The U.S. is not the only place struggling with a shortage of truck drivers, one which is forecast to only get worse as the years pass and current drivers retire or quit and fewer young drivers enter the profession.
A neighbor to the north has the same concern, and so do folks down under. Same goes for England, Japan, Germany, Brazil …
The Manitoba Trucking Association’s Terry Shaw told CJOBradio a serious shortage looms in the next decade.
The solution?
Shaw, like his colleagues in the U.S., believes the industry has to do a better job of explaining why it’s a good career choice. He told CJOB:
“We need to do a better job of informing people about what it means to be a truck driver. You’re always going to be employed. I don’t know that any job is recession proof, but trucking is certainly recession resistant.”
The Victoria Age reports on a recent survey that shows its force of truckies (as they are called in Australia) is getting grayer, just like truck drivers in the U.S.
Australia needs truckies to drive its road trains.The Age writes:
“A large-scale survey of the trucking industry has found that it is ageing, overwhelmingly male and on the cusp of a big slump in driver numbers, with one in five working drivers at retirement age.
“The average age of an Australian truck driver is 47, the survey found, up from 43 just two years ago.
“Less than one in five truck drivers in Australia is aged under 30, while women make up just 3 per cent of the workforce.”
And, just like in the U.S. Australia anticipates a shortage of drivers and an increase in the amount of freight needed to be hauled.
Lorry drivers are in short supply in Great Britain.It’s much the same in Great Britain. The organization Skills for Logistics reports that British lorry drivers are, as a group, even older that Australia’s. It reports:
- The average age is 53, 13 percent are over 60 just 2 percent of drivers are under 25 years old.
- There is a public perception that lorry driving is “not traditionally seen as a ‘career of choice’.”
- Changing technology is making more demands on the training of drivers
- The European Union is demanding that drivers have mandatory Certificate for Professional Competence.
Germany is expected to see as many as 250,000 drivers retire in the next 10 to 15 years. There are truck driver shortages in Japan and, Brazil.
