“We want to empower Indian women,” says smiling Claus Normann Hansen, managing director of Danish Baton Transport, at the press conference in India on Wednesday, February 22, where the company and its partners presented the pilot called Trucking for Equality to the public.
The transport company is initially looking for 25 Indian women who want to work as HGV drivers in Europe for their Hungarian branch. If this project is successful, the company will hire up to 800 women in the next five years.
According to the Times of India, the only requirement for the job is to have primary education and some English language skills.
As there are nearly no female lorry drivers in India, having an HGV driving license is not required – training will be provided in India.
Although the pilot is announced to run for six months, the ladies will be offered a two-year contract, which can be extended later. Of course, the applicants have the right to terminate the contract earlier, however, it hasn’t been detailed yet on what conditions the cancellation can be made.
As for the salary, the equivalent of 1.6 lakh Indian rupees, which is approximately approx 1800 euros was announced at the press conference, stressing that this is the same amount a Hungarian lorry driver doing the same job receives.
For the salary mentioned above, the successful applicants will have to work 5 days a week, working 15 hours a day out of which 2×4.5 hours can be spent driving, the Times of India explains.
The women will have to start their work in Hungary without bringing their families with them, but once they are there, they can get a visa and will be able to reunite their families in Hungary.
Hansen told Trans.iNFO that the Hungarian branch was chosen for this pilot because it had already started recruiting truck drivers in India with the help of Bányai & Partners Consulting. During the recruitment phase, a lady without the required driver’s license expressed their wish to join the company, and this gave the idea for the one-of-a-kind pilot to the recruiters.