengers to board and alight, observing regulations concerning the number of passengers carried
• may collect fares from passengers and issue tickets or ensure that they use a ticket machine
• may plan routes in conjunction with private hirer and assist with loading and unloading of luggage
• balances cash taken with tickets sold and may be responsible for cleanliness of vehicle
• maintains records of journey times, mileage and hours worked

Also called

Bus driver · Coach driver · Coach operator · Minibus driver · PSV driver

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for bus and coach drivers, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 11 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Delivery drivers and couriers · Driving instructors · Heavy and large goods vehicle drivers · Road transport drivers n.e.c. · Taxi and cab drivers and chauffeurs