The issues impacting Australia’s truck driving sector are well-established within the industry. The current 26,000 driver shortfall is stretching the road transport sector to its limits, and the aging demographic of the nation’s truckies are only exacerbating and already severe problem.
IRU’s newly released report on the state of the global truck driver shortage has contextualised the Australian sector’s standing compared to the rest of the world, and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture.
The 2024 Global Truck Driver Shortage Report included 36 countries that represent 70 per cent of global GDP. Within those nations there exists an overall 3.6 million unfilled positions.
That large figure has remained steady with 2023’s report, largely due to overall easing transport demand over the period.
While Australia’s overall driver shortage of 26,000 is a drop in the ocean compared to larger, higher population countries, its current structural demographic trends are among the starkest in the world.
The global average of drivers who are over the age of 55 is 31.6 per cent, however in Australia that figure stands at 47 per cent. Only Spain, at 50 per cent, is higher.
Currently, it is expected that 21 per cent of Australia’s existing truck driving force will have retired by 2029. For comparison, in China that figure sits at 18 per cent, in Europe it is 17 per cent.
Due to a 1.6 per cent increase in global truck drivers who are over the age of 55, the global average age for drivers now sits at 44.5.
Drivers under 25 only make up 6.5 per cent of the global driver workforce, and with the average age of drivers increasing, the number of young drivers entering the profession is decreasing.
The percentage of young truck drivers fell by 5.8 per cent from 2023 to 2024, which is inverse to the global trend of overall workforces, which has seen young workers increase by 1.4 per cent.
Of those surveyed in Australia the minimum driving age being above 18, bureaucracy involved in obtaining licences and a lack of training capacity were cited as the most significant barriers to young drivers entering the workforce.
Countries with the lowest percentage of young drivers are Italy (2.2 per cent), Germany (2.6 per cent), Poland (3 per cent) and Spain (3 per cent).
IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto says there is no one-size-fits-all, quick fix to the worrying global trends within the truck driver profession.
“The truck driver shortage crisis continues to deepen with, most alarmingly, an ever-widening chasm between young and older drivers,” de Pretto says.
“Without concerted and continuing action, this demographic timebomb will explode, seriously impacting economic growth and competitiveness across the globe.”
Positively, of the European countries surveyed 81 per cent of drivers stated they were satisfied with their job. 57 per cent said they were very or extremely satisfied.
Drivers under the age of 25 reported the highest levels of job satisfaction.
However, the issue of not having enough well-equipped rest areas is far from unique to Australia. 91 per cent of drivers labelled rest area accessibility and treatment at delivery sites as the biggest issues impacting the industry.
“There isn’t one magic bullet to solve the crisis, but this report points towards key solutions to start closing the widening age gap and treating drivers with more respect and dignity.
“Young working drivers are very satisfied: the issue is therefore not retention but improving access to the driver profession and its attractiveness, especially to young people.
“Governments therefore need to better integrate professional driver career pathways into educational systems, also removing unrealistic age thresholds for training and qualification, and to invest more in safe and well-equipped parking and rest areas.”
The full 150-page report is available here.
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