Municipal transportation companies suffer from a shortage of drivers due to a malfunctioning booking mechanism
Ukrainian cities are experiencing a shortage of drivers, which is why buses are often idle. Photo: Odesa City Council
The Chernihiv City Council has sent an official request to the Ministry of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine (Ministry of Infrastructure) to develop an effective mechanism for booking public transport drivers.
The legislation provides for the booking of public transport drivers (50% of the staff), but the booking procedure is complicated and too long, making it almost impossible in practice. This exacerbates the problem of driver shortages, as drivers are drafted into the ranks of the Armed Forces and there are not enough new candidates to replace them. The city takes measures to train new drivers, pays for their education and provides scholarships, but this does not solve the problem sufficiently. The situation is similar in other cities across the country.
"Recently, the problem of driver shortage has become increasingly important, given the situation with the mobilization of motor transport enterprises employees, as well as the migration of the population of the regional center to relatively safer regions, given the close proximity of the regional center to the border with the aggressor countries," the letter from the Chernihiv City Council.
Many cities and one problem
Other cities in Ukraine also face a shortage of public transport drivers. In Odesa, for example, only seven of the 18 drivers needed for municipal buses are available. As a result, the city cannot fully operate 10 buses donated by the German city of Regensburg. Among the possible solutions to this problem, the local authorities are considering the involvement and training of women. "We have drivers, but not in the number we need. We have agreed with our partners that if there are women who want to learn and drive such vehicles, because now there are few men who have enlisted and gone to defend our country," Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov told Suspilne News.
Some cities are considering training and hiring more female drivers. Source: Mykolaiv City Council
A similar situation is in Mykolaiv. In 2022-2023, the city received several dozen buses from European partners, but cannot put them on the road due to staffing issues. "Our biggest problem is the availability of drivers. We invite drivers to work for our municipal companies Mykolaivpastrans and Mykolaivelectrotrans, which officially pay salaries and provide social guarantees," said Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych. According to him, the city authorities are preparing a training and employment program for Mykolaivpastrans.
There is also an acute shortage of public transport drivers in Zhytomyr. The staff of the municipal enterprise Tram and Trolleybus Management includes 54 drivers instead of the 108 required, meaning that the shortage of employees is 50% (as of the end of September 2023). Therefore, many drivers of this carrier work overtime.
"There were offers from some trolleybus drivers to work on buses, but the process of obtaining a category D license required to work on buses turned out to be difficult," added Serhiy Lazarev, director of Tram and Trolleybus Management.
As a result, the cities ask the Ministry of Infrastructure to pay attention to this urgent problem and initiate actions to solve it or at least reduce its severity. The Chernihiv City Council called on the Ministry of Infrastructure to initiate the development of effective and simplified mechanism for booking public transport drivers by the government or to find an alternative solution to this issue in order to preserve and ensure the socially important passenger transportation service during martial law.