The Mine of Slow Demographic Action

2026-07-16

The volume of road transport in the world is growing faster than the number of professional drivers. As a result, the shortage of long-distance truck drivers has become an obstacle to the development of the sector. This is stated in the latest study of the International Road Transport Union IRU.

According to the latest study of the organization, 2.9 million driver vacancies remain unfilled in 18 key markets of the world's transport sector, which on average constitutes 11% of the total number of employees in the sector.

Today, there are 350,000 driver vacancies in the USA and Canada... By 2028, the driver shortage will at least double!!! A similar situation is observed in European countries - in Germany, France and Sweden.

A driver shortage is observed in Georgia. You can often see announcements from various transport companies on social media regarding the employment of drivers. Moreover, a number of companies have their vehicles parked due to the fact that they have not been able to find a driver, and they unanimously note that this problem will worsen in Georgia, as Georgian drivers often leave the country and go abroad to look for work.

The global shortage of drivers is likely to have a more painful impact on the Georgian road transport market.

The most difficult situation is in Europe, where the shortage of truck drivers exceeds 500,000, which is 13% of market demand.

The situation may worsen in the coming years due to the aging of the workforce. According to the IRU, 4 million drivers will retire by 2030, which is 12% of the total global workforce. In Europe alone, the sector is at risk of losing 660,000 professionals due to retirement age, in addition to the 500,000 vacancies that already exist.

The IRU believes that the shortage of drivers can no longer be considered a temporary phenomenon, but is linked to long-term demographic and structural changes.

According to IRU President Umberto De Preto, wage indexation alone is no longer enough to solve the problem. To attract new staff, carriers must improve working conditions, in particular by providing more predictable schedules, increasing the amount of rest time for drivers at home, providing safe parking and modernizing infrastructure.

The IRU has called this process a “delayed demographic minefield” in road transport, which will seriously damage the logistical sustainability and economic stability of countries involved in transport in the near future.

The main task of the IRU is not only to retain existing drivers, but also to attract new ones, especially young ones. The European Union considers one of the ways to solve this problem to be lowering the minimum driving age by governments and subsidizing the costs of obtaining qualifications.

Currently, in the Georgian road transport market, the state provides various documents for obtaining qualifications for drivers involved in international transport, but instead of subsidizing the costs of these documents, Georgian drivers have to pay more and more to obtain various qualification documents.

Source: transcor.ge