Qatar sends back 75 drivers from Tanzania over their failure to handle modern trucks
Qatar has sent back the 75 truck drivers from Tanzania who were taken to Doha to drive heavy duty commercial vehicles after it became apparent that they cannot handle modern machines.
Used to the ancient manual clunkers back home, the Tanzanian drivers were baffled and froze rigid upon being exposed to modern Volvo trucks, with automated transmissions or being controlled from large digital panels on the dashboards resembling an aircraft cockpit.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Mahmoud Thabit Kombo explained that the local drivers had never seen modern trucks and the digitalized control panels in their cabins threw them off the tracks.
Plus, Tanzanian drivers couldn’t handle the global positioning system (GPS) or enter the prompts for the in-built robots that would be guiding them to whichever destinations that they were supposed to take the vehicles.
“Many could not even feed the required information regarding their preferred directions through tapping onto the screen,” the Minister stated.
And this is despite the fact that all 75 drivers that were taken to Qatar had qualified with flying colors at the National Institute of Transportation (NIT) training center in Dar-es-salaam, with additional brush-up courses.
“We are now thinking of ordering a prototype truck from Qatar to be placed for the purpose of training drivers at the National Institute of Transport,” stated the Minister during a Press Conference.
Digital Illiteracy
There are over 800 job openings for truckers in Qatar. Ample opportunities, but only for the drivers who are literate in technology.
Doha has set aside over 300 such vacancies specifically for candidates from Tanzania, but it seems the first batch was a major letdown.
Habibu Awesi Mohamed, the Tanzanian Ambassador to the State of Qatar, and Mr. Khalid Al Rahiya, Government and Employment Relations Manager of Mowasalat – Karwa, had been working to create employment opportunities for Tanzanian drivers in Qatar.
The two officials held meetings to that effect in March 2025 at the Mowasalat – Karwa’s headquarters in Doha, where they discussed the previously promised employment of 100 Tanzanian drivers.
Al Rahiya informed the meeting that Mowasalat – Karwa favoring Tanzania had prioritized between 200 and 350 job opportunities for Tanzanian drivers.
Qatar even planned to send a team to Tanzania in May 2025 to conduct both oral and practical driving tests for the candidates, but it seems the trials were later conducted in Doha.
A roadmap was agreed upon during the meeting, which includes Mowasalat issuing a job demand letter to the Tanzanian Embassy.
Also, the Tanzanian recruitment agencies will coordinate with their counterparts in Qatar to facilitate the process, while Mowasalat was to confirm the travel dates for the recruitment team to Tanzania and make necessary arrangements.
Meanwhile the Tanzanian Embassy was supposed to provide the necessary support to expedite the interview and selection process.
Both Ambassador Awesi and Mr. Al Rahiya reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing the bilateral relationship between Tanzania and Qatar, fostering economic development, and improving the quality of life for citizens in both nations.
The failure of Tanzanian drivers in Qatar raises questions on the country’s education system especially now that the world is moving into Artificial Intelligence and fully digitalized operations.