Rising freight demand, an ageing workforce, limited training pathways, and poor facilities are creating a growing challenge for Australia’s trucking sector. We spoke with Sarah Dunning, Strategic Adviser for IRU member NatRoad, to better understand the situation in Australia, where the driver shortage rate hit 12% in 2025, up from 10% in 2024.
For Sarah Dunning, the higher 2025 figure reflects what trucking companies are seeing on the ground.
“The driver shortage is more severe than people assume, and it will get worse as people age or other pressures such as rising costs compound on smaller and medium sized operators,” she told us.
As demand for goods increases, so does the need for drivers. Unfortunately, the workforce is not expanding fast enough to keep up.
“Everything in Australia, from food to pharmaceuticals, has to be delivered by truck. Australia’s freight task is only going to get bigger, and road transport is expected to increase its share of the freight task,” said Sarah Dunning.
“Without a serious pipeline of drivers, more freight simply means a deeper shortage. We can’t grow our way out of this problem; we need to build our way out of it.”
With road freight projected to increase by 77% from 2020 to 2050, the challenge is not only immediate. It’s structural.
Australia has one of the highest projected retirement rates among the countries surveyed by IRU. Around 21% of the current driver workforce is projected to retire by 2030. This means one in five drivers could leave the profession within a few years.
Attracting younger people
Truck driving is not widely seen as an attractive career for school leavers in Australia. Apprenticeship and training pathways are also limited and fragmented across Australian states.
“Older drivers often see themselves as professional career drivers,” said Sarah Dunning. “But a lot of the younger ones, unless they are part of a family business, don’t see it as a career for life.”
Long periods away from home are harder to reconcile with modern family expectations. “People often think truck driving requires constant long distance or interstate travel, away from their homes and their families,” said Sarah Dunning.
The reality is more nuanced, however. There are significant opportunities to work in metropolitan areas and manage hours to return home each night, a dimension of the profession that is poorly understood and undersold to potential recruits.
Women also remain significantly underrepresented in Australia’s truck driver workforce. IRU estimates that women represent around 7% of all truck drivers in Australia. Sarah Dunning pointed to facilities as one of the most basic barriers.
“Especially in outback Australia, having appropriate toilets, showers and changing spaces would be a positive first step,” she said.
Rest areas often lack appropriate amenities, and some new logistics sites still fail to provide dedicated facilities for women. For Sarah Dunning, this is not a minor issue – it reflects deeper cultural and practical barriers that discourage women from entering or remaining in the profession. It also signals to potential recruits that the industry has not yet made space for them.
Costs are adding even more pressure for businesses. Margins are tight, especially for smaller operators. Some businesses are working with profit margins of less than 3%. That leaves little room to invest in technology, training or productivity improvements.
The sector’s image also matters. Truck driving is often associated with long hours, poor health and isolation. This makes it harder to attract young people into the profession. Changing that perception requires not just better marketing but genuine improvements to working conditions and career pathways.
NatRoad is working to support operators through information, webinars, regional forums and advocacy. However, Sarah Dunning is clear that industry action alone is not enough. “This is fixable, but it requires governments and industry to treat it as the economic and productivity issue it is, not just a trucking problem.”
Stronger government support for training, better rest area infrastructure, and a more coordinated approach to workforce planning are all needed.
Australia’s driver shortage is not caused by one factor. It is the result of many pressures building at once.
And without action, the gap will continue to grow.
Driver shortage webinar
Join us on 30 June for 45 minutes of data, forecasts and frontline insights into the driver shortage: from demographics and retirement trends to capacity constraints and what the industry is doing about it.
Sarah Dunning will be joined by other industry experts.
Topics covered in depth:
- Workforce demographics (age, gender and origin)
- Shortage in 2025 and forecasts based on retirement trends
- Structural factors behind the shortage
- Impact on capacity and operating costs
- Perspectives and experiences from IRU members
About NatRoad
Established in 1948, NatRoad is Australia’s leading not-for-profit road freight association. Representing over 1,900 members employing 15,000 people nationwide, it supports operators with advice and partnerships. Since merging with the Australian Road Train Association in 2008, NatRoad has strengthened industry representation.