Key takeaways:
- Recruitment costs reached €22,136.80 in Spain and €19,065 in Italy.
- The average work-permit process across the countries studied took more than 90 days.
- Licence recognition and Driver CPC requirements remain major barriers to getting non-EU drivers into work.
- The findings helped identify Morocco–Italy as one of the most viable mobility corridors.
The highest estimate in the report is for Spain, where the total cost of recruiting and preparing a non-EU driver was put at €22,136.80. Italy followed at €19,065, while Portugal was estimated at €12,865, Greece at €9,930 and Romania at €8,720.
Germany, Belgium and Poland came in lower, at €7,935, €6,980 and €6,705 respectively.
The figures cover far more than visas and permits. They include costs linked to licensing, training, accommodation and other steps needed before a driver can begin working commercially.
The study warns that affordability can become a serious obstacle, particularly where part of the cost falls on the driver rather than the employer. While many transport companies cover employment-related expenses, workers may still have to meet other costs themselves.
Time is another major barrier. Across the 11 EU destination countries assessed, the average work-permit process took more than 90 days, while residence procedures could take longer still.
For professional drivers, however, immigration paperwork is only one part of the problem. Licence recognition and Driver CPC requirements can delay entry into work even further.
The report says there is no system for recognising professional-driver training completed in third countries under the EU framework. Non-EU drivers therefore still need to complete EU-required training before they can begin working commercially. In some countries, licence conversion is also required before that training can start.
Those rules vary considerably between Member States. Italy was identified in the research as relatively attractive because foreign licences could be used for up to a year, although conversion depended on bilateral agreements with the country of origin.
The study assessed five potential source countries — Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh — against 11 EU destination countries. Of those, Morocco emerged as the strongest potential test case. The researchers pointed to its established driver-training framework, bilateral relationships with EU countries and relatively close alignment with European standards. They concluded that a Morocco–Italy pairing appeared feasible, subject to further investigation.
That work has since moved beyond the feasibility stage. The second phase of the Skilled Driver Mobility for the European Union project is now testing two mobility corridors, from Morocco to Italy and from Egypt to Romania, with drivers receiving technical and language training and support with legal migration and employment.
