There is no driver shortage. The market got exactly what it paid for.
Edit: Strange how this article deliberately avoided framing it like businesses asking for even more of a handout instead of covering their own costs.
EU drivers leaving the UK also played a crucial part, but they left that part out.
It’s kind of the same everywhere, right? So the older generations were able to drive lorries with their normal license. And that was split in separate licenses a while ago. Which totally made sense. And here in Germany, since the end of compulsory military service, nobody got their C-license. So we have fewer people who are even allowed to drive a truck. And then you have deteriorating working conditions for truck drivers making this one a really bad job. You really do not want to pay several thousand Euros for a C-license just for having to spend your weekends on a dirty Autobahn stop. Add the propaganda about self driving trucks replacing every driver in the next years and of course nobody wants to do this job.
The requirements should always be high since it’s a lot of responsibility! The cost of learning, getting licensed should be as low as possible and salary must reflect demand
Probably electrification of this sector should also be priority, automatic transmission would help tackle the learning curve for drivers
automatic transmission would help tackle the learning curve for drivers
That really isn’t the challenging part of driving. Not even with a 16-speed gearbox.
Plz elaborate, i would like to know more about driving trucks… i was not saying it was the most challenging part but another complexity that if removed would help, every simplification would help
I assume the dimensions of the truck are 1 of the biggest problems
Dimension in combination with traffic are the biggest challenge with driving as such.
Complexity doesn’t go down, but up in new trucks, and automation is a big cause for it, because you need to know much more about how a system behaves in order to make it do what you actually want, if it is automated.
The real problem isn’t technology however, but good old corporate greed and the race to the bottom. Drivers tend to be treated and paid like shit, there are a whole bunch of increasingly complex regulations to follow, and getting and keeping a license costs a small fortune.
about your last paragraph, that shouldn’t happen in a shortage, somethings very wrong
You only need 2 to 5% the number of train drivers to haul the same amount of cargo.
