Geneva, Switzerland: The European road transport sector is facing a 13% increase in driver shortage in 2020, says a report from the IRU.
IRU carried out research amongst small and medium transport and logistics companies in a number of European countries, calculating the commercial freight driver shortage on the continent to rise from 23% in 2019 to 36% in 2020.
According to IRU’s report, Poland and Romania are two of the most heavily affected European countries. In Poland, driver shortage stands at 22% and is expected to jump by 15 points this year. In Romania, the situation is even more critical as the 50% driver shortage recorded in 2019 is foreseen to reach 62% this year.
Poland and Romania see the lowest rates of female drivers in Europe – 2% of the commercial driver workforce. Reasons deterring women from entering the profession include difficult working conditions, a lack of safe and secure parking areas, and long periods spent away from home.
When it comes to young drivers, 11% of the workforce in Poland are younger than 25 years old, while in Romania, the average age of drivers sits at 41 years old. Although these figures are better than the European averages – 7% of European drivers are below 25 years old and the average age of commercial drivers is 45 in Europe, much remains to be done when it comes to bringing the profession closer to the youth.
In Romania, a key cause of the driver shortage is down to high numbers of the population emigrating. Official figures show that in the last 10 years 3.4 million Romanians have left the country.
