“There are contracts, but no drivers”: Ukraine is short approximately 40,000 long-haul truckers

Ukraine is experiencing a severe shortage of truck drivers — the market is lacking approximately 30,000–40,000 workers. This was reported by Deputy Minister of Communities and Territories Development Serhii Derkach in a comment to Ukrinform.

According to him, out of about 130,000 trucks in operation, up to 30% are idle due to a lack of personnel.

"There are contracts, but no drivers. At one company, 30 new vehicles are sitting idle — there’s no one to drive them," Derkach noted.

He emphasized that the problem is complex and cannot be resolved quickly. Therefore, the Ministry is initiating training programs for women, veterans, and young people to address the staffing shortage.

"The focus is on those who don’t have issues with deferment: women, veterans. We are now planning a similar initiative for young people," he explained.

The official added that the situation with reserving employees for businesses has partially stabilized: companies, especially those involved in international transportation, can reserve up to 50% of their personnel. At the same time, a new challenge arises — to properly allocate workers and retrain some of them for the most in-demand positions.

"The issue is not the number of people on staff, but that not all of them are actually driving. We need to retain key specialists and not lose the drivers," he added.

• Carriers began to be disconnected from the "Shliakh" system for smuggling military-age men abroad in October last year. At that time, the first 27 companies and sole proprietors were cut off. In total, Ukrtransbezpeka has already disconnected 279 carriers from the system for such violations.