Spain has not approved a reduced retirement age or final pension coefficients for professional truck and bus drivers. The proposal remains under administrative review, and no new entitlement has taken effect. The application, submitted in October 2025, seeks special retirement treatment for professional drivers in freight and passenger transport, including employees and self-employed operators.
Unions CCOO and UGT joined major road-transport employer organizations, including FENADISMER and CETM, in backing the request. This is a joint labor-and-industry application, not a measure already adopted by the government. CCOO has said the basic obstacle is no longer preparing technical studies, but the failure to convene the evaluation commission.
Health Risks and Road Safety
The organizations argue that the demands and occupational exposure associated with professional road transport warrant special retirement rules. The proposal is being considered under the structure for occupations that can demonstrate exceptional hardship or dangerous, unhealthy working conditions. Assessing the application is separate from the broader occupational-health concerns raised by the sector.
The procedure does not mean the government has granted early retirement to a particular age group. Nor does it establish a new retirement age for drivers born between 1961 and 1965. The proposed reform still depends on completing the administrative evaluation and making a subsequent regulatory decision.
How the Proposal Would Work
The request concerns age-reducing coefficients applied to the ordinary retirement age, not ordinary voluntary early retirement with its standard pension reductions. If approved, the coefficients would allow qualifying occupational service to reduce the age at which a driver could retire. The structure would also require an additional contribution to finance earlier retirement, with the rate and detailed conditions to be determined through the regulatory process.
Real Decreto 402/2025 sets out the evaluation procedure for applications seeking reduced retirement ages based on objectively demonstrated occupational hardship or dangerous, unhealthy conditions. The Comisión de Evaluación, operating under the Dirección General de Ordenación de la Seguridad Social, must complete its assessment before the process can advance to a final regulatory stage. No coefficient, qualifying number of years behind the wheel, pension calculation or implementation date has been established for professional drivers.
Implementation Status
The evaluation commission’s conclusions are still pending, leaving the application procedurally unresolved. Interempresas described the file as stalled while awaiting the commission’s review, and reported that political developments, including the early-election timetable, could delay its progress. Any eventual coefficients would require a subsequent royal decree. Until then, drivers cannot claim a new retirement age under this proposal.
The application’s outcome will determine whether professional road transport qualifies for a distinct retirement mechanism and what conditions would apply. For now, the proposal remains under consideration, not an approved reform available to drivers aged 60 and above or to a specified birth cohort.
Context and Significance
The joint application reflects a shared effort by unions and transport-sector employers to secure special retirement treatment for professional drivers. It covers freight and passenger transport and could include salaried and self-employed drivers. The regulatory process requires technical evidence and commission review, followed by a government decision; submitting an application alone creates no entitlement.
The proposal is distinct from arrangements for other occupations that may qualify for reduced retirement ages. Its eventual effect on road safety, working lives and pension contributions will depend on the commission’s conclusions and the terms of any decree adopted afterward.
