Strong initiative against the shortage of skilled workers
The shortage of drivers and skilled workers is a concern for the economy and logistics in particular. It is considered to be one of the critical bottleneck factors for future growth. With DACHSER Service und Ausbildungs GmbH, the logistics service provider launched a sustainable qualification offensive ten years ago. DACHSER is now one of the largest trainers of professional drivers in Germany.
Without professional drivers, almost nothing works. The wheels would come to a standstill in the economy and the shelves in supermarkets and department stores would remain empty. But the freight forwarding industry lacks young drivers. The consortium study "Addressing capacity bottlenecks in logistics with a focus on drivers" published at the beginning of 2023 puts the deficit in Germany at more than 70,000 skilled workers. And around 20,000 more driving positions could go unfilled each year. The causes are manifold: unattractive working hours, barely competitive salaries, but also a lack of social esteem. The result: the transport industry suffers from an image problem and the driving profession is often perceived negatively. A report by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) even sees the driver shortage as a European and global problem, with more than three million unfilled truck driver positions in 36 countries surveyed.
"The shortage of skilled workers is a general market trend that affects the entire logistics industry," says Alexander Tonn, COO Road Logistics at DACHSER. "We have to make ever greater efforts to fill vacancies." This is exactly where DACHSER started ten years ago and was one of the first logistics companies to launch a qualification offensive with the founding of "DACHSER Service und Ausbildungs GmbH". The aim: to attract young people to the driving profession, inspire them, train them and secure them for the market in the long term - ideally later as independent transport partners.
"Appreciation, prospects, personal responsibility and salary are the most important factors in making the profession more attractive," said Hendrik Jansen, Managing Director of DACHSER Service und Ausbildungs GmbH, who has been involved in the initiative since its inception.
Finding drivers and getting them excited about their job
Since then, around one hundred trainees have started their training to become professional drivers every year. "We have professionalized the training and further vocational training, the TQ1, and put all processes relating to the world of driving to the test," says Jansen. This also included, for example, hiring fleet managers in every German DACHSER branch, who have a key function within the concept and are dedicated to the needs of the drivers.
"At DACHSER, employees at all operational levels are important and have their own status. This appreciation and work culture is also reflected at the professional driver level in modern, pleasant workplaces." Hendrik Jansen
"At DACHSER, employees at all operational levels are important and have their own status. This appreciation and work culture is also reflected at the professional driver level in modern, pleasant workplaces. This includes addressing topics such as healthy eating, exercise and addiction prevention," explains Jansen. Value stream analyses, which DACHSER regularly carries out in its branches, map all processes relating to the day-to-day work of the drivers and identify optimization potential and development opportunities. Here, too, the concerns of the drivers are always explicitly taken into account.
Bringing about change in dealings with each other
"Finding good drivers is one thing. It is just as important to keep good people and motivate them further," says Hendrik Jansen. In doing so, you also have to keep an eye on changing people's attitudes to work. "Today, it's about issues such as work-life balance, changing communication or meaningful and meaningful work. And these are precisely the levers we are working on: If we manage to bring about a change in the way we deal with our drivers - and this doesn't just apply to DACHSER - then we will succeed in bringing about a cultural change and the resulting greater appreciation for this profession and the people who do it."
Even if this alone will not solve the structural and global driver shortage, DACHSER Service und Ausbildungs GmbH has set an example. "Sustainable logistics is determined by the quality of the service and the people who provide it every day," says Alexander Tonn. "We want to empower them, give them the best conditions and value them in what they do. The foundations for this are laid in training and further education. This is where our initiative comes in."
DACHSER Service und Ausbildungs GmbH was founded by DACHSER in 2014. The aim of the company subsidiary is to attract, inspire and train people for the driving profession with an exemplary training and further education program and to secure them for the market in the long term. Key to the initiative are the quality of training, appreciation and communication.
The drivers trained by DACHSER usually work for transport partners who are on the road for DACHSER, among others, after completing their training. The logistics company therefore has a particular interest in keeping the next generation closely tied to the DACHSER family. The team at DACHSER Service und Ausbildungs GmbH also helps the trained drivers to take the step towards self-employment, for example.