If you travel by bus in Brabant, you should not be watching if there is a filipin behind the wheel soon. Or someone from Romania, Poland, Spain or Portugal. Due to the persistent shortage of bus drivers in public transport, drivers from abroad are increasingly being used. “If I had a hundred drivers, I can place all of them like this,” says Roel van Kempen, who brings the drivers from all over the world to Brabant.
This week there are six drivers from the Philippines. They want to come and live in the Netherlands to ride the bus here. If they succeed, they can work in West Brabant. First they have to be tested. The journey and the stay at the hotel pays the Eindhoven mediation agency Allroad of which Van Kempen is the director. “On Saturday we bring them all back to the airport. Then they go home again.”
Edgar (54) Galit comes from the Philippines where he has been running on the bus for years. Now he is going to drive around in the Netherlands for the first time. Instructor wants to ride the lesson bus to see if the Filipin is suitable for coming to work here. The lesson bus has an emergency pedal, so if necessary, the bus can stop immediately.
Edgar first sets the chair and the mirrors. Then he gets the key. He drives away very controlled. Driving the bus is easy for him, but in the event of a exit, instructor has to indicate that Edgar has priority. It takes some getting used to in the Netherlands. “The rules are about the same,” says Edgar. “But it is much busier on the road here.”
According to director Van Kempen, he has no choice. He supplies drivers for almost all bus companies in the Netherlands. “The aging population within public transport is too great. We no longer get the number of vacancies filled with the Dutch market. So we have to, we no longer have a choice.”
“I do it for my family, for the future of my children.”
There are drivers in between who do not perform sufficiently. They do not receive an offer. Everything is arranged for the candidates who succeed. “Then we will ensure that all papers come in order. We arrange insurance and housing. We guide them from A to Z.”
According to Van Kempen, it is absolutely safe to let the drivers drive here, even though they are not used to the Dutch roads. “It is not for nothing that we bring people here first to make sure that they really understand Dutch traffic.”
The language is not going to give any problems, he thinks. “A lot of English is already spoken in society. In restaurants, in the hospitality industry, in the supermarket. So an English -speaking bus driver is no longer so strange.”
Edgar has succeeded and can work as a driver in the Netherlands. “I am very happy,” he says with a big smile. He must leave everything behind. Part of what he earns here goes to the Philippines. “I do it for my family, for the future my children, my granddaughters and grandson. I support them so that they can go to school.”
