On the most recent piece on his blog, Ström wrote that “the average age of truck drivers in Europe is skyrocketing”.
The NTEX MD added that he still believes the haulage industry is an industry of the future for prospective drivers, even with the prospect of driverless trucks on the horizon.
In Ström’s opinion, the sector must nonetheless be “re-stocked”.
The haulage boss then went on to urge the Swedish Government to subsidise HGV driver training:
“A licence is expensive, and it takes a lot of work to get one. Unfortunately, this discourages a lot of people. That’s why I think that the government should step in and subsidise some of these professional driving licences. If not, there is a great risk that we will soon find ourselves amidst a shortage of goods.”
Ström added that action needs to be taken quickly to resolve the driver shortage:
“The situation is urgent. We need more training centres in upper secondary schools, and at the same time, hauliers must make it easier to combine work with family and leisure. The whole industry needs to put in some effort to raise the status of the profession, to attract new generations.”
The blog post then concluded with the reasons Ström believes the lorry driving profession is still a good one.
Writing as a former HGV driver himself, the NTEX MD listed “autonomy and freedom”, a “future-proof industry”, seeing new places and meeting new people, as well as driver development, as reasons individuals should consider the lorry driving profession.
Photo: EDDIE / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0 (image cropped)