Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the International Road Transport Union (IRU) is the world road transport organisation with 170 members representing bus, coach, truck and taxi industries across 3.5 million companies in more than 75 countries.
Natalia Corchado is a Strategic Planning and Business Specialist with IRU and holds a degree in Business Administration.
As a function of her role Natalia and her team conduct an annual online survey focusing on the driver shortage being reported by road transport operators from the IRU member network.
Natalia participated at NatRoad’s 2024 annual conference live from Geneva and also provided some exclusive insights in conversation with Prime Mover.
“Our operators were facing a critical driver shortage, but there were no figures to prove that it was a reality, so we carried out the study to obtain statistics which prove this problem exists,” says Natalia.
In addition to assessing the size of the problem, a second objective was to identify the best practices to assist industry in addressing the driver shortage issue.
The scope of study has been widened in 2024 with operators in 21 countries surveyed, including Russia and China plus 13 European countries.
“I’d like to thank NatRoad and its members for making this initiative possible this year for the first time in Australia,” said Natalia, adding that this now provides a benchmark to put Australia into a global context.
On the question of companies claiming ‘severe’ or ‘very severe’ difficulties to fill driver positions due to shortage of drivers, 49 per cent of Australian transport companies said they were, and 70 per cent of European companies were experiencing the same problem.
The number of unfilled truck driver positions in 2024, by company size in terms of employees, showed Australia’s weighted average to be 13 per cent, compared with European companies reporting 16 per cent.
Globally, smaller companies with less than 40 employees showed a higher share of unfilled driver job positions (16 per cent) while larger companies with 200+ employees and having more means to attract drivers with factors such as traineeship programs and better working conditions, were in a better position with just seven per cent unfilled positions.
The survey showed Australia had 180,000 driver positions with 26,000 unfilled. Europe has 3.2 million driver positions with 600,000 unfilled.
The survey found six per cent of Australian truck drivers were female, compared with four per cent in Europe.
“We see the United States as our champion in terms of employing women because in 2023 they had eight per cent female truck drivers,” says Natalia.
“They have put a lot into the parking infrastructure which is always the main issue that women drivers are reporting — security and clean rest rooms where they can take a shower, go to toilet and also feel secure in parking areas. This was the main area that women drivers considered needed to be improved in order to attract more drivers.”
The age of current truck drivers also raises some immediate and longer-term concerns. The truck driver population in Australia has an average age of 49 years, with 47 per cent 55 years or older which translates to many of them retiring during the next 10 to 12 years. In Europe, the average age is 47 years, with 40 per cent older than 55 years.
“There’s a very low share of five per cent of young drivers below 25 years,” says Natalia. “Drivers close to retirement will retire and we don’t have enough young new drivers coming in to replace them. We could think that this is due to the general ageing of the population but given the benchmarks the truck driver population is very much older than the general labour force where, in the case of Australia, only 19 per cent are above 55 years and 15 per cent are below 25. The situation in Europe is a bit better with slightly less older drivers and slightly more young drivers. Still, a big proportion of drivers are close to retirement in the coming years and we need drivers to replace them.”
In terms of a forecast for the coming years the survey asked operators what they were expecting in terms of unfilled driver positions for the next year and 50 per cent said they were expecting the ‘same’ level of difficulties, while close to 40 per cent expect ‘more’ difficulties to fill truck driver positions in 2025.
“The truck driving profession is attracting less young people than the average of other professions,” says Natalia.
“We must do something to make it more attractive to not only fill this current gap, but the gap will get bigger in the coming years. We also need to take into account the demand for road transportation will increase and the gap will get bigger unless we take action to make the profession attractive for women and young people, or we significantly increase driver productivity.”
Driver productivity is an area where Australia has an advantage due to the widespread use of multiple combinations such as B-doubles, A-doubles and roadtrains where one driver can move much larger loads than in Europe or North America.
Driver retention is also a critical factor facing the industry and it is acknowledged it is much easier to retain existing drivers than it is to attract new ones.
Natalia commends a European transport operator which was successful in reducing driver turnover by implementing a program whereby drivers were able to give feedback anonymously when they were surveyed on different topics.
“They were able to give feedback to their managers on their working conditions, and management could identify actions to take to answer those concerns they were raising. This is not always possible of course, but they were able to consider the needs of the driver at different points of their career, such as the time when a driver has no family responsibilities and prefers to do more long haul, get better pay and be willing to spend more time away from home,” she explains.
“There would be other periods in their career when they prefer to be more at home, doing more regional and local transport, even if pay is lower.”
This situation can also allow for movements from one position to another, not only in terms of driving, but some of the larger operations provide the flexibility for staff to move from warehousing positions to driver positions and vice versa.
“Road transport is the backbone of our economy,” says Natalia.
“All businesses require road transport especially construction and retail. All of the economy is impacted if we don’t have enough drivers to transport the first and last leg of every journey. The survey we did in Europe last year showed there were more than 50 per cent of companies stating they had no capacity to expand their business due to the driver shortage.”
