Indian women to drive Hungarian lorries from August

Hungary has been fighting a serious labour shortage in the last couple of years. A Hungarian company is recruiting Indian women to fill in the vacant lorry driver positions. The company thinks that the Indian women are very neat and they are hoping to see them on the roads around the middle of August.

The demand for shipping is constantly growing, but there are fewer and fewer people delivering more and more packages. As Forbes reported, the average age of drivers working for Hungarian road transport companies is 47. Similarly to bus driving, only a few young Hungarians tend to choose this career path, as we wrote before HERE. Most Hungarian youngsters cannot afford to obtain a category C-E driving licence and a driver qualification certificate. These would cost roughly HUF 600-800,000 (EUR 1,560-2,080). Further special qualifications could double the price.

Forced shutdown

In the long run, the lack of new entrants will lead to a forced shutdown of the service. If many people change careers, the dramatic shutdown will come even earlier. Tivadar Árvay, the Communications Manager of the Hungarian Road Transport Association (Magyar Közúti Fuvarozók Egyesülete, MKFE), told Forbes:

Approximately 80,000 drivers work in Hungary. 42 percent of professional drivers are over 50 years old and will retire in the foreseeable future. The share of the 20 to 30 age group is 10 percent, with hardly any new entrants.

For a long time, many drivers from the neighbouring countries worked in Hungary. Ukrainian drivers left because of the war, and Serbian and Romanian drivers left for a better salary in Western Europe.

Indian lorry drivers

Recruiting companies are constantly looking for new people willing to drive lorries. Baton Transport started recruiting women too. The first applicant was a 52-year-old woman from Southeastern India who did not have a lorry licence and eventually ended up failing the driving exam. She was not the right choice for the company, but she gave a ray of hope. Since then, many men have passed the exams and women are halfway to finishing them. The company said that the Indian women are neat and hopefully, we will see them on the road towards the middle of August.

Basic expectations

Female applicants are expected to have completed primary school studies and have good English skills. Candidate drivers arriving in Hungary have already obtained their driving licences and practised driving thanks to Indian NGOs. After a short career as a taxi driver, they can take the Hungarian C-category exam and apply for a residence permit. As for men, they are expected to have a category C or E licence and several years of professional driving experience. Indian workers arrive in Hungary alone, but later on, they would like to bring their families to Europe. The recruiting company does not discriminate between male and female employees in terms of salary.