Lonely, physically trying and often poorly paid, the job of truck driver is no longer the dream of young people. In 2019, truck drivers entered the unflattering top 5 of the most stressed jobs, according to a survey by the Ministry of Labor. The Social, Economic and Environmental Council (Cese), seized by the Prime Minister, must present, on January 12, 20 recommendations aimed at responding to the problem of the lack of attractiveness of certain professions.
→ ANALYSIS. The global supply chain is still seized up
French truckers are not the only ones to have lost popularity. “We are dealing with a worsening structural and global problem. In 2017, there was a shortage of 50,000 drivers in the United States, 80,000 today ”, explains Thomas Larrieu, Managing Director of Upply, a platform specializing in freight price analysis and digital solutions. According to a report by the consultancy firm Transport Intelligence, published last August, the European road freight transport sector would lack 400,000 drivers, or around 20% of the workforce, to operate at full speed.
A generalized shortage
Poland is the main victim of the shortage with 120,000 drivers missing, just ahead of the United Kingdom (between 60,000 and 100,000 drivers) of which 30,000 mainland workers were forced to leave the country following Brexit. In France, 43,000 jobs are said to be vacant, while across the Rhine, 10% of trucks are currently in the garage.
“To date, in France as in Germany, the shortage does not have a strong impact on the health of companies or on deliveries., nuance Isabelle Maître, permanent delegate of the National Federation of Road Transport (FNTR) in Brussels. But if the economic recovery accelerates, some stores may no longer be supplied as was the case in the United Kingdom. “
Degraded working conditions
If the absence of drivers has reached a critical threshold today, it is above all due to retirements, without guaranteed relief. In Europe as in the United States, the average age of staff is around 50 years. “We can no longer find vocations because the pay is bad and the working conditions have deteriorated in recent years”, slice Stanislas Baugé, representative of the CGT at theEuropean transport workers federation (ETF), the European trade union for the sector.
“Today, the reality of the job is to work 56 hours a week and get up at 5 am without knowing what time we are going to debauchery. It complicates all family life ”, he insists, deploring that “The shortage makes the situation worse by increasing the pressure at work. ” As for wages, dragged down for a long time due to social dumping practices, they hardly ever exceed the minimum wage in European countries where it exists.
In several countries such as the Netherlands or the United Kingdom, the employers have therefore resigned themselves to playing on this rope. In France, the negotiations currently underway between the social partners are likely to result in an increase in contractual minima to 5% in 2022. “Between the pressure on wages and the rise in fuel prices, the price of transport increased by 4% in Europe in 2021 and a similar increase is expected for 2022”, Thomas Larrieu analysis.
Attract young people and women
“Raising salaries will not be enough to solve all our problems, shade Isabelle Maître. We need to attract new populations like young people and women (today only 2% of truck drivers are women in Europe once morest 11% in the United States, Editor’s note) by shattering the bad image of the profession. “
→ CHRONIC. The trucker’s salary
Among the new audiences sought, foreign workers are particularly sought following by European companies. “Last February, within theInternational Road Union (the IRU, which brings together 3.5 million companies in the world, Editor’s note) we have launched a working group to bring the message to the European institutions ”, details the delegate of the FNTR, at the initiative of the project. Today, around ten countries, including France, participate in this working group, the objective of which is to discuss “Good practices for attracting and training regular migrants”.
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