Today, on the 26th of October, the TRAN Committee discussed the revision of the Directive on Driving Licenses. The ETF is closely monitoring this legislative procedure. We provided the TRAN MEPs with our input and priorities for this file, and signed a joint letter with the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), the International Federation of Pedestrians (IFP), and the European Cyclists Federation (ECF), on the necessity of introducing professional training for van drivers.
Along with the ETF, various MEPs have spoken out against the approach to reduce minimum age for driving licenses as a solution to labor shortage in the road transport sector. As they pointed out, amending the Directive will not solve the driver shortage. In ETF’s opinion, the only way to solve the professional driver shortage is to improve wages and working conditions, as evidenced by the fact that average age for truck and bus drivers is approximately 50.
As also pointed out during the discussion, more and more vans are operating on our roads, representing a significant part of road accidents in cities. The ETF has also recently proposed, in its manifesto for logistics workers, that training and safety requirements must be improved for logistics workers. This could be accomplished as part of the European Parliament rapporteur’s proposal to establish a B+ category with the creation of a separate requirement for CPC-type training for N1 vehicles used for professional purposes.
The ETF repeats its call to prevent any reduction of minimum age requirement for truck or bus drivers, and ensuring that van drivers receive professional training. Please find attached ETF’s Briefing on the Revision of Driving License Directive 2006/126/EC