Bus driver shortages plague the country - where do they pay the most?
There is a serious shortage of bus drivers in the domestic transport sector: the fleet is ageing and there are hardly any replacements, even though it is now easier and cheaper to obtain a category D licence. Smaller firms are finding it harder to train new drivers, while larger companies are trying to fill empty seats with tempting offers, Világgazdaság writes.
In a different way, all segments of domestic road passenger transport are affected by the shortage of drivers. Because of their more favourable financing background, public service companies, both state and municipal, may be better placed to deal with the situation, according to the executive secretary general of NiT Hungary, a group of some 4,500 Hungarian road haulage and passenger transport companies, who was interviewed by World Economy about the details of the driver shortage.
According to Gábor Dittel, it was precisely at the initiative of the state and local government sector that the favourable change was recently made that category D licences, which entitle people to drive buses, can be obtained by those with category B licences. Previously, there were two other compulsory steps, category C and then CE, which were a prerequisite for driving a lorry.The training costs 1.1 million forints and the official version is usually self-financed.
There is also state-funded training, the OFA programme, which is ongoing. Participants have to pay a modest co-payment, with the rest paid by their employer in return for the driver working for them for a period of time.
The severity of the driver shortage is illustrated by the driver recruitment advertisement on the back of BKV buses, where the company is also offering a one-off entry subsidy of 500,000 forints. However, only larger, financially stronger companies can offer such an offer, while smaller companies or subcontractors of other public service providers are in a much less favourable position," Gábor Dittel pointed out. The employment of women bus drivers is also an option for larger, stronger companies (They can provide the working conditions, flexibility and infrastructure that may be more important for women workers)
The dedicated market, mainly with work and tourist buses, has also become attractive to some freight operators, with several already having obtained passenger transport licences. But the sector is highly seasonal, with a drop in school trips and a shortage of drivers making it difficult for small operators to stay afloat. More stable jobs abroad are sucking drivers away.
Transport in crisis - driver shortages are a bigger problem than ever
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