Kaliningrad truck drivers go to work in Poland and Lithuania

Kaliningrad drivers go to work in Poland and Lithuania. The shortage of personnel in the region is 25-35%. Sergei Goz, General Director of Stalena LLC, spoke about this at a meeting of the Committee on Education and Labor Market Development of the Kaliningrad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“If we talk about the region, the industry until February 2022 had about 9,000 units of equipment and approximately 15,000 drivers. Over these two years, the industry has shrunk by 30 percent, there are about 7,000 pieces of equipment left, and the shortage of drivers is 25-30% (2,500-3,000 people), and the average age of those working behind the wheel is 50 years,” the KTPP press service quotes Goza.

According to him, the shortage of personnel arose due to more complicated working conditions – downtime at the border or waiting to be loaded onto a ferry, or longer flight times. In addition, other factors influence: greater responsibility, late retirement, as well as the opportunity to leave for other companies both in the region and abroad.

Now enterprises in Poland and Lithuania are happy to hire our specialists and one cannot blame them for leaving there. Let them work there, but feed their families living here. Another way is rotational work in other regions of the country. If a person settles there, he takes his family from here. This is a dangerous phenomenon for us,” the expert emphasized.

Kaliningrad companies are trying to close the personnel gap by attracting specialists from friendly countries. Sergei Goz believes that it is possible to return the car business to schools and open driver training courses in colleges. In his opinion, enterprises that train personnel at their base should also be supported.

In addition to education, the general director of Stalena LLC proposed introducing benefits for drivers – including them in the housing program, providing scholarships for the duration of their studies, allocating places for their children in preschool institutions and others, as well as establishing early retirement.

“This whole complex must be implemented in a balanced manner. Otherwise, we will train personnel for Lithuania, Germany, and Poland. IT workers have preferential mortgages, and 82% of cargo across the country is carried by transport workers, not IT specialists!” concluded Goz.

In January, drivers were included in the list of the most in-demand professions on the local labor market. During the month, companies posted 475 vacancies.