The Myth of the Driver Shortage
We often hear that the transport sector is facing a “driver shortage.” It sounds simple and intuitive: demand is high, supply is low, and companies cannot find enough drivers to keep goods moving. But when viewed through the most basic rule of economics — the law of supply and demand — this explanation does not quite hold.
In any functioning market, scarcity pushes prices up. When something is genuinely hard to find, buyers compete, and prices rise until supply responds. Labour is no different. If drivers were truly in short supply, wages would rise rapidly as firms competed to attract and retain them. Yet this has not happened in any meaningful way. While wages may have increased slightly on paper, they have largely failed to keep pace with inflation. In real terms, many drivers are earning less than before.
That alone should make us pause.
What exists today is not a shortage of people who can drive, but a shortage of people willing to drive under current conditions. Long and irregular hours, extended time away from family, unpaid waiting periods, and rising physical and mental strain have become normal features of the job. At the wages being offered, many drivers simply decide that the trade-off is no longer worth it.
Instead of responding by raising pay significantly, many transport firms have tried to manage the problem by pushing harder on the system itself. Workloads increase, schedules tighten, and drivers are expected to absorb more pressure. This reflects the reality of a sector operating under thin margins. Freight rates are competitive, customers resist higher transport costs, and companies are reluctant to pass price increases upstream. The result is that cost pressures are passed downward — to labour.
This is where the clean logic of supply and demand breaks down. For wages to rise, workers must have bargaining power. Many drivers do not. Employment is fragmented, union representation is weak, and job mobility is limited by licensing, age, and regulatory requirements. Even when demand for drivers increases, drivers are often unable to convert that demand into higher pay.
What companies label as a “shortage” is often better understood as an exit. Experienced drivers leave the sector, reduce their hours, or shift into other types of work that offer more predictable income and time. They have not disappeared; they have opted out. From the employer’s perspective, this feels like scarcity. In reality, it is a retention problem.
Inflation further disguises the issue. Nominal wages may rise, but living costs rise faster. Fuel, food, rent, and schooling expenses steadily erode purchasing power. On paper, pay appears higher. In everyday life, drivers feel worse off. More work, less reward.
If there were truly a driver shortage, the signs would be unmistakable. Wages would rise sharply. Waiting time would be paid. Conditions would improve. Firms would openly compete for labour. Since this is not happening at scale, the market is sending a different message.
This is not a shortage of drivers. It is a mismatch between what the job demands and what it pays. Calling it a “driver shortage” is convenient. Calling it what it really is — underpayment for increasingly demanding work — forces a much harder conversation.
And that may be exactly why the myth persists.
Ramli Amir (ramgold@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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