Timewise and Trucking Lives convened sector leaders to explore the logistics workforce crisis, and why recruitment alone will not solve it.
By Tess Lanning, Director of Programmes
The road haulage sector is short of drivers, and the usual response is to recruit harder: new campaigns, new incentives, new pitches to school leavers and career changers. But the latest evidence tells a different story. The problem is not only who trucking can attract. It is what the job asks of the people already in it.
Sickness absence per worker in transport and storage was higher in 2025 than in any other UK sector, exceeding levels seen at the height of the pandemic. Recent research shows that:
These are not individual lifestyle failures. They are the predictable result of how the job is currently designed, which is why this workforce crisis needs a different kind of solution.
Following on from the Timewise Insights report, More than Miles, Timewise and the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council-funded Trucking Lives project recently convened senior voices from across the sector, including representatives from a nation-wide logistics operator, the independent haulier Welch Group, Logistics UK, the Road Haulage Association, USDAW, and academic researchers from the universities of Oxford and Newcastle, to discuss what needs to change. Their message was consistent: recruitment campaigns alone will not fix a job that people cannot sustain, or do not want in the first place.
Participants agreed that unpredictability, as well as long hours, is a critical concern for drivers. Not knowing when a shift will end, when a driver will get home, or what route they will be on, makes it near impossible to plan a life around the job. This particularly affects two groups the sector urgently needs to attract and keep: younger workers, who are more likely to rule out trucking as incompatible with life outside work, and women, who remain a small proportion of HGV drivers but are a clear target for growth. Many female drivers report being the first in their organisation to navigate pregnancy or request flexible working, with managers making policy up as they go along.
The good news is that change is achievable and does not always require wholesale reinvention. One large logistics operator shared how a structured flexible working programme, including job shares and adjusted hours, developed in partnership with the recognised union, has already reshaped how it manages requests. Proactively offering flexibility, rather than waiting for formal requests, surfaced demand that had previously gone unspoken. The changes required proactive engagement with managers and route planners, to prevent requests from being summarily turned down and align staff preferences with schedules and work organisation
Smaller operators face a different set of constraints, with fewer drivers to match into shared arrangements and daily variation in the work available. But the roundtable heard from one family-run regional haulier, employing around 70 drivers, that is finding its own route to progress, matching drivers to the type of work that suits their circumstances and using cross-functional roles to offer variety and relief from the road.
No single organisation can solve this alone. Large logistics companies, trade associations, unions, technology developers and government all have a part to play in fixing the logistics workforce crisis, from the design of AI-enabled scheduling tools to the state of roadside facilities on major freight corridors. That is why Timewise is seeking to develop an industry-led taskforce, to bring these voices together and turn this evidence into practical, sector-wide action.
Trucking’s workforce crisis is a job quality crisis. Solving it means redesigning the job, not just refilling the seats.
Published September 2026
