Given the disturbing, increasing prevalence of assaults on Australian drivers, industry is at the forefront to resolve this matter while maintaining vehicle compliance requirements.

While some individual state governments have introduced the screens as a measure to rightly protect drivers, they are in some cases challenging the traditional ADR compliance rules for those very vehicles. We have raised awareness to governments who implemented the screens, but also support solutions for operators and suppliers. Drivers need to be afforded protection where deemed necessary.

BIC support
We have been supporting and working with key industry members to develop guidelines on constructing driver safety screens that don’t invalidate ADR compliance of buses and update requirements where necessary. This work covers including it in the Bus Safety Working Group priorities and design considerations, such as emergency exits, forward vision and light reflection. It has also been tricky as solutions need to reflect retrofit to existing vehicles of varying ages and also new vehicle design.

This work also involved discussing solutions with global transport leaders, such as Transport for London, who operate a fleet of 9,300 buses. Our learnings so far, since screens were mandated in 2019 across their bus fleet…

• Their solutions are remarkably similar to those currently in Australia, supporting guidelines under development
• Safe vision of the vehicle was maintained
• Bus driver acceptance of the screens is very high
• Official driver assaults were reduced by 52% between 2019 and 2023

Below: Example of the current Australian screen (left) versus a screen used in the UK (right)

Next steps
We will continue supporting and working with industry members to develop these guidelines, then government bodies, to tailor any proposed regulations to support the solutions. This will take at least the remainder of the year to bed down, but time is important to get it right for the longer term.