Aliaksandr Matsiash, a Belarusian exile, joined Lithuanian trucking group Baltic Transline in May. But after two weeks of training, followed by 13 weeks living in a truck-based in the Netherlands — all for a mere €2,470 — the 30-year-old quit.
“It’s not a normal life for a human,” he said. “It’s like a prison, it’s not a job. You do it like a zombie.”
Analysts say a global shortage of truck drivers has persisted since the middle of the 2000s. But Matsiash’s case illustrates the human dimension of a deteriorating global driver shortage that has tipped into a crisis only recently visible to the wider public.
In the UK, supermarket shelves are missing goods, McDonald’s restaurants ran out of milkshakes this week and builders cannot access supplies, while iron ore struggles to reach Australian ports for export.
The potential consequences are serious. André LeBlanc, vice president of operations at Petroleum Marketing Group, a Virginia-based fuel distributor, said that gas stations it supplies had run out of certain products about 1,200 times since mid-June because of driver shortages.
“You don’t get your toilet tissues and your eggs, that’s one thing. Gasoline stops — it shuts everything down,” he warned.
The transport sector’s labor issues have built up over time as multinational companies drive down supply chain costs. At the same time, the trucking workforce in developed nations has aged — the average truck driver in the UK is 55 years old — while more jobs have become computer-based.