This morning, bus driver Arne Ingar Åkvik drives a school route on Os in Bjørnafjorden municipality to pick up around 20 primary school students who live along a dangerous school road. Åkvik loves his job, and is on first names with his passengers. – Good morning! Are you tired today, Wild? However, such scenes are threatened across the country, figures from a combined transport industry show. – We are dependent on a larger influx. This is starting to get critical. Bus Norway is bleeding, says bus driver Åkvik. THREATENED: Route offers throughout Norway may be in danger in a few years if the negative recruitment trend is not reversed. Photo: Linnea Skare Oskarsen Worsened after the pandemic After decades of recruitment challenges, the driver shortage has become even worse. Now the industry is shouting warnings: Every third bus driver in Norway is over 60 years old. Two out of three have passed 50 years, figures from the industry show. 1000 bus drivers must be recruited every year for the next 8 years, according to NHO transport. bus drivers in Norway The average age of professional bus drivers in Norway is 51.5 years. 28.8 percent are over 60 years old. A survey conducted by NHO transport in 2017 showed that Norway must recruit 1,000 drivers a year until 2030. The Professional Traffic Association claims that this number has doubled after the pandemic. In Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø, 35 percent are over 60 years old. 650 permanent employees have changed jobs, retired or moved back to their home country since 2017. Only 8 percent of working bus drivers in Norway are women. Source: NHO Transport, Yrkestrafikkforbundet, Tide Men Yrkestrafikkforbundet estimates that the number has doubled after the pandemic after foreign drivers disappeared during the pandemic. – I think maybe we are not good enough to tell how meaningful and enjoyable that job is, says business policy manager Jofri Lunde in NHO transport. HOPE FOR MORE: Bus driver Arne Ingar Åkvik hopes more people will open their eyes to the driving profession. Photo: Linnea Skare Oskarsen Can hit school transport across the country During his 15 years as a bus driver in Bergen and the surrounding area, Åkvik has seen conditions worsen. – The driver shortage is formidable throughout the industry. This applies not only here, but throughout Norway, he says. If the negative recruitment trend is not reversed, a third of the industry may be without drivers within a few years. It can affect much-needed routes, such as school routes, NHO Transport writes in a letter to Vestland County Municipality. The trend is national. DANGEROUS SCHOOL ROAD: The bus route on Os to Borgafjellet primary school runs on a stretch that is categorized as a dangerous school road. Around 20 students take the bus to school every day. Photo: Linnea Skare Oskarsen Depending on pensioners The recruitment challenges worry Jim Klung, leader of the Professional Traffic Association. – If we do not manage to reverse this trend here, then you will eventually have to cancel departures. Then there will be no drivers to drive the passengers, and it is a situation no one wants to get into, says Klung. The staffing is now so pressured that the industry depends on pensioners driving part-time or full-time, to make the wheels turn. – It is absolutely crucial to maintain the offer. As of today, it would not have happened without the pensioners, that is for sure, says Klung. He lists dissatisfaction with pay and working conditions as the most central reasons for the recruitment challenges. Fierce competition for professional drivers Business policy manager Lunde in NHO Transport, for his part, believes that the main challenge is low unemployment in the country. This leads to fierce competition for workers. NEED EMPLOYEES: NHO transport’s head of business policy, Jofri Lunde, believes that the driver profession is undeservedly talked down. Photo: Eva Storm Hanssen / Moment Studio – We must become better at promoting the profession. I think the profession is better than some want it to be, she says and adds: – The situation is demanding, but there is potential here. We need to become better at making visible what opportunities this job offers. State Secretary Maria Schumacher Walberg (Labor Party) in the Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion, believes that several full-time, permanent positions are part of the solution. – Even though unemployment is low, there are many who are outside working life and who want to work. Therefore, qualifying them with, for example, bus driver courses is something Nav prioritizes, she says. Will spread commitment to the job At Os, bus driver Åkvik turns into Borgafjellet school and drops the students off. – I really see how we have to solve it practically, and that is to tell about how good this profession is, he says.
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Every third bus driver is over 60 years old – fears that routes will have to be scrapped – news Vestland
