News / The widening age gap 'time-bomb' threatening the haulage sector

Global haulage is sitting on a demographic time-bomb, the shortage of drivers set to double by 2029 if efforts are not made to attract more young people into the industry.

Figures from the International Road Transport Union (IRU) point to a severe widening of the age gap, with the number of drivers under 25 having fallen 5.8% over the past year, and the number of older drivers (aged over 55) up 1.6%.

With young people making up just 6.5% of the workforce, the IRU has warned this increasing age gap will add 3.4 million vacancies to an already stretched industry by 2029.

Dachser CEO Burkhard Eling described the situation as “still awful”, noting that in Germany – where just 2.2% of drivers are under 25 – the number of “baby boomers” in trucking has left the market very exposed.

Mr Eling told The Loadstar: “We know what the problem is. And it is not just a temporary thing. It is a problem knocking at our door.”

At issue, is the global reality that many younger people are not looking for a job that keeps them away from their family and friends for long periods, and the industry has struggled to find solutions to address this, despite having options.

Trucking contacts have pushed the idea of breaking trips into legs, allowing different drivers to handle transits through their countries or on shorter distances, but it has yet to catch on. Instead, the focus seems to be very much on automating trucking services – although regulatory hurdles are likely, at least in the short-term, to hobble efforts to approve self-driving vehicles on roads across Europe.

Mr Eling added: “Autonomous trucks, quite honestly they’ll be a long-distance solution – I cannot imagine autonomous vehicles in cities.”

Far from hoping for a technological solution, Tatiana Iachina, senior engagement project manager at the UN-backed IRU, said haulage firms needed to be bolstering the way they recruited the next generation of drivers.

This, she told The Loadstar, included “skills assessments which can support recruitment and onboarding by helping employers match the right candidates to the right roles and tailor induction training to real skill levels”.

“IRU RoadMasters is one such tool for evaluation, but can also help as a strategic resource for building resilient, efficient, and future-ready teams.”