Gunnedah bus driver Rodger Ford retires after 29 years

Mr Ford travelled the Tambar Springs school run for the last time before Easter and has clocked up about two million kilometres since he first climbed aboard the Hawkins Coach Lines bus on October 14, 1991.

Read also:

He is the longest-serving employee of Hawkins' proprietor Paul Hawkins, and has transported two generations of rural families over almost three decades.

"There are kids I've been bringing in and their mum was on the bus when I first started," Mr Ford said.

Plenty has changed over the years, including the buses and the number of kids they have been carrying.

"When I first started, by the time I got to Gunnedah, I had 106 kids on the bus ... these days there are 30-something," Mr Ford said.

His first bus had no air conditioning, vinyl seats, and "all the windows rattled".

In 2000, he was upgraded to an airconditioned bus to transport volunteers for the Olympic Games.

Mr Hawkins said Mr Ford had "worn out four buses" but "maintained a perfect safety record, which is a big thing".

"He's been a good employee ... he's had a good rapport with passengers and children," Mr Hawkins said.

Mr Ford joked that he was still waiting to hear if he'd passed his initial three-month trial and he doesn't win Lotto because "I use all my luck up driving the bus".

The Gunnedah man said he would have liked to retire after 30 years but "this corona virus thing changes things around a bit".

"I'm disappointed; there are a couple of kids I've seen a long time and I wanted to see them finish year 12, but it didn't work out that way," he said.

"Thirty would have been good ... [but] I've got my health."

Mr Ford is still getting up with the birds and is looking forward to taking to the skies in his powered parachute and travelling to the coast to sail the lakes.

"A few of the trips we wanted to do last year, we might be able to do next year," he said.