Bus driving jobs should be opened up to foreign nationals to help address a labor shortage, transportation companies and city officials said yesterday, adding that the Taipei region alone has more than 1,200 unfilled job openings.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications should assess the situation and draft new regulations to address the issue, they said.
“We agree with the proposal and have sent documents to the ministry, urging it to evaluate the conditions and open up bus driving jobs to foreigners by putting it in the ‘skilled worker’ category,” Taipei Public Transportation Office chief secretary Yang Ching-ting (楊靜婷) said.
Photo: CNA
Taipei needs another 710 bus drivers, New Taipei City 500 and Taoyuan 250, Yang said, adding that the six special municipalities combined have a shortage of more than 2,000 bus drivers.
Taoyuan Mayor Simon Chang (張善政) on Wednesday said that the city is facing a severe shortage.
“The ministry must help by amending the regulations,” Chang said.
Taiwan can learn from Japan, which allows foreigners to drive buses, many of them through a relaxed immigration rule for “skilled workers” that allows them to obtain residency, he said.
The Regulations for Automobile Transportation Operators (汽車運輸業管理規則) stipulate that drivers of city, intercity and tourist buses must have Taiwanese IDs.
Capital Bus Co general manager Lee Chien-wen (李建文) said he and operators support the proposed change and are willing to train people who want to work.
The job requires a professional passenger vehicle driver’s license.
The company would provide Mandarin classes for foreign drivers so they can talk to passengers, and read instructions and road maps, Lee said.
There are many international students in Taiwan and “if they are willing to work for our company, we would provide all the training they need to pass the Chinese as a Foreign Language test and obtain the professional driver’s license,” he said.
Among the incentives is the chance to gain permanent residency, although college graduates might be seeking higher salaries in office jobs and the technical sector, he said.
However, foreign students from countries with lower wages might be interested, he added.
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