Owning a Bus Company: Yorkshire Rider Busworkers and the Employee Share Ownership Plan

One of the options that has recently emerged as a means of countering some of the harsher consequences of de‐regulation within the bus industry has been Employee Share Ownership Plans (ESOPs). This paper will report on “one of the largest employee‐ owned companies anywhere in the world” — the Rider Holdings Employee Share Ownership Plan. The Company is the largest provider of public transport in the densely populated urban areas of West Yorkshire and includes those municipal transport operations in Huddersfield, Bradford, Leeds and Todmorden previously incorporated within the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE).