Edsel Benson Cárdenas is 53 years old and was born in the Peruvian city of Arequipa. Allí worked for more than three decades as a bus driver. Since June 2024, he has been driving a bus, but on the other side of the Atlantic. Cárdenas is one of decades of Peruvian drivers who drive buses in Catalonia. “I am not much less the first. Some comrades, in Peru, first contacted the Monbus company and now we are working in different regions of Spain looking for a better future”, summarizes Cárdenas. Catalonia and Galicia are among the regions that attract the most foreign drivers.
The number of travelers using bus transport in Spain will only increase, especially in places where the rail network is in demand, such as Catalonia. The Catalan Federation of Automobile Passenger Transport Companies (FECAV) maintains its statistics that in 2001 the intercity public transport service by road recorded 34 million passengers. In 2019, historic figures exceeded 84 million. In 2023, once the covid crisis was overcome, the record was surpassed, reaching 92 million users. These numbers cannot increase further.
A spokesperson for the Monbus company explains to EL PAÍS that all Spanish bus companies have found among Peruvian drivers the only solution to prevent vehicles from being stopped due to lack of drivers at the point of demand. From 2022, when the world recovered from the pandemic, bus companies started to struggle, as it was very difficult to find drivers. Suddenly, they discovered: “There is no generational succession. It is no longer as normal to have the truck and bus ticket as before. Many things have been lost in military service and the culture of its functioning has been lost”, assures the Monbus company. “Companies like ours do not know where to find drivers. We have agreements with the Zona F driving school and we grant bonuses to certain people for obtaining the car, but it is not enough,” says the company spokesperson.
The lack of professional drivers is such that at the end of last November, the Ministry of Transport announced the opening of the Reconduce Plan which provides for the direct granting of a subsidy of up to 3,000 euros for people who enroll in a driving school to obtain the C (truck) and D (car) license. The overall estimate that the ministry will allocate to these subsidies is 500,000 euros. Following this announcement, the Asociación Profesional de Empresas Formadoras en Logística, Transporte y Seguridad Vial denounced that this aid was very short and only served to help 200 candidates. According to road transport organizations, there are more than 30,000 vacancies for truck drivers and 5,000 for bus drivers in Spain.
“In 2022 we confirmed that many truck companies were hiring Peruvian drivers with a lot of experience. We carried out the first surveys and confirmed that they wanted to come to Spain to improve their living conditions,” explains Monbus. The company, like other transportation companies, has developed several original contracting protocols. There are human resources professionals who carry out a selection process in Peru with interviews and driving tests. Once the candidates are selected, the exchange process and card approval process begins. “Each Peruvian driver who arrives in Spain is accommodated under the same conditions as the rest of the company’s drivers. In addition, we make life easier during the first months. We have several floors where four or five drivers live,” assures Monbus. The other avenue of hiring is what they call “referenced drivers”. That is, Peruvian drivers who are friends or acquaintances of the drivers who work in Spain and who serve as a bridge to select these workers.
Cristian Luis Tixe is 52 years old, he is originally from Lima and has been working in Spain since March 2024. “In my country, I dedicated myself to the mining sector by operating heavy machines,” assures Tixe. He has three children, the youngest is 20 years old and managed to bring him to Vigo this fall to study engineering. “I work in Galicia and I am very happy to wait for my wife to arrive soon,” says Tixe. “The decision to come to Spain was made by my children and my family. In Galicia I have 80% of the routes from Lugo, Orense and Coruña. In addition, it also offers services to Valencia. Now there are so many of us here that there is a shortage of drivers in Peru… Life here is an opportunity”, he concludes.
Monbus, in Catalonia, has 70 Peruvian drivers and 40 others who provide services in Galicia. “Once we arrive in Spain, we follow training courses, some very basic like learning GPS. They are even more interesting on long-distance journeys, where it is most difficult for us to find drivers but, sometimes, they are the best paid,” assures the bus company.
Edsel Benson Cárdenas remembers June 6, 2024 as it ends when she started another life. “After going through the whole process, I made the decision to leave my family and come and work in Catalonia,” he recalls. Behind him are his wife and three minor children (four, 10 and 14 years old) and three adults (20, 28 and 33 years old). “When I got to live in a floor where Monbus was located in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. A few months ago I went alone to an apartment in Prat de Llobregat. I wanted to reunite my family and one of my requirements was to have a place to live,” said Cárdenas.
This 53-year-old Peruvian drove the bus to the airport, carried out alternative road services contracted by Renfe and international services to France. “Now I go to the streets and meet friends who work with me at Transportes Cruz del Sur in Peru. The work in Spain is different. Here, the hours are respected. In Peru, I earn 3,000 or 3,500 soles (between 760 and 890 euros) and here, I earn between 2,000 and 2,500 euros. A lot of money here, it’s only three,” he emphasizes. “My desire is to be with my family. Here, it’s the security and the future of my children,” he confides.
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