Japan Press Weekly

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2014 March 12 - 18 [LABOR]

Bus drivers’ overwork leads to fatal accidents

Serious bus accidents deemed to be caused by drivers’ overworking have occurred frequently. In the background of these accidents lies the fact that the state’s deregulatory measures have intensified competition among bus companies.

On March 3, a long-distance bus collided with a large truck on an expressway in Toyama Prefecture, killing the bus driver and a passenger and injuring 24 passengers. According to passengers’ accounts, the driver lost consciousness just before the crash.

Bus drivers are forced to work under tough working conditions due to a labor shortage. A survey conducted by a bus service organization shows that nearly 60% of bus companies operating in urban areas responded that they are suffering from a shortage of drivers. This seems to be because most of the bus drivers work long hours with low pay.

Bus drivers are often working on weekends and holidays in order to make up for the staff shortage. According to the documents submitted to the Transport Ministry by Miyagi Transportation Co., the firm of the driver involved in the fatal expressway accident, about 60% of the company’s drivers drove on their days off last year.

The 37-year-old driver causing the crash had worked for 11 consecutive days to the day of the accident. Japan’s labor law requires employers to give workers one day off a week in principle. But the firm had a labor agreement that allows it to work its employees for up to 13 days in a row.

After the government relaxed regulations in the bus industry in 2000, a lot of new companies entered the market. Exposed to the increasingly severe competition, many long-distance bus companies cut labor costs. The average annual income of drivers of private bus companies sharply decreased from 6.21 million yen in 1998 to 4.46 million yen in 2012. The amount is much lower than that of all male workers nationwide, 5.30 million yen in 2012. Meanwhile, bus drivers work 400 hours longer than average Japanese workers.

Japanese Communist Party Councilor Tatsumi Kotaro on March 13 at a House transport committee meeting pointed to the fact that the number of serious bus accidents caused by drivers’ health problems more than tripled in the past decade to 58 in 2012. The transport minister stated that he will take some preventive measures.

Past related article:
> Bus drivers work under tough conditions [February 12&15, 2014]