Truck parking lot on the A2: many companies, few drivers
Photo: Wolfgang Weihs / picture alliance / dpa
The freight transport industry expects delivery traffic to be disrupted in Germany and other European countries due to a lack of truck drivers. There are currently bottlenecks in many industries in the UK. “What is happening in the UK has been accelerated by Brexit. But I firmly assume that we will have the same situation in Western Europe, only a little later, ”said Dirk Engelhardt from the Federal Association of Freight Transport, Logistics and Waste Management of the German Press Agency. "We warn that we will face a supply collapse in Western Europe too."
In British supermarkets there are currently bottlenecks in various products. Restaurants, businesses, farmers and even sewage treatment plants are also affected by disruptions in their processes or by a shortage of certain goods, as many businesses compete for the few drivers. The British Road Haulage Association currently estimates the shortage at around 100,000 drivers.
During the pandemic, many European drivers, for example from Poland or Romania, left the UK and returned to their families in their home countries.
There are several reasons why many of them will not return.
On the one hand, the free movement of EU workers has been a thing of the past since Brexit and complex and expensive visa procedures are necessary.
At the same time, however, drivers are also needed in many other European countries, so that the attraction of Great Britain is waning.
New trade barriers and controls at the border make the situation even more difficult.
According to the logistics expert Engelhardt, there is already a shortage of between 60,000 and 80,000 truck drivers in Germany - and the trend is rising.
Every year around 30,000 drivers retire and only around 15,000 young people are coming.
mik / dpa-AFX
