drivers

Psychology says that people who thank drivers when crossing the street don’t do it just out of gratitude.

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When a car stops at a pedestrian crossing to let us pass, it is normal, almost instinctive, to raise our hand in gratitude. However, this gesture goes a little further than being polite to the other person, or at least that is what psychologists maintain. According to the experts’ conclusions, much deeper mechanisms hide behind this peculiar habit. Why pedestrians wave at drivers when crossing the street It’s no secret that traffic is not pleasant. It is usually synonymous with rush, stress and nerves, especially at certain times of the day. That’s why the simple act of raising your hand in gratitude is so striking. It is something that drivers also do, but it is much more evident in pedestrians when a car gives way to them. Psychologists classify this gesture as a prosocial behaviorthat is, small selfless actions that are perceived positively in our interactions with others. This type of behavior includes other options, such as helping to carry shopping bags, sharing a location with someone from outside, or comforting. Image | Jacek Dylag on Unsplash Experts associate this behavior with kindness, one of the traits of the Big Five personality model. This model establishes that human personality is made up of five main traits, namely: Openness to experience. Responsibility (or thoroughness). Extraversion. Kindness. Neuroticism (or emotional instability). Theoretically, people who automatically greet drivers when they let them pass show higher levels of empathy, warmth, friendliness, and willingness to cooperate. They adopt an altruistic attitude in their daily relationships with the rest of society. It is the combination and intensity of each of these factors that ends up defining our character. By making this gesture towards the driver, the pedestrian also shows, unconsciously, that he is aware of the people around him. This type of behavior serves to remind others that public space is a place shared by everyone, and a friendly greeting can be enough to reduce the tension of a stressful situation on the road. Via | Gry-Online Image | Gry-Online

This is how Shenzhen taxi drivers define the new law that gives the green light to more robotaxis in the city

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In Shenzhen, China, self-driving taxis can already be seen driving on the streets (in fact, We recently rode one), but at the moment they are part of pilot programs and are a minority compared to the thousands of taxis driven by humans. That’s about to change. what’s happening. Since July 1, the Chinese government has approved the deployment of robotaxis in the city of Shenzhen. As we said, there are currently pilot programs such as those of Pony.ai, the taxi we tested, and also of Baidu in specific areas of the city. With the new legislationthese commercial pilot projects can be expanded to the entire city. Taxi drivers against. Logically, taxi drivers oppose this measure. In Financial Times collect the statements of several of these taxi drivers, who describe the measure as “incredibly cruel” and wonder “what will happen to the families who depend on the millions of taxi drivers in China.” Another of these taxi drivers affirms that “it is a capitalist operation, driven by personal profit, that seeks to monopolize the sector.” A saturated market. Being a taxi driver in Shenzhen is not exactly a lucrative job. Around 400,000 drivers work in the city through different platforms such as Didi, the most popular of all. The problem is that there are too many taxi drivers for too few customers and the average is 13 trips a day. Speaking to the Financial Times, one of these taxi drivers claims to work 12 hours a day to earn a salary of 12,000 yuan, about 1,500 euros. Human service vs machines. In an already stressed sector, many taxi drivers are worried that robotaxis will take away even more customers. On the other hand, others are calmer and believe that a robotaxi cannot match the service that a human driver can provide. Furthermore, there is another issue and that is that not all customers will feel comfortable riding in a driverless taxi. It is a very new technology that generates distrust in many people, but that is now. “in a few years, who knows?” says a driver. Automation. It is one of China’s solutions to the unstoppable aging of its population. The UN projections They anticipate China’s population and workforce will decline dramatically between now and 2100, in some scenarios to less than half of their current levels. Given this situation, added to a improvement in working conditions of the workers, we are seeing how factories are filled with robots. The consequence is obvious: more unemployment and an entire generation of young people disconnected from the culture of effort that elevated the country to its status as the factory of the world. You can’t have everything. Image | Amparo Babiloni, Xataka In Xataka | Faced with the inevitable aging of its population, China has made a familiar decision: raise the retirement age

60% of truck drivers drive fatigued and are clear about who is to blame

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Fatigue, tiredness and drowsiness while driving. The conclusions are as clear as they are worrying. 60% of truck drivers drive fatigued, according to a study by the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) that criticizes the inaction of the European Union in the face of what it considers “a safety crisis” caused by lower wages than recommended and pressing stress. “A security crisis”. This is how Livia Spera, General Secretary of ETF (European Transport Workers’ Federation), defines the situation in the sector, in words collected by Transportation Diary: “For many professional drivers, every day is the longest. Fatigue is systematically built into their working conditions. This represents a safety crisis generated by unfair wages, poor application of regulationsdisproportionate pressure and supply chains that prioritize the lowest price over a sustainable road transport industry” The words were spoken during the report presentation ceremony Driver fatigue in road transport. It highlights the problem of fatigue at the wheel and the pressing need to take action to the European Commission. The data. ETF (European Transport Workers’ Federation) It is a union organization which brings together unions and labor organizations from all over Europe since 1999 and represents five million workers through 200 organizations. What they have presented to the European Union is a report that contains the following data: 60% of truck drivers and 66% of bus and coach drivers said they drive while tired on a regular basis. 772 drivers said they almost crashed or caused a major traffic accident due to driver fatigue. Almost a third of truck drivers and a quarter of coach drivers reported having fallen asleep at the wheel while driving. 57% of bus and coach drivers and 52% of truck drivers say they would like to stop and take a break when they feel tired but cannot due to work reasons. Because? For ETF the reasons are clear: labor problems. They assure in their report that this chronic fatigue among truck and bus drivers is caused by low salaries, the impossibility of knowing the work time ahead of them, that the rest time is not real or that the facilities and spaces for resting and sleeping are not well equipped. These reasons are repeatedly pointed out by the unions that in March They already threatened to strike so that Social Security recognizes their right to early retirement, ensuring that these workers face a constant risk given the high accident rate in the sector. In 2024, in fact, road transport was the sector with the most work accidents with fatal results. were counted in Spain. That year, 138 transportation and storage employees died during their work day in our country. Drivers are missing. In Xataka We have been talking about the pressing lack of truck drivers that is putting pressure on the market and resulting in insufficient rest times and excessively long days. Last November 2025 It was already estimated that Europe is short three million truck drivers despite the fact that 85% of the goods are moved with their work. In Spain, the problem is just as serious. In fact, it is estimated that in our country 30,000 more truck drivers are needed to handle all the accumulated work. Countries like Morocco either Türkiye They have become a fishing ground for workers due to the lack of labor. and bad conditions. “My wheels were in terrible shape, completely smooth, and the ones on the back platform burst. (The truck) made me the scissors (…). I went into the ditch, against a river.” The narration is by Roberto Pérez, a truck driver interviewed by The Country who told his experience about his biggest scare behind the wheel. He reported that the wheels of his truck were finished and that they ended up bursting. This, along with fatigue and rest times, is the other great demand of the sector. In 2023, The DGT reported that a campaign lasting just one week left 72 trucks immobilized that did not comply with minimum safety conditions. And the problem has been recurring for years. In 2021a company was accused of homicide because its worker died in an accident caused by the poor condition of the tires. In addition, the truck had more than a million kilometers behind it and the MOT had expired. Two years lateranother company was investigated for forcing its driver to drive with wheels in poor condition, with the worker himself notifying the Civil Guard to immobilize the truck. Photo | Bhargav Panchal In Xataka | Four trucks and a total of zero truckers: China seeks solutions to a huge labor crisis

Drivers born in 1956 will be able to renew their driving license for free in 2026. And it is possible because nothing has changed

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Drivers over 70 years of age will be able to renew their driving license for free. This year those born in 1956 or in previous years will be able to. But those born in 1955 were also able to do so last year. And, although you have read that the regulations have changed, the truth is that everything remains the same. And that’s an advantage for elderly drivers. From 1956. If we look back at the calendar, it is the line that marks who can renew their driving license for free and who cannot. And traffic regulations state that drivers aged 70 or older will renew their license completely free of charge. This rule, although you may have read the opposite in some media, is the same one that has been applied for years. And it is that on social networks and in the media we have read that “from 2026” drivers over 70 years of age will renew their driving license for free and that from the age of 65 onwards they will have to do so every five years (instead of the usual 10). It is a rule that has not undergone any change and that, as already The DGT itself told us last year When this information went viral again, it is something that has been applied for a long time. At the moment, the price of renewal of the driving license is 24.58 euros to which the cost of the medical examination must be added. What does the norm say?. When we want to renew the license to drive a car, three large groups are established according to the General Driver Regulations (Art.12.2): From 18 to 65 years old: the driving license is renewed every 10 years From 65 years of age and older: the driving license is renewed every five years From 70 years of age and older: the driving license is renewed every five years but the renewal is free Of course, it must be taken into account that a doctor can decide some restrictions. For example, it can shorten driver’s license renewal times and require a person over 70 years of age (or any other driver) to re-pass the medical exam, in which their driving abilities are evaluated. earlier than what would be required by general regulations. Yes, but. Indeed, those over 70 years of age can renew their driving license for free but, as a general rule, they have to do so more frequently than the rest of the groups described above. But they are also the age group on which the most restrictions are imposed. According to Mapfre, 61% of drivers People over 65 years of age have some type of limitation when driving and the DGT raises these figures to 81% of the elderly. A driver may be limited in the range in which he or she can drive, prohibited from driving at night or at maximum speed. Traffic officers know this because on our driver’s license Each of these limitations would be reflected with a code. Too long? If an 18-year-old driver renews his or her driving license every decade, he or she will have to pay the renewal fee up to five times. The last one would reach the age of 68 and from then on, if the deadlines are met every five years, the license would be renewed for free on another five occasions until the age of 93. The big question is whether driver’s license renewals extend too long in time. The director of the DGT himself already pointed out in November 2021 that it seemed excessive “that a 90-year-old person can have their driving license for five years without renewing it.” Despite this and despite the fact that a decade without passing a medical exam before renewing the license can also be too long even if we are under 65 years old, nothing has changed. Contradictory. One of the ideas that has been floating in the air for a long time is whether a person should lose their driving license after reaching an age. The European Union has been adamant about this idea: no. And from Brussels they consider that It would be a discriminatory rule and that it is the medical examinations that must continue to set the limits. María José Aparicio, deputy director of the DGT, I was aiming for 2021 that “in Spain, 28% of those killed in traffic accidents were over 65 years of age (data from 2019). These figures are going to worsen, if we do nothing, due to the aging of the population.” But this is probably due to the physical condition of these people, who are more likely to have more serious consequences in minor accidents. And these people over 70 years old are only immersed in the 12% of accidents and they crash four times less than the youngest, according to data from Mapfre. In addition, another problem is added. A good part of them They keep older and unsafe carseither because they have a tighter economy or because they do not want to make the investment. And it is also the group that adapts worst to the mandatory ADAS systemsdriving aids that They also cause confusion among younger people. Photo | Daniel Silva and DGT In Xataka | The DGT insists: there are drivers who are too old. But that’s not the main problem

that foreign truck drivers validate their licenses

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Almost everything you consume has traveled in a truck at some point in the process. From the fruit that arrives in the supermarkets to the Amazon package that you have been waiting for all day. Road transport moves a good part of the economy in Spain and, at this moment, this gear has a serious problem: there is a lack of drivers for these trucks. Many drivers. The situation has reached a point where Spain has been exploring for months an avenue that a few years ago was unthinkable: exchanging foreign licenses so they can drive transport vehicles on Spanish roads. A deficit that gives no respite. According to the data provided by the Government to EFEthe road transport sector has a deficit of more than 20,000 professional drivers that must be covered urgently. However, the Spanish Confederation of Freight Transport (CETM) expand that figure up to more than 30,000 unfilled positions so as not to be in the same situation again in the medium term. In statements to The VanguardFilippo Welter, director of the fleet solutions company Eurowag Spain, assured that “more than 50% of current drivers are over 55 years old. This means that in the coming years there will be many retirements and very few young people are entering the profession.” He sector It estimates that it will need about 24,000 new drivers per year to compensate for the rate of retirement of current staff. The solution: validate cards. According to data from the DGT published by EFEIn 2025, 15,589 exchanges of type C (truck) and type D (bus) driving licenses were processed for foreign citizens. This represents an increase of 12% compared to the previous year, when the figure stood at 13,903 exchanged permits. The trend does not stop growing and reflects how urgent the situation is for a sector that has been warning for years that it has no relief. In May 2025, the DGT launched a new system digital permit exchange, available to citizens of countries with which Spain has bilateral agreements of reciprocal recognition. This system was intended to speed up the validation process to attract more foreign drivers. Peru, Morocco and Colombia, those that request the most exchanges. The three countries where the most professionals have exchanged their license in Spain are Peru, Morocco and Colombia. In 2025, Peruvian drivers were the most numerous, with 4,317 exchanges, which represents 27% of the total processed that year, compared to 3,781 in 2024. They are followed by Moroccan drivers, with 2,248 exchanges in 2025, compared to 2,142 the previous year; and the Colombians, who went from 639 to 1,206 exchanges. To further facilitate the incorporation of Moroccan drivers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that it maintains a flexibility in the validation requirements for holders of Moroccan professional licenses, exempting them from taking the theoretical exam, although they do They must pass a practical test and obtain the Certificate of Professional Aptitude (CAP). A structural problem with no quick solution. The exchange of licenses is an urgent response, but no one in the sector considers it sufficient to address the driver deficit. It is not just a problem for Spain, It is a global problem. to try change that dynamicthe Government approved last November a Royal Decree that regulates the Reconduce Planwhich grants aid of up to 3,000 euros for obtain permits C and D. Furthermore, the executive has signed special agreements with countries like Türkiye to make it easier for Turkish drivers to work in Spain. The problem: there is no generational change. However, beyond the agreements and facilities that the Government is applying, the underlying problem that is putting the road transport sector in check is the same one that many other sectors suffer: absence of a generational change. According to data from the International Road Transport Organization (IRU), the average age of truck drivers in Spain is 47 years old and only 3% of professionals are under 25 years old. Even though sector salaries have been on the rise in recent years driven by staff shortages, the profession does not attract young people for reasons that go beyond salary: long hours away from home, schedules incompatible with family conciliation and a process of accessing permits that can take almost a year and cost between 3,000 and 4,000 euros. In Xataka | Public transport has a problem: drivers are retiring and there is no one left behind the wheel Image | Unsplash (Konstantin Kitsenuik)

Months ago, Mallorca began fining drivers in its ZBE. Now he has a problem with German tourists

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Joachin Fischer is one of the many (many) German tourists who like to enjoy the landscapes, weather and coves of Mallorca. For decades he has been visiting the island at least twice a year. If his name has stood out among the thousands of compatriots who spend their summers in the Balearic Islands, it is because a few months ago posed in front of the cameras of the press showing a fine, a sanction of 200 euros sent by the Palma City Council for (and this is the key) having accessed the Low Emissions Zone (ZBE) from the city with your car. fischer claims who drives a Tesla suitable for driving on the BZE, but that is not the only feature of his vehicle. Another (crucial) is that it has a foreign registration, which partly explains the fine. Your case is important because is not the only one German tourist who claims to have suffered a similar sanction in Palma. What has happened? That the activation of the low emissions zone (ZBE) in Palma is having unexpected protagonists: German tourists. The Balearic capital launched zoning a little over a year ago and months later, in julybegan to apply sanctions to drivers who do not respect it. Until then, nothing out of this world. At the end of the day, Palma City Council has only adjusted to what the Climate Change Law for cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The surprise came after time, in Novemberwhen it was found that the measure was causing friction with tourists who arrive in Palma with their foreign-registered cars, even the zero-emission ones. Why’s that? The news gave it Mallorca Diary last fall: tourists who arrive in the city with their own vehicles risk fines if they enter the streets delimited in the ZBE. And this is basically because they do not have the option of registering their license plates to process the permit. Even in those cases where they drive models that meet the technical requirements. “They are not authorized to enter the ZBE, since the DGT system is not universalized throughout the EU and each country has its own classification method, so the level of emissions of cars with foreign registration cannot be automatically verified,” They explained in November from the municipal Mobility area of ​​Palma. “They may be exempt only if they register in the system and justify their residence, meeting the established requirements.” And what is the problem? That last nuance. In the website that Palma City Council dedicates to the ZBE includes a specific section on “vehicles with foreign registration plates” in which two points are especially highlighted. The first is that “vehicles registered outside of Spain are not classified according to the criteria of the environmental label of the General Directorate of Traffic.” The second, that drivers of vehicles with foreign registration interested in accessing the ZBE must process a “authorization”a permit designed primarily for residents and owners of properties, businesses or parking spaces. The question is… And the tourists? Many of the thousands of Germans who spend their summers in the Balearic Islands rent cars with Spanish license plates with a badge that allows them to circulate without problem through the Palma ZBE, but there are also cases like Fischer’swho prefers to disembark with his own vehicle. What’s wrong with them? In November Fischer counted to the Balearic press that he had received a fine of 200 euros from the City Council for driving his electric Tesla where he shouldn’t have been. “I only entered Jaume III for a moment to pick up my 14-year-old daughter after shopping in El Born,” he lamented the man, who assures that he prefers to use his private car and not a rental one because it “amuses him” and gives “greater flexibility” when planning his trips. “Not being able to register my car, I thought that my green ecological device and the electric car license plate would be enough to avoid the fine, as is the case in low-emission zones in German cities. But that was not the case.” Is he the only one affected? It doesn’t seem like it. On those same dates the newspaper Mallorca Zeitung assured that he was receiving “more and more messages” from readers with fines. The Mallorcan press has also echoed complaints from those affected who speak of “discrimination” against Europeans with foreign cars or point out how complicated it is to register a vehicle on the list of authorized license plates, especially for those who do not speak Mallorcan or Spanish. One of the arguments put forward by critics is a note posted on the DGT page which explains that, although Spain does not issue badges for foreign vehicles, that does not have to be a problem. “If your car has an environmental label in its country of origin (Germany, Austria, Denmark, France) it is considered to have the Spanish equivalent,” he clarifies. There is who also remembers that Palma is not the only city council (neither in Spain nor in Europe) that applies mobility restrictions in the center, and insists: the rules are the same for everyone and “ignorance does not exempt from guilt.” Images | Sergiy Galyonkin (Flickr) and Đorđe Pandurević (Unsplash) In Xataka | Houses are so expensive in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands that they are expelling even Germans and British people from the market.

In 1986 a man parked on the wrong side of the gas station. That day he solved an embarrassing problem for all drivers

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The history of innovation It’s full of big names and epic breakupsbut also of silent advances born from minimal errors, from everyday mistakes that anyone could have made. Sometimes, a small mistake reveals a problem so common that no one had thought of it or knew how to formulate it, and it is enough to look at it differently to find a solution that ends up benefiting millions of people without it being barely noticed. In this case, one man saved millions of drivers from embarrassment. A universal problem. Maybe his name doesn’t sound familiar to you, but the story of Jim Moylan It is more important than it seems. The story begins with a scene as trivial as it is recognizable: a Ford engineer (Moylan) soaked by the rain, standing at a gas station, realizing that he has parked in the wrong side of the pump. Where anyone would have felt frustration or perhaps some embarrassment, he saw an everyday problem that could be solved elegantly, cheaply and definitively, and in a matter of minutes. wrote a memorandum proposing a small symbol on the instrument panel to indicate which side the tank was on, a simple idea born from personal experience and the conviction that eliminating that doubt would save time, inconvenience and, yes, small humiliations for millions of drivers. The path to a great idea. Moylan was not a media figure or a senior manager, but an engineer with a long and discreet career within the all-powerful Ford Motor Company, a man, yes, professionally obsessed. with instrument panels and with making them as clear and useful as possible. Thus, after sending his original proposal in 1986, the man did not think about it again, but the company did: the symbol he had scribbled on a page quickly went into development, it was approved without much resistance. and ended up integrating in the first models of the late eighties, demonstrating that in large organizations there was still room for a good idea, no matter how small and coming from whoever it was, to cross the hierarchy and become a reality. From Thunderbird to the entire world. Months passed until the first public appearance of the arrow came, an almost imperceptible moment, hidden in the instrument panel of a Ford Thunderbird 1989. It didn’t matter, its power lay precisely in that simplicity. It was so obvious and useful that the competition It didn’t take him long to copy itand in a very short time it went from being an internal Ford solution to becoming a de facto standard in the global automobile industry, and it did so to the point that today it appears in practically any car in the world, including electric ones, where it points to the side of the charging port with the same unbeatable logic. The inventor without a patent (or ego). Unlike other innovators, Moylan He never patented his idea nor did he ask for financial compensation or public recognition, content simply to see how his arrow worked and helped people. For decades, millions of drivers benefited from his invention without even knowing his name, while he silently watched as that little “walk of shame” at gas stations disappeared, getting closer sometimes to strangers to explain the usefulness of the symbol, but without ever mentioning that it had been his doing. Late recognition. I remembered a few weeks ago the wall street journal which was not until many years later, thanks to a chance investigation from a podcast and to the rescue of internal files, when Jim Moylan’s name came to light and he was publicly recognized as the author of one of the most discreet and universal innovations in the automobile. The man died without having sought famebut he left a legacy that lives on every time someone stops at a pump and, with a simple glance at the instrument panel, knows exactly where to stand, reminding us that sometimes true genius lies in solving the obvious in the simplest way possible. Image | Josh In Xataka | An engineer decided one day to put the BMW airplane engine in a car. The result was tremendous In Xataka | When an engineer wanted to cross Africa by car, he invented a wooden one. It would be the beginning of the end

The robotaxis did not need a driver, but Waymo has ended up paying delivery drivers to close ajar doors

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What until not long ago seemed the exclusive province of science fiction is beginning to become visible on the streets: cars capable of moving from one point to another without a driver. And you don’t need to buy one to live the experience. In some cities around the world, it is enough to order a robotaxi from an application and see how the vehicle arrives to pick you up, identifying you in certain models with your initials on an LED screen located on the roof, as our colleague Javier Lacort confirmed in San Francisco almost two years ago. Futuristic scene, present problems. In the midst of this transformation of transportation, which aims to offer more safety and comfort, its weak points are also beginning to emerge. We don’t talk about the jams caused by connectivity failures nor of those cars that, for some reason, They start honking their horn at four in the morning. The issue is even more basic: if a user closes the door incorrectly, the vehicle cannot continue operating. The problem is not driving, it is being able to leave. In the case described by CNBC and TechCrunchare blocked if, at the end of the trip, a passenger leaves a door ajar. Waymo confirmed to both media that this detail prevents the car from resuming travel and completing new routes until someone closes it correctly. This is a basic, almost domestic friction that turns a simple oversight into an operational problem and explains why the company has to resort to human support to return its vehicles to service as soon as possible. Pay delivery people. The company is testing a system in Atlanta that alerts nearby delivery drivers of applications such as DoorDash when one of their vehicles is left with the door open. The proposal is simple: approach, close it and allow the robotaxi to operate again. The media even cites the case of a driver who was offered $11.25 for that specific task. They also detail a similar order divided between $6.25 for travel and another $5 after verifying the closure. It is not an isolated case. The Atlanta pilot is not the only example of this specific dependence on human help. Waymo has also turned to users of honka roadside assistance platform, to resolve similar situations in other American cities. In this case, some collaborators received offers of up to $24 to close the door of a stopped robotaxi. More than a local anecdote, these examples draw a clear operational pattern: when the vehicle is immobilized due to a minor detail, the quickest solution is still to send a person. Automatic doors, on the way. Today Waymo operates with a fleet made up entirely of electric vehicles Jaguar I-PACE adapted for autonomous driving, which still depend on human intervention in situations like this. But the company owned by Google assures that this gap has an expiration date, although without specifying it: it announced that its future robotaxis will have automatic closing. Meanwhile, the present of the autonomous car continues to show that double face: sophistication in driving and human dependence on the simplest details. Images | Xataka In Xataka | When San Francisco suffered a blackout, its streets were plunged into chaos for a reason: dumped self-driving cars

bring 30,000 drivers from Türkiye

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The road transport sector in Spain faces a serious generational change problem which puts the movement of goods at risk. Logistics companies are looking for creative ways to keep everything moving. A recent initiative promises change this trend and import talent from another country with many more professionals available: Türkiye. Spain runs out of drivers. Spain has more than 30,000 jobs for truck drivers that it cannot meet, a demand that represents almost 10% of the sector’s total workforce, made up of some 390,000 professionals. These vacancies complicate the daily operations of companies, which struggle to find enough hands to maintain their supply routes. Far from being a “temporary blip”, the sector is experiencing a progressive aging of its staff, and the majority of current drivers are between 45 and 55 years old. A third of them will retire in the next 10 years and there is no generational replacement to take their place. Only 5% of Spanish truck drivers are under 25 years old, which shows the lack of generational change in this demanding profession. The agreement with Türkiye. In this context, the Andalusian transport association Usintra and the Córdoba Campus Foundation they have reached an agreement collaboration with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security of Türkiye with the aim of recruiting drivers in that country who are willing to come to work in Spain. ​In Türkiye there are more than 300,000 truck drivers looking for work, a figure that contrasts with the shortage of drivers that Spain suffers and opens the door to a practical solution. The objective is for the General Directorate of the Turkish Employment Agency to select these professionals in Turkey, and bring the candidates to Spain to fill the vacancies in Spanish logistics companies. Homologation of permits. Drivers recruited in Türkiye will receive additional training at the Córdoba FP Campus in order to approve the necessary permits to transport goods in Spain and they will learn Spanish. During all this training time, the entities involved will offer them accommodation and food. Afterwards, their documents will be legalized so that they can start working in logistics companies in Spain. Search for talent in Spain. In addition to looking outside, the government has launched the Reconduce Planin which 500,000 euros will be allocated for subsidies of up to 3,000 euros per person to finance and encourage courses and exams to obtain the necessary permits to be a truck driver and transport goods. A measure that from the sector is considered insufficient to alleviate the personnel deficit and the serious problem of generational change that the sector is suffering, greatly affected by the low salary and long hours away from home. The Community of Madrid offers free training for the Certificate of Professional Aptitude (CAP) with 6.48 million euros between 2026 and 2027, aimed at those over 21 years of age with a B card, to train about 1,200 applicants. In Xataka | That Japan has 100,000 people over 100 years old explains a problem: they are literally running out of drivers. Image | Unsplash (Gabriel Santos)

They depend on road transport and there is a lack of 3.6 million truck drivers

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Today almost everything you buy, from supermarket food to the latest mobile phone, has traveled by truck before reaching your hands, and in Europe three out of every four tons of goods move by road. 75% of the goods are transported by road and 85% of the transportation of perishable products is done in fleets of trucks that, currently, do not have enough drivers. The International Road Transport Organization (IRU) calculate that in 36 countries that add up to around 70% of the world’s GDP there are 3.6 million truck driver vacancies, which represents around 7% of the total existing positions. With the progressive aging of the templates, the problem it’s not going to get better in the coming years. One million truck drivers by 2026. For Europe, the IRU predicts that in 2026 there will be a shortage of around one million professional truck drivers. Meanwhile the rise of online commerce demand has skyrocketed of road transport and, according to calculations presented by IRU, the volume transported in Europe will grow by approximately 11% until 2030, which aggravates the tension between the supply of drivers and the real needs of the market. The data provided by IRU show that the driver shortage is a structural problem that affects America, Asia and Europe equally and is not limited to a specific crisis in the road transport sector. Sector sources warn that, if decisive action is not taken, the number of vacancies could exceed seven million drivers by 2028, with 4.9 million unfilled positions in China, about 745,000 in Europe and around 200,000 in Turkey. “If concerted and continuous measures are not taken, this demographic time bomb will explode, seriously affecting economic growth and competitiveness around the world,” said Umberto de Pretto, secretary general of the IRU in his report. Spain needs 30,000 drivers. This lack of professional drivers It is already visible in Spain, where it is estimated that there are around 30,000 unfilled truck driver positions and around 4,700 additional vacancies in bus transportation to meet the growing demand. The IRU and national carrier associations warn that, if the trend continues, the combination of more cargo to move and fewer available drivers could translate into uncovered routes, delays in deliveries and strong pressure on transportation costs. An aging sector with little relief. One of the underlying problems is the age of those who are already working behind the wheel of a truck. In Europe, the average age of drivers is around 47 years old, while in Spain the average is over 50 years old. 50% of Spanish truck drivers are over 55 years old. IRU points out that some 3.4 million truck drivers on the continent will retire in the coming years, which means that millions of professionals will leave the sector in a relatively short period, further aggravating the shortage of labor for the transport of goods. Without quarry. At the same time, the freight transport sector does not have a enough generational change. Less than 12% of professional truck drivers are under 25 years of age on a global scale and in Europe that percentage falls to around 5%, with countries such as Spain or Poland where those under 25 years of age barely represent around 3% of the workforce. To attract new drivers, some governments have begun to make moves, although for now in a limited way. In Spain aid has been approved up to 3,000 euros per person to get a truck permit or class C and D bus. Job improvements. Faced with a scenario of labor shortage, professional drivers’ associations they regret the few proposals aimed at improving the working conditions of professionals. According to a study by the transportation sector employment platform TDRJobs, salary increases (24.3%) and improved working conditions (22.1%) are among the main reasons for driver turnover. In Xataka | That Japan has 100,000 people over 100 years old explains a problem: they are literally running out of drivers. Image | Unsplash (Konstantin Kitsenuik)

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