More deaths within the sector with extra sinisterity in Spain: “Many leave the truck out of fear” | Economy | EUROtoday

Roberto Pérez (51 years outdated) remembers the best scare he has suffered on the wheel of a truck: “I wore the wheels made, totally smooth, and they burst those on the back platform. He made the scissors me [el giro accidental de la cabina en un camión articulado] And not to sweep those of the other lane, I hit a flying. I went to the gutter, against a river. I remember that I was full of blood and that I had to go out the window, the door of Julián Fernández, 48, also made a very dangerous scissors: “It happened to me habitual, that the vehicle is not to circulate but the businessman does not matter but does not matter. The wheels had to be changed, they did not do it, I lost traction in a curve and hardly I tell. On another occasion, for the pressure and haste that always impose you, I drove more than the account at night and slept at the wheel. I stamped and had to get the firefighters. ”

They have survived their accidents, however they know companions who misplaced their lives on the highway. “Many people leave the truck for fear of suffering an accident,” says Fernández, an thought during which J. Méndez (45 years) deepens: “It happens to me, no doubt. Before I start I need to breathe deep, raise awareness of what is coming. I tell myself Come on, let’s go to the junglepraying so that a brake does not make the load go forward. It is a terrible stress. “” I know people who have taken fear, but it doesn’t leave it because, in the end, you don’t know how to do anything else. You are still by inertia, ”adds Pérez.

These three men are employed in the sector that registered the most labor deaths in 2024 in Spain: according to the provisional data of the Ministry of Labor, 138 employees in transport and storage died during their workday. There are three deaths more than in construction (135) and almost half a hundred more than in the third, the manufacturing industry (94). The data are also terrible in relation to the employees of the sector: the incidence per 100,000 employed is 12.6 in transport, the second highest record, only behind the extractive industry (27.7, with six deaths). A sample of that very high danger was the recent accident in Degaña (Asturias), in which five people died.

When disaggregated by the branches in which the section transport and storage is divided, it is observed that most deaths occur in which they use truckers, land transport (113, 84% of the total).

The main employer of the sector is the Spanish Confederation of Transportation of Goods, whose general secretary is José María Quijano. “If you evaluate the deaths with the quantity of people that work within the sector, the figures are ridiculous. A useless man is a useless man and we now have to do every part potential in order that this doesn’t occur, however we should ponder all of the elements. It is a lifestyle for which it’s always on the highway, the place our staff are concerned in accidents with which they don’t have to do,” reflects the employer chief. Defends that “in all sectors there are useless” and that “zero threat doesn’t exist in any work.”

Quijano alludes to another report to maintain that the situation improves in recent years. Instead of the work data, which analyze the deaths until 2024, it refers to those of the General Directorate of Traffic, a situation photo until 2023. That year 53 transporters died behind the wheel of a truck (they were 70 in 2022) and 52 at the controls of a van (before the 79 of the previous year). The work data collected a worsening of deaths in the same period (from 118 to 123), in which it deepened in 2024 (138, 15 more). If a clear improvement is observed if you look further back and the deaths are related to the total number of employees: a decade ago the incidence of deaths (13,62 per 100,000 employees) was greater than now (12,6).

“We have superior,” says Quijano, before listing his arguments: “Technology ensures growing safety. The new fashions incorporate improvements which have vastly improved the security of autos, which mitigates the opportunity of sure accidents that occurred extra. On the opposite hand, on the degree of coaching, the calls for are vital: a certificates {of professional} aptitude is required that should be renewed each time, in order that they replace their data. which establishes very clearly the remaining occasions, which all drivers should meet. ”

It is a really totally different studying from Agustín López, head of occupational well being of the state sector of CC OO. Believe that the rise of commerce on-line and the “immediacy with which you want everything today” have devalued the situations of the carriers: “We are subject to too much hurry. It is something that the users themselves demand, who seek absolute immediacy, who want everything for yesterday. This has an impact on the worker’s performance: the employer presses more and this translates into accidents.” López says that this enterprise demand exceeds the rules imposed by breaks: “They lead staff to work on the regulatory rest times.”

López considers that this new sector situation has led to a value warfare between firms, to a downward competitors that has staff as victims. It is an opinion just like that of the Federal Secretary of Roads of UGT, Diego Buenestado: “To win a hard on road transport you have to go to productivity, and that ends up leading many not to rest as it should, not to use the tachograph properly [herramienta que mide el tiempo de circulación]. Many cast workers online They charge for deliveries, very badly paid, so they are in a hurry. I have been in this profession for 20 years and I see it more devalued than ever. ”He factors out that the Uberization of transport, which is affecting different sectors akin to psychology or journalism, “puts lives at risk.”

“There are many freelancers who never stop, that swallow with everything and are fucking the sector,” laments Méndez. “You complain about any problem that the truck is giving you and they tell you pull, throw like this”, A degree of demand that in keeping with this 45 -year -old Madrid implies a excessive diploma of“ anxiety ”. to throw And do extra in much less time, Domo identified the UGT consultant, there are those that cheat with the tachograph. “It is more difficult to do it than before, since it is now digital, but there are people who keep doing it. There are many tricks,” says Pérez.

The rules require {that a} service relaxation, like afternoon, each 4 and a half hours, with a break of not less than 45 minutes. And can drive a most of 9 hours a day. “The rest times are respected in our sector. Irregularities are residual. There is a high degree of inspection,” contrasts the secretary basic of CETM.

Diseases and tough conciliation

In addition to the accident price, there are different vital sticks within the lives of carriers, particularly amongst those that make nice excursions. “It’s not like going to an office from 7.00 to 15.00. You sleep in a bunk, with fair comforts, you eat badly, which affects your physical state, you don’t know what time you will get home …”, Licks José Martín, 47 -year -old Valencian service. These situations, additionally the Valencian Fernández believes, have an effect on private conciliation: “It is void, it is very difficult to endure this. My wife continues with me, but many others have told her husband that in order not to have him at home it is better to leave him. Divorcies are the order of the day.”

To this are added consubstantial ailments to this exercise, derived from spending so many hours behind the wheel. “Stress, for feeling that you are always late and the constant alert state makes you dust. Then there is the damage to the cervical, the lumbar, the joints in general. In the end the shock absorber is you,” displays José Antonio García, bus driver in Valencia. He suffers notably on the knees. “We all hurt something,” he says at 55. “I suffer from sleep apnea. Without pills I can’t sleep,” provides Fernández.

And, given this succession of issues, the salaries of the sector don’t even tied with the typical of the economic system. According to the final knowledge of the Active Population Survey (of 2023), in transport and storage a mean of two,179 euros gross per thirty days is charged, in comparison with 2,273 of the set of the sectors. “I charge about 1,600 euros in 12 payments, entering to work at 14.00 and ending at one in the morning if I am lucky. You do not charge neither seniority, nor nightly, nor anything. The conditions are not good,” laments Madrid’s Pérez.

This cocktail (excessive accidents, tough conciliation, salaries beneath common, ailments related to exercise, increasingly more strain …) is the one which, within the opinion of the unions, results in the scarcity of labor suffered by the sector. Quijano, the voice of CETM, believes that this lack of staff “that affects many other sectors” is an “endemic evil” with one other rationalization: “The ways of seeing the life of the new generations have changed, it is complex to find young people who want to enter our sector.” He considers that they’re taking steps in that line, such because the entry of ladies within the sector (there are solely 14% of the associates by land transport): “There are Nordic countries that are successful with it.” The sector estimates that 20,000 extra skilled drivers will want within the subsequent 5 years.

Aging

The unattractive factor that the sector is to the brand new generations is getting older the templates, with a mean age round 51 years, in keeping with CETM. That getting older, in keeping with unions, is one other issue that’s selling accidents. “Although over time experiences, reflexes and resistance are not the same with 55 years as with 35. And the people who work on the road are increasing,” says the UGT consultant. “It is not normal for people to work at such an advanced age on the road. They suffer cardiovascular problems, stress, difficulty sleeping, exposure to dangerous substances, at high temperatures …”, provides that of CC OO.

To face this example, these two unions, CETM and Confebus (the buse employer) have agreed to collectively declare the lowering coefficients within the sector, for which these staff may entry the retirement earlier than. Social Security has introduced that it’s going to launch the brand new process in April, during which the beneficiary professions might be chosen primarily based on the variety of labor casualties, their length or accidents within the sector, amongst different elements.

“I hope they give us the early retirement. I do not see myself with 60 years driving the truck. I look worse, that I am dusty. My father was also a truck driver already had to leave it, so he had a very bad pension left,” says Madrid’s Pérez at 51 years outdated, who ends with a mirrored image just like that of the Valencian Fernández: Ictus, a cardiac arrest, and that the accident doesn’t have an effect on me alone, that takes me two or three forward.