Road transport is going through a period of change and lack of personnel. The companies looking for thousands of drivers in a hard sector and with long absences from home. Even so, it remains a well-paid profession, especially on international routes, which attracts some young people and maintains nostalgia among those who spent their lives behind the wheel.
This is the case of Eusebio Ponce, who traveled across Europe at the wheel of his truck for 40 years. Now, retired, he remembers his work with mixed feelings: pride in what he experienced and fatigue from the effort it required. He defines it as a “hard, sacrificed and slave” job, although he considers that it is still a good option for those seeking economic stability.
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In an interview for NewsWorkthe transporter remembers that when he worked he earned about 1,600 euros a month, an amount that allowed him to pay the mortgage, although always “with the screws a little tight.” He also explains that the economic situation of drivers has improved, pointing out that “today a driver who travels on an international route can earn between 3,000 and 3,800 euros, with all expenses paid.”
Still, he warns, work “remains a slave” and drivers can spend between two and six weeks away from home, in the cold, snow, or roads closed due to strikes or storms. “It’s a slave because they tell you today ‘Come to Germany, to Italy, to England’, and maybe you return after 15 or 20 or 30 or 40 days. But you also arrive at the end of the month with 3,700, 3,800, 3,500 euros and you can face any mortgage you have,” he explains.
Eusebio regrets that, despite good salaries, there is a lack of drivers. He points out that companies “are asking for a lot of drivers, but no one wants to go. I don’t know why.” At 75 years old, however, he assures that “if I were 23 years old again, I would pack my suitcase on the bunk bed and I would make money, especially having a mortgage.”
Life behind the wheel: cold, loneliness and endless kilometers
Eusebio remembers how the days go by on the road. “You go out today, let’s say, at two in the afternoon or three in the afternoon or ten in the morning, and there you take the papers, everything,” he explains. Recognize that it is “hard” work, away from family“It’s not like someone who works here for eight hours and is at home in the afternoon,” he summarizes.
He defines transportation as “slave”, because he spends a lot of time “on the road, stranded and with a lot of slavery. Ice, water, snow, blocked roads, strikes in France, Portugal or Italy.” Sometimes, he says, a snowfall can leave him detained for “two or three days” without being able to move, eating “from what you have in your toolbox.”
Furthermore, he explains that schedules in this sector practically do not exist. “Normally, it was today you go to France, tomorrow to Germany, the other to Valladolid, the other to Barcelona. There were no schedules,” he says. “That ‘you have to unload at Mercadona, Mercamadrid or Mercazaragoza and you’re done’ didn’t exist. Here you left today and maybe you would come back in ten days or three.”
The days, he explains, are marked by the tachograph, which controls driving and rest hours. “You have four and a half hours of driving, three quarters of an hour of rest, another four and a half hours and then nine hours of rest. There they look at your speed, the stops, everything,” he details.
In short, at 75 years old, Eusebio sums it up with the simplicity of someone who has spent half his life behind the wheel: “Transportation is a slave, but nowadays it pays well.”