Europe Faces a Shortage of Over 600,000 Truck Drivers
Road transportation continues to lead the logistics industry globally. Globally, roads are still the dominant sector for the transfer of goods from one point to another. On a global average, 70% of freight transportation is done by road. The European Union (EU) average is around 75%. This rate is 70% in the US and 60% in the UK. In Turkey, 90% of transportation is done by road. Turkey is followed by Poland with 87%, Romania, Czech Republic and Croatia with 85%. The Netherlands has the lowest road transportation rate in Europe and the road transportation rate hovers around 40%.
In the report “Outlook to 2022 with TIRPORT”, it is stated that according to the data of the International Road Union (IRU), as of 2021, there is a significant need for qualified truck drivers in the world, including European countries and the USA, and vacancies continue to increase. The report estimates that in Germany, Spain, France, Romania, Poland and Denmark alone, the need for drivers exceeded 100,000 last year and that there is a shortage of over 600,000 drivers in Europe as a whole.
European Countries to Provide Easements to Attract Skilled Truck Drivers
Dr. Akın Arslan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tırport, said that European countries provide many facilities, especially residence permits, to attract qualified young truck drivers who speak the language:
“In many European countries, an experienced truck driver earns an average net salary of around 3 thousand Euros. Among drivers with a specialization in private transport, there are those with a net salary of 5,000 euros. A review of Eurostat Statistics and International Road Union (IRU) data shows that, depending on the qualifications and experience of the drivers, there can be differences of up to €2,000 between the lower and upper limits. In countries such as Belgium, Germany and France, a truck driver with a net salary of around 3,000 Euros costs the employer around 6,000-6,500 Euros. In 2023, European countries will provide many facilities, especially residence permits, to attract qualified young truck drivers who speak the language. Skilled truck driving will continue to be as ambitious a profession as engineering in the coming years and will be in high demand from around the world. Especially in the coming years, when the logistics sector is digitized end-to-end with TIRPORT , conventional logistics companies transform into digital forwarders, and end-to-end monitoring and reporting will become more prominent, we expect to see more and more trained truck drivers who are comfortable with technology and sensitive to the environment.”
Sources where the news was published: Turkey News Agency, SME Life, Analysis Newspaper