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Security a Key Factor Fueling Truck Driver Shortage

By Hector González - SafeLink Group
BOA PRESIDENT

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Héctor González By Héctor González | BOA President - Fri, 11/25/2022 - 13:00

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Over the past few years, the ground freight transportation sector has faced many challenging situations. Some of the issues that have had a direct impact  and which are still occurring today — have to do with crime and a lack of public safety, especially in Mexico and Latin America, as well as constant interruptions in the supply chain, which have caused continuous stoppages in ground logistics operations.

Particularly in recent months, the combination of the above and some other situations has created a new problem for the ground freight transportation sector: a shortage of truck drivers.

The demands of today's logistics world are at odds with the availability of workforce for freight forwarding companies. But it is especially concerning that these two factors are moving increasingly farther apart from each other.

Today, there is an evident shortage of drivers, triggering new worries among industry representatives given the fact that without them, it is simply impossible to provide freight forwarding services.

This not only translates into monetary losses but into broader problems that affect the inner workings of the supply chain and the shipment of cargo. Due to steady or increasing  demand, in addition to demand being "topped up" because of an absence of carriers, there is  a bottleneck affecting everyone and every aspect when  it comes to ground logistics operations.

Global Shortage of Truck Drivers

According to the Driver Shortage Global Report 2022, conducted by the International Road Transport Union (IRU), more than 2.6 million freight truck driver positions were vacant in 2021 in the countries surveyed by the IRU, which include the US, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Romania, Belgium, Netherlands, Russia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Turkey, Iran, and China. The figure is expected to grow by the end of this year and in early 2023.

However, this is not a new trend. In 2021, the shortage of freight forwarders increased in all the surveyed regions except Eurasia (Russia, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine), meaning that this problem has been dragging on for almost two years now. It also indicates that, so far, no effective measures have been found or implemented to reverse the shortage. 

In Europe, at the end of 2021, job offers targeted at cargo truck drivers increased by 42 percent compared to 2020, with unfilled posts at 71,000 in Romania, 80,000 in Poland and Germany, and 100,000 in the UK. Quite an alarming fact, indeed.

In China, the shortage increased by 140 percent compared to 2020, leaving more than 1.8 million truck driving posts vacant.

It is worth noting that, according to the IRU, at the end of 2022, there would be a new and significant increase in the number of unfilled job openings aimed at cargo truck drivers, which comes to around a 40 percent increase globally in comparison to the previous year. 

As a result, it may be inferred that the shortage of truck drivers in this sector will continue an upward trend around the world. It is a global-scale scenario that likely will not wane in the foreseeable future.

The Situation in Mexico 

According to the IRU report, the situation in Mexico is not a far cry from what is happening in the US and in European countries, given that this country registered a 30 percent increase between 2020 and 2021 in terms of trucking operators, which resulted in a total of 54,000 unfilled job openings for drivers in the previous year.

As in the rest of the world, the number of job openings for drivers is expected to increase by the end of the year and to continue upward during the first months of 2023 at least.

According to the Mexican Chamber of Cargo Transportation (CANACAR), by the end of this year, the shortfall of truck drivers will oscillate around 56,000. That means that by the end of this year, there will be around 2,000 additional job openings for cargo truck drivers. This, of course, will have a widespread impact on the economy.

According to the Mexican Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation and CANACAR, Mexico has a fleet of almost 600,000 cargo trucks. Ten percent of these trucks are parked because there are no drivers. This translates into 60,000 inactive vehicles.

Reasons Behind the Shortage

According to the New York Times, two key factors in the US and Latin America have caused truck operators to leave the industry: long shifts and difficult working conditions. These are factors experienced by truckers not only across the continent but around the world.

However, unlike in the US and Europe, in Latin America, there is an additional factor contributing to this issue: highway insecurity.

In recent years, the number of cargo truck drivers leaving their jobs as a consequence of crime and unsafe conditions on the region's highways has intensified. Especially in recent months, violent cargo robberies have risen at an alarming rate –

 particularly in Mexico. This, of course, has caused many truck drivers to quit their jobs because they are easy targets for crime and often suffer violent assaults. They can be stranded in the middle of the road and sometimes with serious injuries.

Such a combination of long working hours and poor conditions, coupled with violent incidents that can be traumatic and even fatal for freight operators has caused a shortage of freight forwarders in Mexico and around the world.

One thing is clear: freight forwarding companies must improve the working conditions they currently offer their truck drivers. If not, driver shortages will not only continue, but will also gradually increase as time goes on.

Improving Conditions: A Pending Matter 

It is essential to recognize how important the work carried out by drivers is and to vindicate them. This means giving them adequate and fair conditions as well as empathizing with their needs while on the job.

Needless to say, this must come with other tangible elements and resources that would directly benefit drivers, such as significantly improving wages and ensuring security measures to guarantee a safe ride on every journey.

Employers should pay attention to the emotional side of the issue and be more sensitive to the conditions in which drivers work, which is often overlooked.

Providing decent and adequate payments and rest breaks are measures that should also be put on the table and seriously discussed for the good of the industry as a whole and the very notion of the cargo truck driving trade.

https://expansion.mx/empresas/2022/09/08/deficit-operadores-mexico-crisis-canacar

https://t21.com.mx/terrestre/2022/06/16/escasez-conductores-sin-freno-escalara-40-iru

https://www.iru.org/resources/iru-library/driver-shortage-global-report-2022

Photo by:   Hector González

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