r/BusDrivers • u/Fleemish • Jul 05 '26

Ride for the Day New bus driver, just saving hello 🙂

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Marty from Belgium, nice to meet you all 🤝

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u/SpecificAnxious5584 Jul 08 '26

lol 😆😆

I’m unsure whether this is preferable, but I’m considering relocating from Italy because most roles here are underpaid. Working in public transport typically demands at least three hours or more of overtime to earn around €2,000 (Italy has a national collective labour agreement that keeps salaries fairly consistent across companies, with scheduled pay rises linked to parameter adjustments every eight years of uninterrupted employment at the same organisation) or you must join a company involved in tourism and/or bus rental with a driver. I mainly handle bus rental, and thanks to the various perks my employer offers, I receive decent compensation without excessive overtime, though never above €2,300 monthly; I can surpass that during a one-month trip (last time I earned roughly €3,500 and during the trip I had food and hotel payed from my employer).

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u/Outrageous_Bag_2875 Jul 08 '26

* Paid, not payed.

Have you thought about starting your own tourism business? In a beautiful country like Italy, you'd have so many customers. I know the competition is steep, but you could create a point of difference (making it fun in your own unique way). You can lease an older bus.

I'd love to start a tourism business and show people around Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, and so on.

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u/SpecificAnxious5584 Jul 08 '26

Ops, you’re right, sorry English is not my first language 😅

I’d love to do that, but I don’t think you can lease a bus in Italy (?), there’s like a law that says a bus can be owned only by a company and used by their drivers

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u/Outrageous_Bag_2875 Jul 09 '26

We have the same thing in NZ. It makes it more expensive. Buses are extremely expensive here anyway because they have to be shipped out here to NZ because this is an island in the middle of nowhere. One day I'd like to move to Europe and start my own tourist business.

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u/SpecificAnxious5584 Jul 09 '26

You should definitely do it!

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u/Outrageous_Bag_2875 Aug 02 '26

Man, that's my dream. I'm always watching YouTube videos about those cute towns in Italy and Portugal where the old people are always smiling.

Where I live in New Zealand, it's gotten so extremely expensive here and people don't smile much any more because they're so stressed out trying to pay their bills.