The bus system plays the backbone of urban public transportation in emerging countries. However, the development of this mode confronts various challenges, including the drivers’ issues, such as adopting risky driving behaviors (e.g., red light running, speeding, and neglecting the signal when turning), poor behaviors against passengers, and turnover rate. Exploring the causes of these behaviors has attracted increasing attention from practitioners and scholars. This study falls into this trend by investigating the pressure perceived by bus drivers in Hanoi, Vietnam, using the data that were collected in November and December 2023. Four kinds of working pressure were considered, including (1) conditions, (2) health, (3) infrastructure, and (4) time. We found that the primary sources of pressure were related to infrastructure and time, while health- and vehicle-specific ones were noticeable but at a lower level. As such, our results suggested the importance of reviewing and revising the bus operators’ working strategies to lessen the burden on drivers. As well as this, the (local) government should offer more infrastructure-involved priority for the bus, such as establishing bus lanes. The findings from Hanoi would be informative for many other cities of emerging countries with similar transport conditions, such as Indonesia and Thailand. However, more research would be needed to examine the link between pressure types and adverse working outcomes.