Two out of ten transport companies in Spain are suffering from the national shortage of lorry drivers

"Spanish people are being discriminated against", the provincial representative of the driving training school sector in Almeria province has claimed

M. C. Callejón

Almeria

Monday, 12 June 2023, 12:11

One only has to look at the employment pages of newspapers to see how much demand there is for professional lorry drivers in Almeria province. But this is not just a local phenomenon. The International Road Transport Organisation (IRU) speaks of a shortage of 2.6 million drivers worldwide and, at national level in Spain, it is estimated that around 20,000 professionals are needed.

This was made clear last March during the National Transport Forum, which also warned that more than 50% of drivers are over 55 years old, which means that it will soon be necessary to deal with generational replacement. In the province of Almeria, the situation is no different.

Working conditions, meagre wages and long working hours away from home are some of the causes of the deficit faced by a sector in Almeria that is fundamental for agriculture, its main economic pillar, but also for others such as the natural stone industry, as well as other logistics activities for the supply of establishments of all kinds, especially with the boom in online commerce.

In recent years, the national federation of Spanish transport associations (Fenadismer) has been watching with concern the growing shortage of professional drivers at national level to fill the jobs offered by transport companies, with the risk that "in the not too distant future this could affect the normal development of the supply chains of goods and products to both industries and the population in general". In fact, it highlights that, "according to different studies on the employment situation, the percentage of companies in the transport sector that are experiencing difficulties filling their vacancies is said to be more than 20% due to a lack of available candidates".

In addition to these issues, there is also the problem of those who want to become professionals but need a driving licence to do so.

Drivers from outside EU

Rafael Villegas, president of Asoproal, the provincial association of driving training schools of Almeria, explained that there are around 800 drivers in the province who want to get their professional licence but cannot because of the existing backlog in the practical tests. This situation is aggravated, he says, by the "comparative disadvantage" compared to drivers from outside the EU.

Villegas explained that the lack of drivers on the part of transport companies has meant that many of them have "turned to professionals from third countries, mainly Latin American, who they hire at source". The problem, he continues, is that "as they are not EU citizens, their licences are valid for six months" and, after this time, "the authorities and, specifically, the Directorate-General of Traffic, has to exchange these licences, or they cannot continue driving". This, he said, would be "painful because it would force companies to break their contracts and force them out of work".

Given the extreme situation, the driving school representative continued, "and due to the pressure exerted by the companies, at the beginning of the year the Ministry of Transport provided a financial allocation for traffic examiners to work overtime so that these drivers could take the practical test and check that, logically, they are prepared to carry out this duty".

The problem, in his opinion, lies in the fact that this solution, a priori favourable to the transport sector, "represents a comparative disadvantage not only for the 8,000 students in the province of Almeria who are waiting to be examined for their driving licence, but also for the local drivers, around 800 of them, who are waiting to get their driving licence so that they can work".

"Spanish people are being discriminated against", the provincial representative of the driving school sector claimed. "I have friends with transport companies whose lorries are at a standstill due to a lack of drivers," said Villegas.

And this is not just an isolated case. On a collective level, according to its president, Asoproal is constantly receiving calls about the shortage of lorry drivers from companies in Almeria.

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