A leading transport service in Lithuania plans to recruit 600 truck drivers for its trans-Europe services and sought Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena’s intervention for speedy training process for selected drivers.

This request was made by Dana Janerikaite, Senior Director of Manvesta in Lithuania who called on Prime Minister Gunawardena at the Temple Trees on February 13. She said the company plans to recruit 600 truck drivers but could select only 109 persons with good driving skills and basic English knowledge.

“We pay a monthly salary of SL Rs one million to work in our trans-Europe truck services. We have contracts for transport of luxurious vehicles including Mercedes Benz, Tesla etc. and food and other goods to over 500 clients. We need good drivers and I prefer to recruit from Sri Lanka because it is easy to teach basic skills to literate persons,” she said.

The Prime Minister said the company could use the driving training facilities available at CTB Driving School and other training centers to speed up the process. He said he would take up the issue with the labour Minister and the Foreign Employment Bureau to establish a data bank on applicants for driver employment.

Local recruitment agency, Fortuna’s Managing Director Vimal Perera said the Manvesta’s training manager used the trucks available at Port of Colombo to test the driver skills and recruited more than 100 out of 300 applicants. “We urge the government to provide left hand drive trucks for these tests,” he said.

Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanayake, Manvesta’s Head of Training, Aussie Isganaitis and Fortuna’s Director Sussie Perera also attended the meeting.