East Yorkshire driver shortage leads to reduced bus services

East Yorkshire buses said the industry as a whole had been impacted by driver shortages

A shortage of drivers has led to a reduced timetable being brought in on bus services in Hull.

East Yorkshire buses will be operating temporary daily service reductions planned for services 54, 56, 57, 66, 104, 105 and 154.

The company said it would create more reliable services following a number of last-minute cancellations.

Passengers are already facing disruption with a strike on Stagecoach buses.

Ben Gilligan, East Yorkshire's managing director, said the bus industry as a whole had been impacted by driver shortages.

He said it was a result of various factors including the lifting of coronavirus pandemic restrictions, issues with the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) and a "small labour market and a lot of competition".

He added: "There's been a lot of issues with licences not being issued promptly by the DVSA as well as general challenges in the labour market... so we're not alone and it's not just buses facing the problem."

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Mr Gilligan said the changes, which come into effect from Sunday, would mean customers would not have to wait "long periods without a bus turning up".

He added the priority was to recruit more drivers, and any reinstatement of the previous timetable would be done on a "graduated basis so we don't undo a lot of the hard work we've done in recent weeks to pull all this together".