Government should get rid of an overseas contractor hired to help revamp the bus timetable and let drivers devise a new one, according to union officials.They say tens of thousands of taxpayers' dollars could be saved if the Department of Public Transportation stopped paying for David Reid's services as a “run cutter” or bus schedule consultant.And they told The Royal Gazette industrial relations between bus operators and the Department had worsened since a new Transport Minister and permanent secretary (PS) took over in November.Bermuda Industrial Union organiser Louis Somner said officials had not met with Minister Terry Lister but things got off to a bad start with PS Ellen-Kate Horton.As reported last week, a new bus schedule was due to come into effect on January 10 but is being revised after complaints that senior drivers would have to work more weekends.A perusal committee of workers and managers has been formed to redraft the schedule but Mr Somner said operators had not yet been given time off from their usual duties to start the process.“We need our people released when we ask for them to be released,” he said. “They won't give us our team.”Bermuda has not had a new bus schedule in more than a decade and the Department said in a statement last week it had been negotiating one with the union for eight years.Mr Somner said serious talks began in January 2010 and progress was made with former PS Cherie-lynn Whitter.“We had a very meaningful set of discussions where 70 percent of the new proposed schedule had been agreed verbally,” he said. “We just had to sign off on some things.“With the former administration, with that permanent secretary, we had some great meetings. This new administration is a little different.”He said the only real sticking point with the new schedule was that senior drivers working from the Dockyard depot would have to work more weekends.But he said it had proved impossible to “sit down and have a conversation” with those in charge.Government denied the claim about extra weekend shifts last week, saying only four Dockyard drivers would be affected and would be able to bid for “weekend off” rosters, working from the central bus depot at Fort Langton.But Glen Simmons, president of the BIU's bus operators and allied workers division, said there were at least 12 Dockyard drivers who would suffer, the majority of them living in the West End.“Custom and practice has always dictated that if they live from Dockyard to Khyber Pass, they work out of the west. We are talking about people who have been there 30, 40 and 50 years.”Both men said they didn't understand why Government was paying for Mr Reid at a time when cuts were needed and claimed drivers would be better qualified to draw up a new timetable.Mr Somner claimed: “This Government has continued to talk about cuts but this gentleman has been coming in for the last ten years, probably getting a six-figure sum.“The [perusal] committee could formulate a new schedule that would save this Department a great deal of money.”Chief shop steward Mr Simmons said drivers wanted a fair schedule that allowed the most senior operators to have first pick of the rosters, as set out in the collective agreement.“When it comes to operating the buses, we bus operators and allied workers hold very truly to our professionalism,” he said.The Department would not provide information on Mr Reid's contract or respond to the union's claims yesterday. A spokesman said: “We are not going to comment at this point.”Government's overseas consultant budget for 2010/2011 was more than $26 million.The Department of Public Transportation budgeted $111,000 for professional services.