An inability to attract enough bus drivers to replace those entering retirement is behind a spike in bus cancellations in south-east Queensland.
Brisbane City Councillor Ryan Murphy said the region was losing many of its potential bus drivers to the "switch on, switch off" rideshare industry.
"They can work the hours they want, it's extremely flexible," Cr Murphy told ABC Radio Brisbane.
"Bus driving suffers from a perception that it's nowhere near as flexible as those gig-economy-type roles."
The council relies on a part-time and casual driver workforce to plug "holes" and avoid bus cancellations should full-time staff be unavailable, with around 30 per cent of Brisbane's bus driver workforce employed on a part-time or casual basis.
But Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) Secretary Tom Brown said council would regularly offer casual drivers unappealing "three to four hour" split shifts.
This work arrangement meant many drivers were being snapped up by private truck and bus companies offering more compelling hours — "seven hours straight" for example, Mr Brown said.
"The casuals are in a position where they can simply make a phone call [to a private company] and say they've got an HR or MR licence.
"The casuals have no reason to sit home waiting for a phone call from council; they can get work anywhere."
The ABC has found more than 1,300 buses were cancelled in south-east Queensland due to "staff availabilities" in the past three weeks, according to cancellation alerts posted to Translink's Twitter account.
Buses were most frequently cancelled due to a lack of staff on Thursdays (28 per cent) and Fridays (23 per cent) since March 31.
Bus disruptions nationwide
Although there had been some "unexpected absenteeism", Cr Murphy said there was a "wider cyclic problem" of a retiring workforce that had driven nationwide shortages.
"Baby boomer drivers who are coming to the end of their careers, they've been bus drivers not all their career but large parts of it," he said.
"They're retiring and they're not being replaced with the same numbers of people who want to become full-time bus drivers."
Bus service disruptions have continued to affect networks in states other than Queensland.
Last week, the NSW government revealed thousands of Sydney buses had been cancelled by contractors last year — including 28,000 services in the month of August alone — amid pressures to meet "on-time" targets.
And escalating violence towards bus drivers in Darwin sparked a mass driver exodus last year, leaving hundreds more services in the lurch.
More flexibility needed
Mr Brown said Brisbane City Council would need to make "big changes" to its flexible work arrangements if it wanted to attract more drivers.
"If they [council] want casual drivers, they've got to offer a full day of work [and] not half a shift here and another half a shift there later in the afternoon," Mr Brown said.
"The way work is distributed to casuals, it's just got casuals looking elsewhere."
A Translink spokesperson said driver shortages continued to impact "some bus operators".
"Translink monitors and works with bus operators to minimise disruptions to service levels as much as possible, especially for services transporting students and children," they said.
"Of the more than 500,000 scheduled bus trips in south-east Queensland for the month of March, almost 98 per cent were completed."
Cr Murphy said council would be embarking on a "significant recruitment campaign" to attract more drivers.
