MORE than 100 former Yellow Buses drivers are left “delighted” as they secure a new job at Morebus.
At a recruitment event at The Village Hotel opposite Royal Bournemouth Hospital, more than 100 Yellow Buses drivers who were made redundant yesterday signed up to join Morebus.
New recruits at Morebus were given a £3,000 welcome bonus, along with a pay increase to £13 an hour.
Read more: Morebus to take on further Yellow Buses routes
Speaking with the Echo at the event, Morebus managing director Andrew Wickham said: “We're really pleased with how the recruitment day has gone.
“We didn’t know how many people we would get, but we’ve had a lot of interest considering we only advertised it on Friday.
“We needed 63 people to get going tomorrow. We will have absolutely no problem with the initial service launch on Saturday and we think we will do some more as well.”
On Saturday, August 6, Morebus will be operating three more routes in addition to the 10 main Yellow Buses routes already planned.
Read more: Bournemouth's school bus services to be run by Xelabus
Routes 18, 33 and 36 will be serviced by Morebus as well as routes 1/1b, 1a, 2, 4, 5/5a, 6/6a and 737.
A second recruitment day will take place at The Village Hotel today between 9am and 4pm. A £2,000 joining bonus will be available to all PCV licence holders who join Morebus by Sunday.
Mr Wickham added: “I’d like to thank our existing employees and the people in the office jobs who have moved absolute mountains to get timetables drawn up, our engineers who have moved mountains to get the buses ready.
“Our drivers have been brilliant in coping with extra passengers and questions from passengers and have been really supportive of Morebus getting bigger.
“I’m also really impressed with the former Yellow Buses drivers who attended the recruitment day; people are all saying how keen and enthusiastic they all are to start at Morebus.
“I’m pleased they’ve dusted themselves off and picked themselves up. They’re looking forward to driving with us and we’re looking forward to employing them in a nice, secure job.”
One new Morebus employee said she was “delighted” at her new job, adding “I’ve got bills to pay and the bonus is great too.”
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