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At the opening of Lithuania’s annual International Transport Innovation Forum, IRU stressed key measures to raise resilience, focusing on driver shortages, decarbonisation and digitalisation.
Following opening speeches by Lithuania’s Prime Minister as well as the Minister of Transport and Communications at the International Transport Innovation Forum yesterday, IRU’s Secretary General charted trends and resilience in global supply chains.
IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto said, “Our sector must be resilient, not only for its own stake, but because economies and communities need resilient road transport adaptable to sudden shocks such as disasters or long-term trends like demographic change.
“This is also why our sector has the Charter 75, road transport’s commitment to rescue people, rebuild shattered communities and make mobility networks and supply chains more resilient and better able to withstand future shocks.”
“The key to further raising the resilience of road transport is tackling driver shortages, decarbonisation and digitalisation,” he added.
Driver shortage
The global shortage of truck drivers is projected to double by 2028, with over 50% of operators struggling to hire skilled drivers.
In Lithuania, 12% of truck driver positions are unfilled, projected to hit 18% by 2028. Only 0.5% of truck drivers are women, the lowest rate in Europe. Lithuania does lead in young driver rates, 10.9% of its truck drivers are under 25, more than double the EU average.
“To attract new talent, especially women and youth, we need to keep entry barriers to the profession low and improve working conditions by, for example, building more safe and secure parking areas and revamping training programmes,” said Umberto de Pretto.
“But above all, drivers need to be recognised for what they are: heroes!” Read more
Source: IRU
