Auckland bus drivers back behind the wheel

Auckland's Stagecoach bus fleet is back on the road this afternoon after most services were halted for more than four hours by a drivers stopwork meeting.

More than 800 drivers rejected a company pay offer but their unions will return to negotiations with a mediator rather than take immediate strike action.

Combined unions advocate Gary Froggatt said the rejection of what drivers viewed as an "insulting" offer was unanimous but negotiators persuaded them to return to work at 2pm under an agreed bargaining protocol to give three days notice of any strike.

Auckland taxis did a brisk trade this afternoon in the absence of the buses from city streets.

Stagecoach drivers had been off the road since 9.30am but were back behind the wheel in time to pick up children from school.

The only Stagecoach buses operating normally were those on the central Link and City Circuit routes, and several North Shore services.

Alert taxi company call centre manager Roger Clark said extra cab drivers had reported for duty to pick up passengers stranded at bus stops.

"We've been very busy today - more drivers have come to work than usual," he said.

Mr Clark said frustrated passengers had been phoning the taxi company from bus stops after learning too late about the stopwork meeting.

Auckland Cooperative Taxi Society team leader Mikey Beban said his drivers were similarly busy picking up passengers who had not known beforehand about the disruption to bus services.

They had found large groups of passengers congregating at bus stops at suburban shopping centres.

- HERALD