On the 25th of January, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), organised a roundtable on “The Future for Transport”. Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean, ETF President, Frank Moreels, ETF General Secretary, Livia Spera, EU Parliament TRAN Committee EPP Coordinator, Marian-Jean Marinescu, EU Parliament TRAN Committee S&D Coordinator, Petar Vitanov, EU Parliament TRAN Committee Greens/EFA Coordinator, Ciarán Cuffe and EU Parliament TRAN Committee – The Left Coordinator, Elena Kountoura engaged into an intense debate regarding the mounting labour crisis affecting the transport sector and its workers.
After the Covid-19 pandemic, the consequences of the war in Ukraine have thrown light on the necessity to finalise the TEN-T network, strengthen its physical and digital connectivity and to diversify investments in different energy sources.
The EU is facing important challenges and if we want to be able to meet the objectives, there is an urgent need to tackle all issues in a holistic way. Hence, the importance of the recent announcements of the EU Commission’s President, Ms Von der Leyen[1] regarding the Green Deal Industrial Plan and its key pillars: regulatory environment, financing, skills and trade.
Labour shortages in all industries can directly impact local, regional, and global supply chains. For example, understaffing in a factory will cause production slowdowns, resulting in inventory stock-outs for distributors and retailers. However, as evoked during ETF’s roundtable, in transport and logistics, the shortage of available labour directly impacts cargo flows and thus the fluidity of the supply chains.
It is expected that labour shortages will only intensify as many workers reach retirement age while the sector remains unable to attract young and women workers.
Transport and transport work in the European Union are matters of national and European legislation. Therefore, it is crucial for policy-makers to develop policies that will solve the structural problems faced by the transport sector.
Without enough truck drivers, shipping containers will sit in ports much longer than they should.
The long-haul truck driver shortage has created capacity shortages among trucking carriers, making it difficult for shippers to move inventory from ports to distribution centres promptly.
Understaffed warehouses and distribution centres can’t operate at full capacity, creating delays that result in material or inventory shortages for manufacturers and retailers.
Finally, the significant rise in e-commerce sales volumes can make it difficult for understaffed centres to keep pace with order fulfilment volumes.
The above-mentioned cases are only very few examples showing how labour shortages exacerbate supply chain bottlenecks. If we want to avoid another perfect storm for supply chain disruption, there is an urgent need to re-evaluate labour policies, hiring and retention practices as well as work/life balance for employees.
Crises like COVID 19 and the war in Ukraine have shown how reliant we are on people to ensure the security of supplies (goods, medicines, equipment etc..). It is also important to acknowledge that a crisis like COVID 19 has thoroughly modified the attitude of blue and white workers collars’ towards work. Hence, the importance to use this moment to reflect upon the new needs and expectations and take action.
Source: FEPORT