The profession of driving is facing an increasing threat. The number of professional drivers is decreasing – and is expected to continue to drop drastically in the coming years.

The International Road Transport Union (IRU) published a report on the driving profession at the end of 2022.

The report showed that the demand for professional drivers increased by 44 percent from January to September last year among the six countries included in the study, and it predicts that the situation will worsen in the future.

The six countries studied are Denmark, Romania, Poland, Spain, Germany, and France. Together, they constitute two-thirds of Europe's total road freight sector, making them a solid basis for evaluating the sector as a whole.

A Valued Profession at a Crossroads

The study concludes that there are currently between 380,000 and 425,000 vacant truck driver positions in Europe. However, the shortage of professional drivers is not a new or unknown phenomenon.

Already in 2018, FriFagbevegelse highlighted that professional drivers were an endangered species, as a shortage of drivers on Norwegian roads began to emerge – and the numbers were clear. In the two-year period from 2016-2018, there were 4,000 fewer Norwegian trailer drivers.

And the situation has not improved since 2018 – quite the contrary.

The IRU's report indicates that the situation has moved in the wrong direction since then and predicts it will continue to deteriorate. If things go as feared, only half of the required workforce will be available in three years.

"If the situation continues, about half of the total truck driver positions will be vacant by 2026. Such a significant shortage will have huge short-term consequences for the entire logistics industry and the economy of society in general." – IRU

The number of driver jobs that will remain vacant if the forecasts are accurate will be over one million. At the same time, there is a steadily increasing need for goods to be transported.

In 2018, heavy vehicles transported a total of 270 million tons of goods on Norwegian roads. Public forecasts claim that the amount will have doubled in just over 20 years.

The increasing volume of goods to be transported could become problematic if the number of available drivers continues to decline.

Many Drivers Are Approaching Retirement

So why is it that we are seeing a continually decreasing number of truck drivers?

Part of the explanation is that, in line with societal development, more people are striving for a university education, thereby choosing away from a potential career in transportation.

Fewer wishing to enter the profession, plus a large portion of professional drivers nearing retirement age, creates problems. The IRU's survey concludes that over a third of today's truck drivers are over 55 years old, leading to the industry being referred to by some as an "old man's industry."

The Road Transport Union further concludes that the number of drivers retiring by 2026 is significantly higher than the number entering the profession. Statistics show that only seven percent of today's professional drivers are under 25 years old.

Several companies have taken steps to actively increase recruitment after the Norges Lastebileier-Forbund (NLF) identified a need for 2,500 new drivers every year until 2030.

The Posten group offers financing for driving licenses and guarantees permanent jobs in a "major offensive to recruit more professional drivers," and the NLF's own "Follow the dream, not the stream" campaign is among the initiatives that have been launched.

Information Is Being Lost As We Speak

The generational shift poses several problems. Not only is there a loss of labor, but valuable knowledge and information are lost when over a third of the employees are to be replaced within just over ten years.

So how can the colossal challenge facing the transport industry be solved?

Instead of speculating on how the problem can be solved globally, we will now look more closely at how your company can be better equipped to maintain efficiency through the announced crisis.

As drivers' availability becomes scarcer, the need for efficient route planning and optimization becomes even more important. With a route planner like Zendera, resources can be used in a far more efficient manner.

With a dynamic route planner, companies are also better positioned to handle unforeseen or unwanted events, such as illness, overtime, qualifications, etc.

The information gap can also be more easily bridged, with the function allowing drivers to write notes and tips about delivery locations, contacts, and any other potential issues directly in the app. The next driver will then automatically receive the message the next time they are to deliver.

There is little that can be done to prevent the driver shortage that will occur in the coming years. Steps can and should be taken to prevent it from becoming a permanent problem, but in the meantime, companies will benefit from taking steps to be better prepared to handle it.

Would you like to know more about how Zendera's features can help you and your company?

Contact us for a chat!