Transport sector owners claim that there is a national shortage of over 150,000 professional drivers, so more and more companies have started hiring drivers from Asia for trucks, minibuses, and coaches.
After many professional drivers from Romania left to work in other European countries in recent years, the labor force crisis is increasingly felt in the transportation sector in our country. Managers in this sector are urging the authorities to change the rules so that foreign drivers’ licenses are no longer exchanged for Romanian ones, reports TVR Info.
Nadeeshan Weranga, from Sri Lanka, has been working for three months at a transport company with garages in Bucharest and Ialomița. He was hired as a professional driver for domestic passenger routes, but currently, he is forced to work as a mechanic because he has not yet obtained the exchange of his driver's license from his country to a Romanian one.
"I would like to work in Romania for four to five years. It's a good salary, people are nice. It's a European country," he said.
The employer who hired him wants to bring in more professional drivers, mechanics, and panel beaters from Asia, but says the procedure is cumbersome: "Another 11 people are expected to come from Sri Lanka because we don't have them here. If we bring them, it takes three months to arrange their residence documentation and another three months for the licenses to be exchanged. So, for a period of two years for which we bring these people, almost a quarter of the time is spent on paperwork."
Transport associations are asking the Executive to simplify the rules so that the driver's licenses of professional drivers from other countries are recognized in Romania.
Vasile Ștefănescu, the president of the Confederation of Authorized Operators and Transporters in Romania, says that a political decision is needed to facilitate this process: "Look, for six months, I have to take him, hire him, pay him, provide him with food, accommodation, and what should I use him for? To sweep the garage? A political decision is needed so that, after he arrives in the country, is thoroughly checked, has a residence permit. Give me the right to put him in training, and in a month, a month and a half, put him into production."
According to him, there is a national shortage of over 150,000 drivers.
The Road Directorate of the Ministry of Transport has already changed the rules so that the exam for obtaining the professional qualification certificate can also be taken in English, the source notes.