According to the Association of Central German Bus Companies, bus trips are also becoming increasingly interesting for younger people.

“Customers are changing.

Bus trips are no longer the typical 60+ offer,” says the association’s managing director, Tilman Wagenknecht.

In addition to organized holiday trips, individual travel concepts are increasingly in demand, for example for private groups of friends, sports clubs or company trips.

The bus is also sometimes preferred to the plane by younger customers for reasons of climate protection.

In addition, the long-distance buses that connect cities have changed the image of the bus.

So far, so good - if it weren't for the acute shortage of bus drivers.

Industry complains about high barriers to entry

According to the state association of Bavarian bus companies, there is a shortage of around 2,000 bus drivers in Bavaria alone.

Since more and more drivers were retiring and there was a lack of young people, there was a risk of individual journeys being canceled, bus routes being cut and timetables being thinned out. Corona threatened even more bottlenecks in winter.

The lack of drivers is having an impact on local public transport at both municipal and private companies.

Bus trips for students are currently the top priority and will be brought forward where necessary.

The companies were looking for new staff at full speed.

Politicians must remove barriers to entry, for example include professional driver qualifications in driver training and thus reduce training costs.

Is help coming from other countries?

According to the Federal Association of German Bus Companies, there is currently a shortage of more than 5,000 bus drivers nationwide.

The planned turnaround in traffic will increase this shortage to around 76,000 by 2030.

Buses that are used in rail replacement services are not included in this number.

There are problems in all federal states.

In Hesse, for example, around 800 drivers are currently missing, according to the State Association of Hessian Bus Companies.

"Almost 80 percent of companies no longer have enough drivers to be able to serve customer demand and use growth impulses beyond the routes in regular and school bus services," it says.

Although bus tourism is picking up again, many companies lack drivers for additional offers.

A problem in attracting young employees is the high number of compulsory hours, which makes the training long and expensive.

A driver's license for professional drivers costs around 10,000 euros.

The association called for the financial hurdles for starting a career to be lowered.

In addition, driving licenses and qualifications of non-EU citizens should be recognized more quickly, for example bus drivers from Ukraine.