Start of Study to Address Driver Shortage in Transport

The driver shortage is one of the biggest challenges for the logistics service provider industry. A high-ranking study team is now beginning a study on this topic to identify the causes, assess the impacts, and derive solutions from the results. The work, which started in February 2022, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

(Arbon) The development of economic performance is currently characterized by bottlenecks that existed even before the current situation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. One driver of these bottlenecks is the long-standing challenges regarding transport capacities in the DACH region. Although the situation is dynamic and difficult to assess, no relaxation in transport capacities, particularly regarding the shortage of drivers, can be expected. They can hinder economic recovery as a limiting factor.

Further bottlenecks, for example in the area of alternative drive technologies, are anticipated. This raises the central question of how these bottlenecks in transport capacities will affect the actors and their performance or competitiveness, and how they can be resolved.

To address this, a study team has been formed under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Stölzle from Logistics Advisory Experts, a spin-off of the University of St. Gallen, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thorsten Schmidt from the Technical University of Dresden, and Prof. Dr. Christian Kille from the Institute for Applied Logistics at the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt FHWS, which is dedicated to these questions.

The consortium study “Addressing Capacity Bottlenecks in Logistics: Situation Analysis – Solutions – Potentials – Action Packages – Roadmaps,” which started on February 17, 2022, has set the following goals:

• to realize a differentiated quantification and recording of the causes of the driver shortage,
• to determine the qualitative and quantitative effects on transport companies and their customers,
• to identify and evaluate potential action packages and solutions to alleviate the driver shortage, for example through digital tools and cross-industry transfer insights, as well as through structural changes in the collaboration of transport companies, and
• to derive prerequisites, recommendations for action, catalogs of measures, solutions, and roadmaps for the actors, focusing on transport companies.

The consortium consists, in addition to the three research institutions, of 16 companies from logistics services, IT & services, industry, and trade, as well as four federal associations as non-material partners and the internet platform Jobmatch.me. The publication of the results is planned for the end of 2022.

The consortium partners are:

Platinum

Gold

• CTL Cargo Trans Logistik AG
• Fahrzeugwerk Bernard Krone GmbH & Co. KG
• Seifert Logistics GmbH
• Transco Süd Internationale Transporte GmbH

Silver

Barth Spedition GmbH, BTK Befrachtungs- und Transportkontor GmbH, Hans Geis GmbH + Co KG, Geberit Logistik GmbH, GROUP7 GmbH, Güttler Logistik GmbH, Ludwig Meyer GmbH & Co. KG, Miele & Cie. KG, REWE Markt GmbH

The study project is supported by the non-material partners

• Federal Association of Goods Transport, Logistics and Disposal (BGL) e.V.
• Federal Association of Forwarding and Logistics (DSLV)
• Federal Association of Logistics (BVL) e.V.
• Trade Association Germany – HDE e.V.
• JOBMATCH.ME