Ready Indian drivers?

The shortage of drivers continues to plague the transport sector nationally and even at European level – BKV and Volánbusz are no exception! The number of existing staff, most of whom are ageing – 40% of whom are over 50 – is not increasing, despite recruitment efforts!  With the B category regulation, which is due to come into force in September, allowing for the acquisition of a D category, if it does not work, there will be no alternative but to bring in Indian migrant workers!

Previously, the D licence required a C licence, i.e. a licence to drive a lorry, but now you can apply for training without it! For a long time, the “driving profession” has not been popular. It is no longer considered a profession. It is not valued, either morally or financially! Young people prefer to work abroad, and the earnings of an Austrian driver are not even comparable with those in Austria! To help wage competition, the tax-free daily allowance in Austria is being raised from 3000.-Ft to 9000.-Ft! Not all drivers will get a daily allowance, so that colleagues who do special services can keep more money in their pockets, provided they spend more than 8 hours away from home that day! Does the government expect this to improve the competitiveness of the sector and increase employment potential?

And yet, according to the Ministry, the sector accounts for 5% of GDP and 4% of employment, providing a livelihood for 130,000 families!

The driving profession is “heavily regulated”, and exactly the same rules apply to the truck driver who transports cargo across Europe and the bus driver who performs his daily urban passenger transport duties in a city, as well as to the driver who transports his employees for multinational companies working in the sector! This should also be reviewed! One requires a completely different set of rules and driving and rest times from the other!

And the training will still be lengthy without the need for a category C, as there are so few instructors and training vehicles!

I don’t see the steps or their real usefulness, but I try to be optimistic! It is a common problem here too that we can’t take on a new task because we can’t find the staff to do it! Replacement is not as easy as it was a few years ago! We had a choice of applicants! Nowadays everyone “cooks with what they have”!