Freilassing/Salzburg: Freilassing bus line operator sees clear reasons for the lack of bus drivers
The mobility industry is growing – and with it the shortage of staff. There is already a shortage of skilled workers in public transport. Bus operations in particular are affected. For Thomas Richter, operator of line 24 between Freilassing and Salzburg, the reasons for the shortage are obvious.
Freilassing / Salzburg – The summer timetable for the Salzburg trolleybuses ends this week, instead of every 10 to 15 minutes, a trolleybus should come every 7 to 10 minutes from Monday. Freilassing, Salzburg. Should, because due to the still high sickness rates and the general lack of drivers, it is not clear whether the trolleybus operator Salzburg AG WILL not soon switch back to emergency operation. For months there has been a political dispute as to whether Salzburg AG is deliberately starving the trolleybus service or whether there are actually too few drivers. What is the situation in Berchtesgadener Land, for example with Thomas Richter, who operates cross-border line 24 between Freilassing and Salzburg.
“The personnel situation is an absolute catastrophe,” admits Richter openly, “Politics are demanding more and more buses and trains, but that can only be done with a foundation,” and Richter doesn’t mean the rolling stock, but the drivers. The high training costs would deter many potential applicants, “Who wants to invest 10,000 euros in training if you then earn 2000 euros net per month”. In Austria, with only nine minimum driving hours, far fewer are required than in Germany with 58. “In Austria they say that if you can’t do it after nine hours, then you can’t do it at 58 either,” says Richter jokingly. At his company in the south of Freilassing, Richter employs 120 bus drivers for regular services in Upper Bavaria and in the Salzburg region. “Currently I’m missing 25 drivers alone”.
And how can an entrepreneur react to a lack of staff? “Whenever we thin out the offer, sometimes I drive myself, or the workshop manager, actually everyone drives a driver’s license with us”. Instead of a bus with 20 passengers, for example, three Sprinter buses, each with nine seats, would be used, which can also be driven with a B driver’s license.
Fully trained asylum seeker threatened with deportation
The situation with trained refugees is also difficult for Richter, “we have trainees with a refugee background who would also be trained drivers at the end of their apprenticeship, but are threatened with deportation at the end because the asylum procedure has not been completed”. Displaced people from Ukraine are also only allowed to drive with their Ukrainian driver’s license until February 2023, after which they would need a German driver’s license. “They didn’t drive donkey carts in Ukraine with their driver’s licenses,” it should be possible to rewrite Ukraine’s driver’s licenses with special programs.
Cost of the bus driver’s license
In Austria, a bus driver’s license (class D) costs around 2,000 to 2,500 euros. Many companies, such as the ÖBB company Postbus, assume these costs for applicants if they then stay with the company for a certain period of time. “In Germany, you have to reckon with costs of up to 10,000 euros,” says Thomas Richter, “because while you can get by with six minimum driving hours in Austria, it’s ten times as much in Germany”.
In fact, 58 driving hours are required for the D driving license in Germany, which at an hourly price of 120 euros totals almost 7000 euros, plus the theoretical training. “If someone already has a truck driver’s license, then it’s still 44 hours,” says Heinz Baptistella from the driving school of the same name in Traunstein.
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