Beyond prejudice: Young professional bus and truck drivers in the EU are safe
“The best training anyone can and should receive is from within the industry and its people while on the road in a working vehicle.”
“Young drivers are safe. But they require longer and more thorough training, including driving alongside an instructor for a longer period than an older and more experienced driver.”
Dispelling the myths:
This factsheet demystifies misconceptions about young professional professional drivers in the EU. In the context of the ongoing revision of the Driving Licence Directive, it is important to separate fact from fiction in order to from fiction in order to dispel the myth that all young are unsafe on Europe’s roads.
Why act now?
There are currently over 500,000 unfilled bus, coach and lorry driver vacancies in the EU and this number is expected to increase in the coming years if no action is taken.
The gap between young and old drivers is widening. Less than 5% of all professional drivers in the EU are under 25, but more than 33% are over 55 and will retire in the next few years. In the bus and coach sector in particular, the age gap is even more alarming, with only 3% of professional drivers under 25 and 41% over 55. This is despite the fact that youth unemployment remains high across the EU, with 14.7% of under-25s unemployed, according to the latest figures from the European Commission.
Europe needs drivers
The current revision of the Driving Licence Directive is an to bring clarity to the age of professional driver training in the EU.
This would enable more capable and motivated young drivers to go through Europe’s rigorous training and certification processes to become fully qualified drivers, providing Europeans with the mobility and logistics services they depend on.
