30,000 fewer drivers in a year and only 4% under 25: UK trucks have never been safer, but who will drive them?

The figures come from Logistics UK’s Compliance Report 2026, launched on 8 October, and its Employment and Skills Report 2026. The association used data from the DVSA, the Department for Transport and the Office of the Traffic Commissioner.

Safer trucks and better operators

The safety numbers are impressive:

• The initial failure rate in HGV annual tests fell to 10% in 2025/26, from 10.4% a year earlier and 32.4% in 2008/09. DVSA data confirm a rate of around 10% across the four quarters of 2025/26, from more than 450,000 tests.
• The final failure rate, after minor faults are fixed, fell to 6.7%.
• Reported accidents involving HGVs have fallen by 74% since 2004, and casualties by almost 75%, according to Logistics UK.
• The share of HGV operators in the green band of the DVSA’s compliance risk score rose from 66.5% to 69.1%.

HGVs are still involved in serious collisions. According to the Department for Transport, they were involved in 3,517 reported collisions in Great Britain in 2025, 186 of them fatal. More than 90% of the people killed in collisions involving HGVs were other road users.

The driver problem

While the trucks are getting safer, the workforce is getting older and smaller. According to Logistics UK, 283,000 HGV drivers were employed at the end of the period it analysed, down from 313,000 a year earlier. Its Employment and Skills Report 2026 shows that:

• 61.6% of drivers are aged 45 or over, and 21.1% are 60 or older,
• only 4.2% are aged 16–24, compared with 11.7% of the working-age population,
• 98.9% of drivers are men.

We looked at the full Employment and Skills Report in July.

Government data point in the same direction. In the fourth quarter of 2025, 26% of HGV businesses reported driver vacancies, up from 24% a year earlier, according to the Department for Transport. That is well below the 43% peak of late 2021, but the trend is moving the wrong way again.

Europe is short of half a million drivers

The UK is not alone. According to the IRU’s Global Driver Shortage Report 2025, published in June:

• around 2.9 million truck driver positions are unfilled across the markets surveyed, an 11% shortage,
• in Europe, about 502,000 positions are unfilled, a 13% shortage, up from 12% a year earlier,
• about 660,500 European drivers, around 20% of the workforce, are expected to retire by 2030,
• women make up only about 4% of European truck drivers,
• 65% of European operators rank the driver shortage as their top concern, and about two-thirds have turned down contracts because they lacked drivers.

Small companies are hit hardest. In firms with fewer than 50 employees, the shortage rate is six percentage points higher than in large ones. In small European firms, 45% of drivers are aged 55 or over. Read more about Europe’s 502,000 driver vacancies.

Why this matters for operators

• Retirements will accelerate. With more than one in five UK drivers aged 60 or over, many will leave the industry within the next few years.
• Recruitment of young drivers is not keeping up. The 4% share of under-25s is far below their share in the wider workforce.
• Pay and conditions are under pressure. Companies competing for a shrinking pool of drivers will have to offer more, at a time when operating costs are already high.
• Safety is a selling point. Better-maintained trucks and well-run operators can help attract and keep drivers.

UK hauliers have done much to make their vehicles safer and their operations more compliant. The next challenge is making the job attractive enough for the next generation to take the wheel.