The tightness on the labour market is not abating for the time being. Vacancies in transport and logistics are especially hard to fill, an annual report by the UWV reveals. The main shortage occupations are truck drivers, forklift drivers and transport planners.
In its annual report‘Hard-to-fill vacancies’, the UWV states that, at national level, almost half of all vacancies are difficult to fill. The labour market shortage is almost as severe as it was ten years ago. This has economic and social consequences; one in four
employers are now experiencing production bottlenecks due to a shortage of staff. In addition, the tight labour market is leading to increasing work pressure on the current workforce.
Tightness in the sector
In the transport and logistics sector, too, the labour market has become much tighter in recent years, partly due to economic growth. The greatest shortages are of lorry drivers, particularly for domestic journeys. Economic growth and
an ageing population are leading to a growing number of vacancies. Although significant efforts are being made on retraining programmes, these are insufficient to meet the demand for staff.
Distribution staff
Demand for staff is also rising in distribution centres and warehouses. Loaders, unloaders, porters and forklift drivers are hard to find. There is also a shortage of dispatch staff and warehouse managers. Automation may offer a solution, but this is currently being implemented mainly in the larger distribution centres. Such investments are substantial and complex,
which means smaller companies are unlikely to invest in them any time soon, according to the UWV.
Transport planners
Then there are the transport planners. Due to the specialised nature of this role, it is difficult to find suitable staff. It is becoming increasingly important to deploy people and equipment as efficiently
possible. This role lies at the intersection of vocational and higher vocational education levels. Increasingly, the
transport planner is also being called upon to extract and analyse management information from the systems, which means a
higher level of education is required.
