Staff shortage

Fire department attracts reinforcements with truck license

Driving and engine driver training is, among other things, a prerequisite for the free C license and for being allowed to drive with blue lights.(Bild: FF Ansfelden)

If you sign up for five years, driving training at the Ansfelden fire department is free of charge.

"Overall, the number of fire department members is very good," explains Markus Voglbauer from the provincial fire department association. "But with 900 fire brigades throughout the province, there may be a shortage of personnel at some stations."

"Candy" for qualification 
In order to ensure the next generation of firefighters, the Ansfelden volunteer fire department is offering a special "treat" in cooperation with the municipality: Anyone who signs up for five years will have the cost of their C license reimbursed during this time. This driving license allows you to drive motor vehicles with a maximum permissible weight of over three and a half tons - almost all fire department vehicles fall into this category.

15 applicants attracted
Depending on the provider and additional offers, the costs are between 1500 and 5000 euros. "These days, many young people can't or don't want to afford a truck license," says Michael Becker, commander of the Ansfelden volunteer fire department. 15 people have taken up this offer since it was introduced in 2017.

(Bild: FF Ansfelden)

Many operations on the highway
"With around 150 deployments a year, many of which are accidents on the highway, it is essential to have enough drivers," explains Mayor Christian Partoll. 
There are currently around 95,000 firefighters in Upper Austria, of which almost 65,000 are active, 12,000 are young firefighters and around 9,000 are women.

Read the commentary by "Krone" editor Constantin Handl:

(Bild: Markus Wenzel / Krone Kreativ)

Better baiting than complaining 
Of course, the free truck license is not entirely altruistic - after all, you need it to drive the heavy fire engines. Having to invest a four-figure sum before joining just to qualify is not particularly tempting.

But it is money well spent when the Ansfelden fire department and municipality tackle the personnel shortage in this way. Many others who are desperately looking for workers could learn a thing or two from this. Perhaps other sectors should also be creative more often in order to provide more incentives than simply complaining