The Commission recommended that 17-year-olds be allowed to take driver training and to drive a lorry under supervision so that they can gain driving experience.
The European Commission's proposal to revise the EU Driving License Directive has promising aspects that could address the chronic shortage of drivers in the freight transport sector. But it falls completely short when it comes to passenger transport. The European Commission recently published its proposal for the EU Driving License Directive.
The industry is eagerly awaiting concrete solutions to one of the biggest threats to road transport: the shortage of drivers, according to the IRU (Global Road Transport Organization). The Commission recommended that 17-year-olds be allowed to take driver training and to drive a lorry under supervision so that they can gain driving experience. No such change has been included for the passenger sector.
The IRU driver shortage report for 2022 found that there were around 600.000 drivers missing in Europe, and predicted that by 2026 it will be close to 2 million, given current trends. The predicted increase is due to an aging driver population, combined with a low share of young drivers. Across the EU, only 6% of professional drivers are under 25 years old.
“We welcome the European Commission's proposal to give young people the opportunity to become truck drivers. This will go a long way in narrowing the 'gap between school and wheel'. Where the Commission's proposal falls woefully short is in passenger transport. In some Member States, we see well-trained 18-year-old men and women safely driving buses, while in many others the minimum age is between 21 and 24. The proposal does not set 18 as the unambiguous minimum driving age for bus and coach services. Subsequently, it has taken no steps to address the increasingly serious driver shortage that hinders the collective mobility of EU citizens.”
minimum age
The revision of the EU driving license offers the opportunity to remove one of the biggest barriers for young people to take up the profession: the gap between the age at which they finish school and the time at which they can become a professional driver. This could also facilitate the access of drivers from third countries to the EU market, increasing the pool of EU drivers.
The proposal that has recently been made has made it absolutely clear that the minimum age for truck drivers is 18 years. This is a major positive step that the road transport industry has been asking for for a long time. The Commission also recommended that 17-year-olds be allowed to take driver training and to drive a lorry under supervision so that they can gain driving experience. No such change has been included for the passenger sector.
“The proposal opens a new path for the harmonization of requirements for the recognition of driving licenses from outside the EU. While the list of countries and concrete conditions need to be further defined based on solid safety criteria, we already see a positive step towards helping citizens from third countries become professional drivers in the EU and complement the EU's talent pool”.
IRU appreciates that the European Commission is open to the industry's call to increase the pool of drivers by facilitating third country drivers' access to the profession in the EU, said the road transport organization.
