Celebrating our Kiwi drivers on Bus Driver Appreciation Week 2024

Last week was Bus Driver Appreciation Week in New Zealand, and Kinetic has been working closely with some of our biggest council customers to celebrate the great work our drivers do. 

This week three of our drivers were interviewed, Neil Hawes, one of our Go Bus Regional drivers for Horizons Regional Council (Palmerston North), Metlink driver Jhoenard Miguel (Wellington) and Youjia Jia (Max) who drives for Auckland Transport.

It's been a great chance to hear about positive interactions with our customers, learn about their hobbies and interests, and what they do in their spare time.

Max is a former IT manager with a big social media following in China. Once driving for us, he opened up a feedback channel to one of our bus-makers, CRRC, to advise them on improvements. They in turn invited him to tour their factory on his last visit in China. Read more here, including his interview in the NZ Chinese Herald] 

Jhoenard is talented in the kitchen, and an amateur chef in his spare time – his speciality dish is sweet sticky rice. He joined the team immigrating from the Philippines two years ago and has been a fan of big vehicles since he was twelve. You can read his full story here: Meet Jhoenard – driving connoisseur by day, chef by night.

Neil started out as a big rig driver when he was 18 before changing careers to drive buses, and in his spare time he builds guitars. He says building guitars can’t be rushed – “it’s intricate and very good for the patience”. You can read more of Neil's story here.

We'd love it if all of our passengers took the time out of their day to say hi to our drivers, make them feel valued and thank them for the hard work they do to get our passengers safely to their destinations. 

Thank you to Max, Neil, Jhoenard and all our driver teams, you do us all proud.