Estonian driver on road in Wales

Eduard Laats plans to work in Wales for five years

Bus passengers in Pontypridd are being picked up by Estonian drivers but not because they have lost their way.

Bus company Shamrock Travel was forced to recruit drivers from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Maltese after locals no longer wanted to work on the buses.

One of the new recruits was 44-year-old Estonain Eduard Laats, who features on BBC documentary Busman's Holiday.

Laats arrived in Wales a few days before filming started.

As a bus driver in Tallinn, Mr Laats earned about £60 a week.

In Wales he can expect to earn five times that amount, so he intends to stay here for five years.

Laats, who left behind his wife and 10-year-old son, said he will use the money for his son's education and to finish building work on his house.

Clayton Jones denies the bus company are taking advantage of cheap labour

When the new recruits arrive in Wales they are looked after by a welfare officer employed full-time by the bus company.

The welfare officer sorts out all the paper work for the new bus drivers and finds them somewhere to live. They are then trained to drive on the roads.

Most new drivers adjusted to their new life, although 12 have gone back home since May.

Estonians like Laats don't find the weather a problem. Back home he is used to driving in temperatures as low as -30C.

Learning the language, however, has proved more of a struggle.

Clayton Jones, owner of Shamrock Travel, denies the bus company is taking advantage of cheap labour.

Instead he likens the work ethics of the drivers to that of Welsh miners. "These men put their families first," he said.

Most local people welcome their new bus drivers and are sympathetic towards the language problems encountered by the drivers.