Logistics companies lack 30 thousand truck drivers
4 October 16:18The transport and logistics industry in Ukraine is facing a significant shortage of drivers due to mobilisation. Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territorial and Infrastructure Serhiy Derkach said this during the presentation of a pilot project to train female truck drivers, according to Komersant Ukrainian citing Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the official, the shortage of truck drivers is about 25%, and in the field of urban passenger transport – up to 30%.
“25% is a preliminary figure that we collected from carriers and logistics companies. In some companies, this figure reaches even more than 50%, because it is a matter of mobilisation. In numbers, this is about 30 thousand drivers who are needed as freight transport drivers,”
– said the Deputy Minister.
According to him, the country’s public transport lacks about 6,000 out of the 14,000 drivers needed.
To solve this problem, some companies are training women to drive trucks on their own. In addition, the ministry, together with the Institutional Development Foundation and with the support of USAID, has launched a project to train female truckers. Out of more than a thousand applications, 100 participants were selected, and 25 large Ukrainian employers are ready to hire them.
“We did not aim to fill all vacancies with this project. We understand that this will not solve the situation globally. The project should change the perception of women behind the wheel of a truck in the eyes of employers – to show that it is possible and can be a way out. And women themselves, who had never thought about the trucker profession before and considered it exclusively male, are motivated to consider it for themselves,”
– derkach explained the goal of the project.
Registration for the She Drives pilot project to train female passenger bus drivers, supported by 10 employers, is also underway. So far, about 200 applications have been submitted by women.
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Skills Alliance
Another project aimed at addressing the skills shortage is the Skills Alliance, an initiative founded in 2024 by Ukraine with the participation of almost 50 partners, including governments, donors, international organisations and business representatives. The initiative aims to overcome structural unemployment and provide skilled workers to rebuild Ukraine.
The project aims to retrain or upgrade the skills of more than 180,000 people over three years. More than €700 million is planned to be allocated for this purpose. The main target audience is young people, internally displaced persons, women and veterans. The programme is primarily aimed at Ukrainians at home, but is also available to those abroad.
The priority sectors for training are construction, transport, IT, engineering, and healthcare.
Project partners include governments, international organisations (including the EU, World Bank, ILO), private companies (Google, Bayer), and NGOs.
One of the important aspects of the programme is integration with the EU, which includes harmonisation of educational standards and improved recognition of diplomas.
The initiative is part of the broader Ukraine Facility mechanism and aims to support Ukraine’s recovery and European integration.