Executive Update   

Annual Conference | School Bus Services | PTSA and Regulators

The start to 2025 has again been productive for the BusSA Board and team as we’ve continued our support and advocacy for our bus and coach operator members. A quick snapshot of these recent member initiatives includes:

Annual Conference and Awards | May 16 and 17 | Program and Registration Released!

Bus SA welcome all to our Annual Conference to be held at the conveniently located Adelaide Pavilion on Saturday May 17. Highlights include:

• Key opportunity for bus operators, supplier partners, Government and regulators to join together to share issues, learnings, opportunities and actions to support and add value to your bus and coach business 

• Program focusing on updates, matters and preparation related to the upcoming regional service reviews, school bus services contract tendering process and the safety and sustainability of bus and coach operations.

• BusSA Awards introduced to recognize and celebrate the excellence, passion and dedication of the bus and coach industry workforce in South Australia 1) Young Achiever and 2) Professional Driver Awards

• Partner and bus display to bring you up to date with the latest technology and service to support your operations

• Networking event on Friday 16 May at the Strathmore Hotel. 

See the full Conference Program, Awards and Registration here.

We look forward to seeing you in May!

School Bus Services

• In January we developed a report and held a member only webinar on the survey to Research, understand and agree on the BusSA Member Position to help inform the Department for Education (DfE) relating to the upcoming School bus services contract tendering process.

• In February, we met with DfE leaders and shared preliminary findings from the member survey above.

• DfE have indicated their intention to meet in April to start formal discussion on the high level aims and approach for the upcoming School bus services contract tendering process.

PTSA and Regulators

• BusSA met with Public Transport SA Executives in late February and discussed the upcoming Regional Area Service Reviews  – we understand consultation will formally start in May. We also discussed the application of the Regulation 7 Exemption (Passenger Transport Regulations 2024). A BusSA working group will further consider Regulation 7 and work toward a sensible, sustainable approach for the range of services and operators. 

• BusSA Co hosted the National Safety Compliance webinar with HNVR in Feb 2025. See recording here.

• We continued to progress Driver and Operator Accreditation services and outcomes for members with issues since the closure of Service SA at Mile End. While BusSA commends ServiceSA operational management for their direct support of members where requested, we have also organised a meeting with PTSA Policy and Regulation Executive to further discuss systematic issues. Please see some guidance below and send me examples of issues experienced.

• BusSA and operators met with the Government Inspection team at Regency Park to further understand and discuss annual bus inspection matters. 

• Released the Adelaide CBD bus/coach parking map with additional parking options following our Tour and Charter working group advocacy with City of Adelaide. 

 
As always, please contact me should you have any issues, feedback or queries.

Regards 

Craig Spurr
Executive Director
E: cspurr@bussa.asn.au
M: 0433 553 875

Register Now!

2025 BusSA Annual Conference – Saturday May 17. Welcome drinks – Friday May 16.

Program and Registration

BusSA Gold Partner News  – Scania 

Service SA Guidance

Driver and Operator Accreditation
General notice from ServiceSA

Industry as always, should continuously remind their drivers to start their application for renewal of accreditation immediately after receiving their paperwork from the department.  (It’s not like the bowel cancer screening tests that can sit in our cupboards for a month or so prior to use.)

Drivers should ideally submit their paperwork to Service SA 3-4 weeks (if not earlier) prior to the expiry date. Straightforward applications can be assessed and transacted immediately by the Service Delivery Officer at the Service SA centre.

As you know, applications requiring further assessment due to medical conditions or other driving offence / criminal history concerns will probably be forwarded to my assessment officers.   

Any holiday period (especially Nov-Jan) typically means Accreditation and Licensing experiences a higher-than-normal volume of applications which means our turnaround time for assessing applications will increase.

Regarding Service SA Centres, assessment officers continue to provide support where required but if there are any occasions where industry think the knowledge of accreditation transactions is of real concern, they should let BusSA and bill.georgopoulos@sa.gov.au know so the problem can be addressed with the individual centre.

National Criminal History Check

Accreditation and Licensing policy requires that a National Criminal History Check (NCHC) submitted for the purpose of applying for driver accreditation is issued for the purpose of ‘Driver Accreditation/Licensing’, as highlighted on our MR24 Application for Driver Accreditation form and all other renewals for Driver Accreditation.  
 
Careful consideration has been given to this policy after many meetings / discussions with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), providers of the NCHC’s and SAPOL.
 
FYI – Firstly, ACIC have advised that a NCHC is not suitable to re-use for multiple purposes. For example, a NCHC conducted for the purpose of becoming a netball coach cannot be used later to apply for a job as an administration officer. This is because the purpose identified on the NCHC application may be used to determine what (if any) police information is released, based on relevant South Australian  spent convictions legislation and information release policies that apply.
 
In addition and of most importance is that a NCHC applied for the purpose of driver accreditation / licensing requires a provider to disclose an extended release of court outcomes that will include Spent Convictions. Wording such as bus, coach or truck driver, limousine driver, taxi driver may not provide the same results. The trigger words for the release of all offences are Accreditation / Licensing  
 
This enables Accreditation and Licensing assessment officers to make the correct determination on whether an applicant for driver accreditation is “of good repute and in all other aspects fit and proper to be a driver of a public passenger vehicle” under the accreditation, as required under the Passenger Transport Act 1994 and associated Regulations