The news that Germany will recognize driver’s licenses of all categories from Bosnia and Herzegovina from August 1st worried the owners of transport companies. They fear that the remaining professional drivers will also leave our country, and that there will be no one to work. They say that more than 6,000 drivers have left Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last five years.
In the countries of the European Union, the salaries of professional drivers are up to three times higher than in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and this is the main reason why they decide to go and work abroad. By recognizing German driver’s licenses, it will be much easier for them to leave. Carriers are already scratching their heads. They say that professional drivers have long been in short supply, which is why they were forced to hire pensioners.
“A huge outflow of professional drivers can be expected in August, and we already have a huge problem and deficit. I don’t know who will stay here and whether we will have a sufficient number of young drivers, because pensioners are already driving in many transport companies”, says Nikola Grbić, president of the Association of Transporters for International and Internal Transport of the RS.
The conditions for drivers to go to European countries were previously more complicated, because they had to pass KOD 95 or change their driver’s licenses to ones from Serbia or Croatia. None of the professional drivers wanted to stand in front of the camera, but in an informal conversation they told us that long delays at the border are one of their biggest problems. They are not satisfied with the salaries either because, as they say, they do one of the most difficult and responsible jobs.
The RS Chamber of Commerce believes that it is necessary to change the legal regulations.
“We can talk about training drivers, about trying to keep them or attract new ones, through some legal measures, through talking with businessmen, to talk about a possible increase in wages, so that these same workers stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, says Dejan Raus, spokesperson of the RS Chamber of Commerce.
It is not only drivers who leave, but everyone who has the opportunity, warns economic analyst Zoran Pavlović. The reason for leaving BiH is not only economic, but also political insecurity: “All this is caused by the dissatisfaction of people, who are looking for some other conditions, normal for life. Here we are in a situation where we have no new investment projects. The government does nothing to make life easier for citizens”.
About 6,000 professional drivers left Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last five years, and 1,400 companies re-registered their activity in one of the countries of the European Union.
Elmedin Konaković, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, discussed the recognition of driver’s licenses from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Germany and dual citizenship with the head of diplomacy Annalena Baerbock and members of the cabinet of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
