Andorra la VellaCopalse changed a month ago the schedules of the drivers of the public bus lines it has concession. Due to the intensive schedule of working the whole day in a row, split days have been established. According to one of the drivers, “maybe with a cut or two” and for practical purposes the working day has been visibly extended.
The two cuts only take place when there is school transport. It is emphasized that “there are cases where you can go in at six in the morning driving the bus and not finish until seven in the afternoon because there are two cuts of two or three hours in between and in the end you are driving a bus thirteen hours after having started the day”. This, according to the drivers, “increases the risk of accidents due to fatigue”.
The new timetables are causing many problems for drivers. They claim that if they have one or two cuts of two each, for example they don’t have time to go home and back because they spend all the time in the car if they don’t live in the center. “There are drivers who live in Soldeu or El Pas, but just being minimally far away doesn’t make it worth going home.” highlight the consulted sources.
The car and the bus garage
Drivers usually have their car in the Santa Coloma garage where the buses are parked. When they come from a cut, they have to replace the driver at the national bus station. They specify that “there is no free parking and if we leave the car in Santa Coloma we have to go back and forth on foot and therefore already eat up a good part of the time of the cut”.
The sources consulted indicated that the desire of the drivers is for an agreement to be reached and the company to return the intensive schedule. The same sources said that when the company was asked to explain the reason for the change in schedules, the responsibility was transferred to the Government.