"We are threatened with empty shelves like in England": logistics expert warns of an extreme shortage of truck drivers

Created: 01/12/2023 08:48

By: Andreas Hoess

Sold out: Great Britain has been running out of truck drivers since leaving the EU.

The result: temporarily empty shelves in the supermarket and gas stations that don't get any fuel.

Such a scenario could also threaten Germany.

(Symbolic photo) © Kay Nietfeld/dpa/Symbolbild

In December, truck traffic surprisingly dropped by five percent.

The industry is struggling, explains Dirk Engelhardt, head of the BGL.

Munich/Frankfurt – Christmas is over and for the logistics industry that means: take a deep breath.

In no other phase of the year is the industry as challenged as in the "quiet period" when Germans order wildly on the Internet.

Hundreds of millions of packages have to be driven all over the country, and supermarkets and other shops also want to be supplied.

But in December, truck traffic surprisingly dropped by five percent, which was probably also due to a wave of illnesses.

Dirk Engelhardt, head of the Federal Association of Road Haulage, Logistics and Disposal (BGL), explains the needs of the industry.

Mr. Engelhardt, truck traffic collapsed in December.

What were the reasons?

It was a mix of the approaching recession and the cold temperatures during Advent.

But the cold wave also played a role.

It showed how thin the driver's blanket is now.

Every failure becomes a problem.

In England, supermarket shelves have already remained empty and petrol stations have run out of fuel because no trucks have come.

The situation here isn't that explosive, is it?

Not quite yet.

But if we don't take countermeasures, in a year or two we'll have English conditions with empty supermarket shelves.

We have been warning of an extreme driver shortage since 2006, so far without success.

In Germany alone there is a shortage of 100,000 drivers and the hole is getting bigger because every year 30,000 to 35,000 retire and only 15,000 to 20,000 follow.

This can no longer be compensated for with drivers from Eastern European freight forwarders.

Their drivers also don't want to tour Western Europe for months without seeing their families.

So there really is a risk of supply bottlenecks?

In the medium term yes.

We hear from many trucking companies that they are shutting down vehicles and canceling orders because they don't have drivers.

Dispatchers and company bosses often take on tours themselves - this cannot be permanent.

Large food and supermarket chains have also come to us, desperately looking for transport companies because nobody is taking their orders.

You have to know: 80 percent of goods and goods in Germany are transported by road.

What happens when delivery bottlenecks threaten could be seen during Corona.

Keyword: toilet paper!

What is the driver shortage?

on wages?

We conducted a survey on this.

Three things were mentioned: low wages, poor working conditions and the poor image of the industry, which is repeatedly pilloried by the media and some politicians.

All of this means that far fewer young people want to become truck drivers today.

Logistics expert warns of extreme shortage of truck drivers

In order to make the job more attractive, the transport companies have to raise wages noticeably, right?

They have been doing this for quite some time.

By 2020, however, the industry only had an average profit margin of 0.1 to 1.5 percent.

At the same time, many companies have already had several wage increases, and personnel costs have recently exploded.

They had to pass this on to customers in the form of higher freight costs, which further fueled inflation.

But the salary alone does not attract enough young people.

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So what?

Politicians must adopt a bundle of measures.

For example, driver training should be subsidized by the Federal Employment Agency.

A truck driver's license costs around 13,000 euros.

No young person can pay for that out of their own pocket.

Why should the state finance the training?

Because companies can't afford it either.

In addition, there are now often head bonuses.

So it may be that a transport company trains a new driver for a lot of money, who then switches to a competitor for a bonus and 100 euros more salary.

For example, could older drivers be used at peak times to mitigate the shortage?

Theoretically yes, for the Christmas business that would be great.

However, from a certain age, drivers have to undergo further training every five years for eye tests and medical examinations and also in face-to-face events during retirement if they want to keep their driving licence.

As a result, many people give it up when they retire because the effort is too great for them.

For a driver in reserve, a certificate from the family doctor and online training should suffice, right?

There are also far too many hurdles to employing workers from non-EU countries.

Which ones, for example?

If you want to employ a Tunisian or Moroccan here, they have to do their professional driver qualification in German.

How so?

He doesn't have to read the drug leaflet, but has to drive containers from Hamburg to Munich.

Thousands of drivers from companies in Eastern Europe who don't speak a word of German do that every day anyway.

Expert complains about the quota of women in the truck industry

So far you always talk about drivers, but never about drivers.

Don't they matter to you?

Yes, but so far we have a women's quota of only 2.1 percent.

We urgently need to increase it.

How does that work?

In my view, this is only possible if we make the trucks self-sufficient.

You can order trucks with a bed and fridge, but not with a wet room.

This prevents the length limitation.

If you allowed a meter more length and limited the increase to the driver's cab, you could install a shower and toilet like in a mobile home.

That would be a huge gain in comfort and safety - of course for drivers too and not just for drivers.

Would better rest areas also be a possibility?

In Germany there is a lack of 40,000 parking spaces for trucks on the Autobahn.

And especially in small parking lots, the toilets are often completely dirty, so you don't really want to wash yourself or brush your teeth.

The reality is therefore that drivers have to spend the night in commercial areas and go to the toilet behind the bushes.

We are in contact with the transport minister and have been bringing this up in the transport committee for years, but nothing is happening so far!

Perhaps the federal government is counting on the fact that there will soon only be self-driving trucks.

There are many attempts to do this in the USA.

Nevertheless, drivers are also desperately needed in the USA.

The transport companies there have therefore often increased annual salaries to $100,000.

Autonomous driving may work on highways in California, but the sensors regularly reach their limits in the fog of London or when it's snowing in Munich.

The driver then has to intervene to prevent worse things from happening.

As in the plane, the autopilot will not make people superfluous in the car either.

If only because he is responsible for securing and handing over the load.

I therefore find the media hype surrounding the subject dangerous.

He wrongly suggests to young people that training to become a professional driver is no longer worthwhile.

Interview: Andreas Hoess