In its Employment and Skills Report 2026, the business group argues that the sector’s main workforce challenge has shifted from finding enough people to ensuring that workers have the right capabilities for a more digital, automated and compliance-heavy operating environment.
The report says logistics has adapted since the driver shortage crisis, helped by wage rises, recruitment campaigns, training initiatives and operational changes. However, Logistics UK warns that this recovery has exposed longer-term problems around workforce renewal, progression and specialist skills.
“The challenge has not disappeared; it has evolved,” Ben Fletcher, chief executive of Logistics UK, says in the report’s foreword.
Skills, not just headcount
According to the report, the UK logistics workforce totalled around 2.6 million people in Q4 2025, equivalent to roughly 8% of total UK employment. This includes 1.67 million people employed directly in the logistics sector and a further 908,000 working in logistics occupations in other industries, such as retail, manufacturing and construction.
The largest occupational groups remain warehouse operatives, with 413,800 workers, delivery drivers and couriers, with 295,300, and HGV drivers, with 283,000.
However, Logistics UK says the key constraint on future growth is increasingly the “capability gap” between the skills employers need and those available in the workforce. The report points to rising demand for technical, digital, managerial and specialist capabilities, even where overall employment growth remains modest.
This means that simply increasing recruitment will not be enough. The sector also needs clearer career pathways, more effective training provision and better support for workers moving from entry-level roles into more complex technical or supervisory jobs.
HGV driver numbers stabilise, but renewal remains weak
HGV driver employment has recovered from the worst of the 2021 crisis but remains fragile. The number of HGV drivers in employment stood at 283,000 in Q4 2025, only 1% higher than in Q4 2021. EU HGV driver numbers fell by 18.4% over the same period, from 35,000 to 28,000.
Pay has risen sharply. Gross hourly pay for HGV drivers increased from £13.62 in Q4 2021 to £16.23 in Q4 2025, a rise of 19.1%. Yet Logistics UK argues that higher pay has not solved the longer-term issue of attracting and retaining qualified drivers.
One problem is the gap between licence holders and active professional supply. In March 2026, 975,553 people in the UK held a full Category C or C+E licence, but only 586,596 also held a valid Driver CPC. That means only around 60% of the licence-holding population was fully eligible to work professionally.
Read more: Driver retention is no longer just about pay: predictability and work-life balance now lead
The age profile is also a concern. Logistics UK says 61.6% of HGV drivers are aged 45 or over, while 21.1% are aged 60 or over. Only 4.2% are aged 16–24, compared with 11.7% of the wider working-age population.
The report says this points to a replacement problem: the sector is not bringing younger workers into critical roles quickly enough to replace experienced staff as they retire.
Technology is changing jobs, not removing them
Logistics UK also stresses that automation is reshaping jobs rather than simply eliminating them.
HGV drivers are increasingly expected to work with telematics, route optimisation and digital compliance tools. Warehouse workers are interacting more with automated picking systems, robotics and warehouse management systems. Vehicle mechanics are becoming diagnostic technicians, with skills in software-enabled maintenance, sensors, battery technology and alternative fuels.
The report identifies several roles as increasingly important to future capability, including warehouse managers, logistics managers, transport managers, transport and distribution clerks, purchasing managers and vehicle technicians.
Although these roles represent a smaller share of total employment than drivers or warehouse operatives, Logistics UK says they are essential for productivity, service quality and operational resilience.
Diversity remains limited
The report also highlights the sector’s continued reliance on a relatively narrow labour pool.
Overall, 76.2% of logistics workers are male, rising to 98.9% among HGV drivers and 98.1% among forklift drivers. Female participation is also low among delivery drivers and couriers, at 9.9%.
Logistics UK says improving participation among underrepresented groups could help increase workforce capacity, especially as competition for labour and skills intensifies.
The report also notes that younger workers are better represented in some entry-level warehouse and storage roles, but progression into higher-skilled operational and management positions appears slower. This creates a risk that the sector attracts new entrants but does not develop enough of them into the specialist and supervisory roles needed in future.
Training system ‘lagging behind’
A central criticism in the report is that the skills system is not keeping pace with the rate of change in logistics.
Employers are investing in training, including through the Apprenticeship Levy, but Logistics UK says provision is still too often built around traditional occupational categories. That is a problem because many logistics jobs are becoming hybrid roles, combining operational, technical, digital and compliance responsibilities.
The report says smaller employers can struggle in particular with complex funding systems and delivery arrangements. It calls for a more flexible, responsive and accessible system that can support continuous upskilling, not just entry-level recruitment.
Logistics UK argues that future policy should focus on long-term capability, not only short-term shortage responses. That means better alignment between training provision and employer demand, clearer progression routes into higher-skilled roles, and stronger coordination between skills, employment, industrial strategy and regional delivery.
For the sector, the warning is clear: the next workforce risk may not look like the visible driver shortage of 2021. Instead, it may be a slower erosion of capability as experienced workers leave, technology raises skill requirements and training pathways fail to keep up.
As Logistics UK puts it, logistics skills are not just a sectoral issue, but part of the UK’s national economic infrastructure.
