Charter

To promote the Tasmanian Bus Industry in partnership with Government, as an important element to ensuring the future sustainability of Tasmania’s land transport system to provide Tasmanian communities a viable and alternative travel choice to the car and ensure services meet the mobility requirements of all in the community.

The Goals of the Tasmanian Bus Association

The Tasmanian Bus Association will;

Protect the ongoing viability of the Tasmanian Bus Industry.
Develop and implement policies that improve the efficiency and professionalism of the Tasmanian Bus Industry.
Provide assistance and advice to bus operators on issues which will impact on their business.
Promote industry unity and professionalism.
Stimulate employment opportunities and job security within the industry by encouraging sustainable growth of business.

Policy Direction

The TBA will work to achieving its goals by developing a strategic work program with its policy focus being in the following areas:

Safety

To ensure that travel by bus and coach remains the safest means of land transport in Tasmania.

Access

To ensure bus services meet customer travel needs.

Equity

To ensure that a reasonable basic level of mobility is available to all irrespective of personal circumstances or location.

Environment

To reduce the level of emissions to air and water attributable to the bus and coach industry and contribute to the lowering of overall transport emissions

Economic

To improve the efficiency of bus and coach passenger transport services.

Professionalism / Visibility

Raise the business professionalism and profile of the Tasmanian bus and coach industry.

Objectives

To increase patronage of bus and coach services by 15% by 2020.
To reduce the average age of the Tasmanian bus and coach fleet to 15 years by 2020.
To rationalise existing passenger transport services and use existing funding more efficiently.
To identify opportunities to increase Public Transport funding from State and Commonwealth Governments.
To promote the Tasmanian Accreditation program to be recognised as Industry benchmark, ‘Entry Point’ to industry and mutually recognised by all States.
To monitor and manage Industrial Relations issues impacting on Tasmanian Industry.
To promote public transport and bus and coach travel as a viable alternative travel choice.
To meet customer expectations.

Sector Focus

Schools

Accreditation standards to be rigorously upheld to ensure safe operation of school services with a particular focus on keeping maintenance standards up to date with regulation and technology.
Seat belts to be introduced to the school fleet on a voluntary basis and retrofitted according to the Code of Practice for retrofitting seat belts in buses.
Reduce the age of the fleet by contractual and partnership arrangements with the Tasmanian Government and BIC to obtain Commonwealth assistance.
Develop a ‘Student Behaviour’ manual for primary school curriculum’s to educate children about behaviour on and off the bus.

Association and school operators to play an active role in identifying and providing solutions to identified areas of ‘disadvantage’ for school services.
Work with Government and suppliers to increase the frequency and coverage, reliability and integration of bus services and improve related information and ticketing systems as a means of improving community access to services.
Undertake and support community education and research into factors influencing choice of travel mode, the benefits of using public transport and the marketing of public transport services in partnership with all tiers of Government, community and industry groups.

Promote accessible public transport and supporting infrastructure to meet the needs of those with relatively low levels of physical mobility whilst recognising the need for viability in the bus industry.
Define with the Tasmanian Government reasonable public transport service levels for communities and propose means of funding these service levels.
Identify existing funding sources from non-transport departments and investigate opportunities to improve services and utilise existing transport services more efficiently.

Promote steps to directly reduce bus industry emissions (by use of new, lower emission engines and cleaner fuels) and other pollution and also by encouraging passengers to transfer from car to bus.

Identify and implement opportunities to generate efficiencies of better utilising the existing passenger vehicle fleet beginning with a comprehensive ‘asset’ audit of public transport services, vehicles etc.
Promote improved transport pricing systems to fully reflect the external costs of private vehicle travel.
Contractual arrangements to be developed in partnerships with Government that clearly articulate and agree the outcomes being sought include incentives and rewards for performance and the costs of capital to encourage the purchase of new vehicles.
Investigate opportunities to develop a bus manufacturing factory in Tasmania

Raise and maintain industry standards through ‘accreditation’ programs in all areas of bus and coach operations covering:
- Vehicle Standards
- Driver Standards
- Operator Standards
Promote the benefits of public transport in partnership with the Government and community.

Route

Accreditation standards to be rigorously upheld to ensure safe operation of Route services with a particular focus on keeping maintenance standards up to date with regulation and technology.
Adopt with the Tasmanian Government an agreed seat belt policy and standee’s policy.

Ensure buses can deliver the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act within the required time framework.
Work with Government and suppliers to increase the frequency and coverage, reliability and integration of bus services and improve related information and ticketing systems as a means of improving community access to services.
Undertake and support community education and research into factors influencing choice of travel mode, the benefits of using public transport and the marketing of public transport services in partnership with all tiers of Government, community and industry groups.

Promote accessible public transport and supporting infrastructure to meet the needs of those with relatively low levels of physical mobility whilst recognising the need for viability in the bus industry.
Define with the Tasmanian Government reasonable public transport service levels for communities and propose means of funding these service levels.
Obtain support to reduce the age of the fleet and meet DDA requirements.

Promote steps to directly reduce bus industry emissions (by use of new, lower emission engines and cleaner fuels) and other pollution and also by encouraging passengers to transfer from car to bus.

Identify and implement opportunities to generate efficiencies of better utilising the existing passenger vehicle fleet beginning with a comprehensive ‘asset’ audit of public transport services, vehicles etc.
Promote improved transport pricing systems to fully reflect the external costs of private vehicle travel.
Contractual arrangements to be developed in partnerships with Government that clearly articulate and agree the outcomes being sought include incentives and rewards for performance and the costs of capital to encourage the purchase of new vehicles.
Identify service opportunities to promote regional connectivity and access to essential services for Regional Tasmania.
Investigate opportunities to develop a bus manufacturing body facility in Tasmania.

Raise and maintain industry standards through ‘accreditation’ programs in all areas of bus and coach operations covering:

Vehicle Standards
Driver Standards
Operator Standards

Promote the benefits of public transport in partnership with the Government and community.

Tour and Charter

Accreditation standards to be rigorously upheld to ensure safe operation of Tour and Charter services with a particular focus on keeping maintenance standards up to date with regulation and technology.

Accreditation standards to be rigorously upheld to ensure safe operation of Tour and Charter services with a particular focus on keeping maintenance standards up to date with regulation and technology.
Undertake and support community education and research into factors influencing choice of travel mode, the benefits of using public transport and the marketing of public transport services in partnership with all tiers of Government community and industry groups.

Identify how existing tour and charter services could be better utilised and integrated into broader ‘community’ transport requirements.

Promote steps to directly reduce bus industry emissions (by use of new, lower emission engines and cleaner fuels) and other pollution and also by encouraging passengers to transfer from car to bus.
Provide and promote ‘eco-tourism’ and coach travel as ‘green’ partners.

Identify and implement opportunities to generate efficiencies of better utilising the existing passenger vehicle fleet beginning with a comprehensive ‘asset’ audit of public transport services, vehicles etc.
Promote improved transport pricing systems to fully reflect the external costs of private vehicle travel.
Improved coach utilisation to be developed in partnership with Government and other sectors of the tourism industry that clearly articulate and agree the outcomes being sought to include incentives and rewards for performance and the costs of capital to encourage the purchase of new vehicles.
Identify opportunities to integrate existing tourism and charter services with regional Tasmania’s mobility needs.
Develop a strategic ‘land transport’ tourism plan for Tasmania.
Investigate opportunities to develop a bus manufacturing body facility in Tasmania.
Investigate opportunities to reduce impact of interstate coaches on local industry.