Today, on 17 September, a pilot project for free training of female bus drivers was presented in Lviv. The main goal is to train women to drive buses and employ them at municipal transport companies. Participants are currently being registered, and training will begin in October.
The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine together with the UN Women.
According to Serhii Derkach, Deputy Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine, the project covers 7 oblasts in total – Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Chernihiv and Mykolaiv. The project partners in the cities are municipal transport companies.
“Our key task is to provide an opportunity to employ women in the most vulnerable regions, where there is a really great need for drivers. Today, Lviv region alone needs more than 1,000 drivers. And this is the largest number of employees needed in a particular region,” explained Serhii Derkach.
In total, 100 women are to be trained and employed as part of the pilot project. Registration for training is open and will last until 1 October at https://www.she-drives.com.ua/. Women who want to study and work on bus routes will be selected on a competitive basis.
Participants can be women aged 21 to 65 who live in the specified regions, have a driving licence (categories B/C/CE or D1), have more than 3 years of driving experience, seek to expand their professional opportunities and want to be employed as a bus driver. “There are a number of criteria by which we will assess the extent to which a particular region needs female drivers and who is in greatest need of such employment today. These include IDP status, or if a woman is the wife of a defender. You can register until 1 October, after which the training will begin. It is unique. It’s not just about training in driving schools for the appropriate category with a driver’s licence. With the help of experts, we will also teach them other skills. We are talking about additional training in safety, psychology, and human resources. Also, some women will be able to undergo special training in accordance with the international certification of a professional driver and obtain an international licence,” said Derkach.
In Lviv, the project partner is the municipal ATP-1. Today, there are about 100 vacancies for drivers.
“This week we are hosting the Urban Mobility Forum, and we are discussing in detail with representatives of other cities the issues faced by communities, in particular, municipal carriers, and we see that this problem is common to the whole of Ukraine. All of our drivers are now men, some of whom are liable for military service. And the law allows us to book only 50% of those liable for military service. Therefore, some drivers are still called up for military service. So we are experiencing an acute shortage of drivers for both private and public transport. So training women public transport drivers is a good initiative that will allow us to increase the number of drivers. And this, in turn, will improve the quality of transportation in the city, in particular with regard to evening flights, and generally increase the coefficient of transport presence on routes,” said Oleh Zabarylo, director of the Department of Urban Mobility and Street Infrastructure at Lviv City Hall.
The official noted that after the introduction of the e-ticket in Lviv, the company will be able to pay drivers competitive wages.
“After the launch of the e-ticket, over the past 9 months, we have been able to increase the salary of ATP-1 by 60%. Accordingly, the company has the resources to pay a good salary to its competitors and female drivers. Today, a driver’s salary is about UAH 45 thousand. This is an official salary, including all tax payments and accruals. It provides seniority and social guarantees,” said Oleg Zabarylo.
Serhiy Klymchuk, head of the LC ATP-1, said that drivers receive an average of UAH 30,000. “For high-quality and conscientious work, you can get up to UAH 40 thousand. Previously, our drivers used to move to regional routes or international transport. After the salary increase, drivers came to us, although there are still not enough of them. Because of this, we cannot increase the number of vehicles on certain routes, add morning or evening services,” said Klymchuk.
Lvivelectrotrans currently lacks about 80 tram and trolleybus drivers.