A chip off the old block: The father-daughter driving duo keeping Melbourne connected
Racine’s earliest memory of her father Emmanuel being a bus driver is when he took their family to the depot and gave them a ride down the freeway in a bus when she was 15.
Now, 11 years later, she’s just finished her first month of bus driver training and is hitting the road in her own bus.
This father-daughter bus driving duo hail from Kinetic’s Keysborough depot in Melbourne, which operates route 901 and 902 services – two of the longest bus routes in the southern hemisphere.
Emmanuel became a bus driver 14 years ago after about 40 years of hairdressing. Starting out as a hairdresser when he was a teenager in South Africa, it was natural for Emmanuel to open up his own salon when he moved to Melbourne in 2000, before he decided to begin a career in bus driving.
When explaining the similarities between hairdressing and bus driving, Emmanuel says both roles are people-driven. Serving the community and seeing the appreciation on customers’ faces when you go out of your way to assist them are just some of the perks of bus driving according to Emmanuel.
He also loves the independence you have when you’re behind the wheel which influenced his daughter Racine’s decision to become a bus driver.
Racine has spent most of her early adulthood studying and pursuing a career in science, having completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Science and a Master of Laboratory Medicine. She began her career in a veterinary histology lab, preparing tissue samples for testing day in and day out.
As she faced having to climb the ladder of the science industry, she recalled what her father used to say. “He would brag about his job and how rewarding and fun it is,” Racine said.
After eight months of working in the lab, she decided that a life of science wasn’t for her and her father’s experience influenced her to explore a career in transport. It was a difficult decision to make, and Racine felt hesitant at first, but after her first month at Kinetic she says she realised it was the right decision.
“I feel valued in the Kinetic team. There’s something different every single day and it’s so exciting!”
Driving change in the transport industry with Women Up Front
Racine is part of the latest wave of women going through Kinetic’s Women Up Front trainee bus driver program, empowering people with diverse work backgrounds and strong community values to get behind the wheel.
The program has seen 53 women successfully join the Melbourne team in the last year, as it successfully gains momentum attracting new talent to the transport industry and broadening the diversity among the city’s bus drivers.
Racine said that some of the best moments she’s had in her first month are the reactions from passengers when they see her behind the wheel.
“Their whole attitude changes and they give you a smile,” she said. “And when they get off, they’re really nice and encouraging.”
This positivity is not only found on the road but in the depots as well. “A couple of the drivers here have told me that since I’ve joined, they want their daughters to be bus drivers too,” she said.
Racine is keen to continue her journey as a bus driver and is excited to see more female bus drivers in the future.
The Women Up Front program is a flagship initiative helping Kinetic drive gender balance across its network, as part of its sustainability strategy targeting 50 per cent female drivers by 2030.
If you or someone you know might be interested in the program, you can learn more at www.wearekinetic.com/women-up-front.
Further enquiries
Justin Rogers
Manager Communication, Stakeholder and Customer – NSW/VIC/TAS
0419 230 242
justin.rogers@wearekinetic.com.au