Tauranga may be about to the change bus operator with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council confirming it's in the later stages of the tender process.

'The tender process had got to the stage where we have a preferred tenderer,” says the regional council transport policy manager Garry Maloney.

'Until we have actually finalised the contract, we won't be going public. We have not publicly released any information about preferred tenderers whether that's NZ Bus, Go Bus, or anybody.”

Negotiations over the bus contract have been underway since before Christmas, with a decision expected to be announced in a couple of weeks.

'We have got the stage where we have a preferred tenderer, and we are just dotting a few i's and crossing a few t's.”

Tauranga's public bus service started with the Tauranga owned Bay Hopper Bus Service in 2001, employing 35 drivers, plus mechanics, cleaners, and administration staff.

Bay Hopper lost the contract in 2009 when the regional council accepted a lower bid from the government subsidised Go Bus at an original contract price of $7.6m a year for six years.

It was a gross contract which required all fares to be collected by BOPRC and the regional council to provide administration staff.

The Bay Hopper contract was a net contract. They kept the bus fares and received a subsidy from the regional council.

At the time the regional council did not answer questions about how many additional staff ratepayers would be paying for to cover the difference in the two contracts.

Pluses for the regional council included more control, making it easier to make changes to the service routes and timetables, and to keep up with Tauranga's population growth. The change of bus fleet to larger low-floor buses was also seen as a plus.

Recently Go Bus drivers have protested low wage levels.

NZ Bus is the principal bus company in Auckland, serving the region's public transport needs with over 480 buses running approximately 1.6 million service trips and 18 million in-service kilometres per annum and operating approximately 130 routes. In Wellington, NZ Bus will own a fleet of over 130 buses running approximately 0.4 million service trips and four million in-service kilometres per annum, operating on approximately 90 routes.

NZ Bus is New Zealand's largest urban public transport business and operator of metropolitan bus services, built on a 25-year track record as a successful bus operator.