There is no denying that the transport industry has significantly developed in recent years. More and more companies appear that decide to transport people, thus forcing the competition to improve both the customer service process and the work of drivers responsible for passenger transport. So what does the market for drivers in Europe look like these days?
Driver market – what do transport companies have to face?
Mobility package – what is it about and what are its outcomes?
At the beginning of the year, transport companies had to face the so-called mobility package. By this concept we mean a set of rules that are designed to regulate road transport throughout the European Union. These regulations have been implemented for several years, but the biggest changes came into force in February 2022. They concern the rules for posting drivers, as well as their remuneration, rights and obligations. The changes that have appeared concern, for example, the taxation of driver allowances. To be clear – the cost of an employee has rocketed upwards by a third, with not much time between the announcement of these changes and their implementation, and employers of transport companies have been put in a difficult position. To illustrate this well, it must be mentioned that the cost of an employee is about 10% of the cost of travel, and thus each freight should go up by around 3 to 3.5%. However, it is one thing to raise the price for a journey for an individual customer, and quite another to negotiate contracts signed with large companies for the transport of their employees, in which the price is clearly defined for the duration of the contract. Such contracts are sometimes signed for the duration of several years. The clients are large corporations and there the price change from day to day is not an option. It has to be emphasised that the mobility package has existed for two years, but the regulations it contains are being updated, so the changes enter into force gradually. At this point our company is already prepared for them, and we legalize each degree on an ongoing basis, nevertheless, we still struggle with some difficulties that these changes entail. Fortunately, those that we still need to implement should not pose a problem for us to implement, and we are doing it quite quickly and efficiently.
Increase in costs – what impact does it have on the transport market?
Regrettably, there are variables that are harder to predict, such as fuel prices. And, while we are not scared of these increases, the volatility of these prices in a relatively short time can be an issue. It happened that within a few days it changed by thirty, forty and even fifty groszes, which has a real impact on the cost of passenger transport. If customers pay a certain rate for transport, and in the meantime the price of fuel changes so dynamically, then it generates significant losses for the company. At the moment, our price list is quite stable, but in the period of rapid fuel increases, also the prices we proposed had to be updated on an ongoing basis. A positive thing is that we are not affected by the tax change, yet, for example, it will be noticeable by individual drivers. In our case, VAT is not a problem, but the fluctuation of fuel prices is. Fortunately, we managed to handle the pricing policy in such a manner that the cost of our transport services was not too high, but at the same time compensated us for the increase in fuel prices. Yet, there are expenditures that most of our passengers are not aware of, although we also try to talk about it. We mean, e.g., the price of tyres, which has gone up twice, or the increase in the cost of car parts by as much as 40, or even 50%. One usually only notices the changes in the price of fuel, but no one asks about the cost of repairing a car at a mechanic shop (on condition that there is a mechanic at all, as there is currently a problem on the market with the availability of reliable car mechanics). These are the so-called hidden costs which burden the company, but which hardly anyone thinks about.
Driver market in Europe
A serious predicament facing the transport industry at the moment is the shortage of drivers. As a company, we have completely changed our recruitment system. We had to learn from the previous process of hiring drivers and pay attention to how the new person was introduced to the work environment. Unfortunately, the increasingly poor quality of the delegated employee forced us to change our employment strategy. At present, during the recruitment process, we take into account more behavioural patterns. This means that we verify how a potential employee behaves in a given situation. We insist that s/he should have soft skills, i.e. competencies that are revealed in the employee’s behaviour, and how s/he performs his or her duties, and we will introduce and train such a person within the company. We cannot judge candidates only on the basis of submitted documents. These are skills of a personal and interpersonal nature that are vital in the profession of a driver. The job is not easy, so for us it is more important that the candidates are mentally fit for it, and we will take care of their training. Of course, this is another cost for us and we take it into account, but it is essential for us that the drivers are well trained, and that is what we are focusing on at the moment.
We care about our drivers
If one were to rely on figures, there is a shortage of around 500 000 drivers in the entire Europe, while in Poland alone the figure reaches 120 000. We are in a slightly different situation as most of the transport services are provided by minibus, and, in this case, only a B-category driving licence is needed. As a result, we do not have this problem as much, and we also take care of our drivers financially, as evidenced by the fact that many of them have been working with us for a long time. However, we are still recruiting new staff, because the shortage of drivers unfortunately bothers us too. We also offer attractive European rates for them, which distinguishes us from other transport companies. In addition to this, we are also planning to introduce a benefit program for our employees, and if B-category driver has been with us for more than two years s/he can apply for a subsidy when s/he decides to upgrade his/her qualifications and pass D-category test. We have already implemented this program.
The issue with the availability of cars and its impact on the transport industry
When talking about the problems that transport companies are currently facing, we should also pay attention to car availability. We were affected by the hindrance for the first time two years ago, when it turned out that in order to receive the car that we wanted, we had to wait a year for it. Essentially, we had to determine the demand one year in advance, which is not easy to do, considering the fact that we were still dealing with the effects of the pandemic and no one was able to predict what would happen in the coming months. This is quite a logistical problem for us to solve, because we have to budget a given number of cars much earlier, not knowing what the coming year would be like. As a company, we do not order a few, but, e.g., 100 cars in one go. We face this problem as a large transport company, nonetheless it is important to remember that smaller companies face it, too. After all, anticipating an entire year ahead is a challenge and a high risk that the demand may turn out to be lower, or vice versa – much higher, than we expected. Now, when we enter one season, we already have to foresee the next one.
Transport market – summary
Summing up the issue of the difficulties that we face as a transport company, it is the rising costs on all sides that are one of the key problems. There is no need to dwell on this topic, because as we all know very well, price increases are currently affecting us on many levels. Yet, this is not the only and most important area that challenges us, but it motivates us to continue working hard.
