Titsa is looking for bus drivers

The advertisement that enlivens the route on the inter-island buses invites women to apply for the selection processes to “join our great family” and to feel the “pride of being part of an essential public service.”

Gender gap. The intention of the initiative is to cover the gender gap that exists in the company. Thus, as of January 31, 2023, Titsa’s active workforce included 1,356 driver-receivers. Of these, 162, 11.95%, were women and an overwhelming 88.05%, 1,194, men. In the total, which includes other types of workers from mechanics to clerks, the percentage of them is a little higher. The 1,748 members are 212 women (12.13%) and 1,536 men (87.87%).

More drivers. Enrique Arriaga is Councilor for Mobility of the Cabildo de Tenerife and president of Titsa. He encourages women to join a process that has been underway since before the gratuity. He recalls in this sense that “in 2019 we already prepared a pool of drivers and in 2022 56 were incorporated into two groups, the last one last January.” He adds that “this year we already have 32 in training and another 26 and 32 will be incorporated, the maximum that this training period allows.” At the end of 2023 the workforce will have “about 110 more drivers” with “90 prepared in a few months.” He acknowledges the “lack of troops throughout the Island,” even more so with the exponential increase in demand that free service has brought. But also because “you have to cover the casualties or retirements of every year,” explains Arriaga. It should be remembered that in the first month of validity of the new measure, Titsa (buses) and Metrotenerife (trams) went from 70,576 frequent users –December 2022– to 168,306 in January 2023. This means that since the beginning of the free number of monthly passes sold has multiplied by 2.4. The Titsa website contains the conditions to participate in the selection processes. Have the corresponding license, pass a psychotechnical test and specific training, both driving and theoretical.

Little demand yet. Daniel Mesa is the director of the Opovictor specialized academy, located on Buenventura Bonnet street, in the vicinity of Parque de las Indias in Santa Cruz. He acknowledges that “the specific demand to enter Titsa was low last year but I consider that it is due to the ignorance of the general public.” They have prepared some opponents for positions such as mechanics and especially with regard to the psychotechnical test. He hopes that when these new calls come out, more people will be encouraged. And among them, specifically women.

The hardest moment. In a prominent area of ​​the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Transport Interchange there is a plaque on which the following text can be read: «To the memory of Isabel Canino Rivero, worker of Titsa. Your memory encourages us to continue fighting to eradicate sexist violence». It is a heartfelt tribute to the one who was a bus driver for 8 years, murdered when she was 37, at the hands of her sentimental partner Salvador Morales, also a driver for the Tenerife transport company. It happened on March 21, 2009, although her body was found 70 days later. The hardest and most traumatic moment in recent decades for women –and men– in public companies. They stopped your life, we drive your memory was the motto of friends, colleagues and family in the tribute that they paid to her ten years after her death. Isabel Canino, woman and driver, always in the memory.