Girteka Transport says the disruption to supply chains is causing severe consequences that hurts the transport industry
Logistics company Girteka Transport says the current global driver and skilled worker shortage is increasing costs in the transport industry.
Girteka says the prolonged issue of the general lack of workforce in the logistic sector came to the wider public attentiononly at the end of the last year, when the Brexit-related hurdles presented an extremely unattractive optionfor foreign driverswho were considering returning working tothe UK from mainland Europe.Fuel shortage at the refilling stations, closed shops, and undelivered holiday parcels was not something that both the major media outlets as well as ordinary citizens on both sides of the Channel could easily ignore.
“Prices are about to increase even further,” CEO of Girteka Transport Mindaugas Paulauskas says.
“As we are still witnessing the rise of inflation, which is affecting all the sectors, general predictions, regarding the economic situation, unfortunately, cannot let us suggest any stabilization of costs in the nearest future.
“According to our calculations, we forecast a 30 per cent increase in a year from now.“
Published at the end of June, an International Road Transport Union (IRU) annual driver shortage survey shows unfilled commercial driver positions continue to increase at unprecedently frightening rates virtually in every region of the world.
Surveying more than 1,500 commercial road transport operators in 25 countries in the Americas, Asia, and Europe, IRU found that truck driver shortages increased in all regions in 2021 – except Eurasia.
Yet, in Europe, they jumped by 42 per cent from 2020 to 2021, with open unfilled driver positions reaching 71,000 in Romania, 80,000 in both Poland and Germany, and 100,000 in the UK.
Girteka says the prospects are expected to grow even darker–with geopolitical tensions and economicalinstability put aside, another critical concern is the insurmountableissue of demographics.
According to the latest data from ICU, drivers under the age of 25 were still a minority, at 6 or 7 per cent among all the truck drivers, not only in Europe and Asia – but in most regions of the world.
Even more proactively than before, road transportation companies are constantly looking for new drivers’ recruitment possibilities in every market available.
For example,Girteka has widened its drivers’ recruitment geography – with the expansion to such countries as India or the Philippines already underway.
As there is a huge market of qualified truck drivers who are willing to work in the EUin such countries as Kirgizstan or Uzbekistan, there are unresolved issues with the current legal regulation regarding the employment of such workers. Not only the formal process of their employment in EU companies cannot be shortened with the current legal requirements, but there is also a huge shortage in consular capacity,as it is now far from enough to meet the demand for issuance of visas for drivers from Asian countries.
“Since the beginning of April, for the first time ever, we have a negative drivers’ recruitment balance, comparing the year-to-year data, meaning that we hire fewer drivers than we would if the rotation of employees was as natural as it was before,” Paulauskas says.
“Such a negative balance, which occurred due to the lack of drivers in the market, was even more deepened by our planned expansion and new trucks joining our fleet.”
Yet, along with other carriers, Girteka is proactively taking part in improving the situation.The company is constantly participating in live meetings with consuls and representatives of the EU in Asian countries – as well as strengthening its cooperation with recruitment agencies to attract drivers from non-EU states.