Italian logistics faces a structural problem that no single policy measure can solve: there aren’t enough drivers. According to an estimate by the research office of CGIA Mestre (August 2024), Italy is short of at least 22,000 truck drivers. IRU, the world road transport organization, measures the shortage as a percentage: in Italy it stands at 9%, slightly down. This isn’t a cyclical fluctuation but a demographic trend that is already weighing on the delivery capacity of many companies.
The numbers behind the crisis: not just an Italian problem
To understand the scale of the issue, the data is stark. In Italy, holders of the goods CQC (the professional driver qualification) fell from 1,177,077 in January 2019 to 767,948 in March 2024: almost 410,000 fewer, or 35% (Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport data compiled by Uomini e Trasporti). These are valid qualifications, not drivers at work, so the drop includes those who retired, those who changed jobs and those who did not renew. On the employer side, the Excelsior survey by Unioncamere and the Ministry of Labour expected 232,330 hires of heavy vehicle and truck drivers in 2025, and for 56.7% of them companies expected recruitment difficulties.
The European picture isn’t more encouraging. According to IRU (2023 report), one truck driver in three in Europe is over 55, and those under 25 make up 5%. Italy is worse off: on 2024 data, 45% are over 55 and 2.2% are under 25. For Italy, CGIA estimated that within ten years one driver in two will leave professional driving. That is a generous reading, because it counts every CQC holder over 50 (53.7%): those who will have turned 65 by 2034, meaning today’s over-55s, are 34%. Even so, one holder in three will turn 65 by 2034.
Italy is particularly exposed for three reasons:
- High cost of professional licensing. A C/CE license and the CQC cost several thousand euros, a significant barrier for younger candidates; according to CGIA, quite a few haulage companies now pay for them to be able to hire.
- Working conditions perceived as unattractive. Irregular hours, time away from home, and a lack of digital tools in day-to-day operations.
- Competition from other sectors. Amazon, GLS, and large e-commerce logistics operators absorb a growing share of available labor, often offering better conditions than traditional SME transport companies.
The hidden cost of driver shortages
When drivers are scarce, the consequences extend well beyond delivery delays. Every vacant position generates a chain of costs:
Rising labor costs
Scarcity drives wages up, which isn’t inherently negative, but becomes unsustainable when combined with already thin margins in last-mile transport.
What that cost looks like today is set out in the Italian Ministry of Labour tables: since January 2026 a C3 driver costs the employer between €29.90 and €35.34 per hour worked. For your own profile, with overtime and allowances, you can work out what a driver hour costs you on the ministry tables in two minutes, including what the hours that produce nothing are worth in a year.
Overloading existing drivers
With fewer resources, each driver must cover more deliveries. The result is increased overtime, declining service quality, and higher turnover: overworked drivers leave sooner, further compounding the problem.
Failed deliveries and lost customers
Fewer drivers means less daily delivery capacity, leading to delays, rescheduling, and in worst cases, lost contracts with clients who cannot tolerate service failures. The last-mile logistics market in Italy is increasingly competitive: companies that can’t guarantee adequate service levels get replaced.
Technology as a capacity multiplier
If the problem is structural and demographic, the answer cannot simply be “hire more.” Companies need to do more with available resources. This is precisely where technology comes in, not as a replacement for drivers, but as a multiplier of their productivity.
Route optimization: more deliveries per driver
Advanced route optimization software can increase deliveries per driver per day. How? By reducing empty kilometers, eliminating overlaps, respecting delivery windows, and balancing workloads across the fleet. Time no longer spent driving around empty or retrying deliveries that failed outside their window goes back into delivering. How much of it comes back depends on volumes, delivery type, and configuration. The figures Optivo publishes on distance, fuel, vehicles, and planning time are on the results page.
Companies still planning routes on spreadsheets are leaving efficiency on the table. The shift from Excel to automated route planning isn’t just a technology upgrade, it’s an operational necessity: when every driver counts, you can’t afford to waste time and kilometers on approximate planning.
Driver apps: less wasted time, more autonomy
The newer generation of workers, including those in transport, expects digital tools. A driver app that provides optimized navigation, real-time delivery sequences, and digital proof of delivery isn’t a luxury: it’s a tool that reduces errors and eliminates paperwork. With the OptivoRoute driver app, closing a delivery takes three taps (pick the delivery, take the photo or collect the signature, confirm), and the proof of delivery reaches the dispatcher right away.
Time is recovered across the whole day: no calls to the operations center when the route changes, no paper waybills to bring back to the office in the evening. To see what that is worth in your own fleet, spend a few days timing how long paperwork and phone calls take today, then multiply by drivers and working days. That time translates into additional deliveries without hiring anyone.
Dynamic exception management
Technology isn’t only useful during the planning phase. Throughout the operational day, things change: a customer isn’t available, an address is wrong, a ZTL or LEZ restricts access for certain vehicles. An intelligent system replans in real time, redistributing deliveries across drivers to maintain overall fleet productivity. The same applies to the regulatory constraints on driving and rest times under the Mobility Package, in force from 1 July 2026 also on 2.5–3.5 t vans in international transport or cabotage: with drivers increasingly scarce, optimising residual driving hours becomes a direct productivity lever.
Attracting and retaining: the role of digital experience
There’s an aspect of the driver crisis that is often underestimated: the ability to attract young workers. Employees under 30, accustomed to interacting with apps and digital platforms in every aspect of their lives, also judge an employer by the technology it provides.
A transport company still using paper waybills, phone calls to communicate routes, and no structured feedback system is simply less attractive than one offering:
- A mobile app to receive routes, navigate, and record deliveries
- Real-time communication with the operations center
- Transparency on shifts, routes, and daily objectives
- Standardized processes that reduce stress and ambiguity
This isn’t about gamification or marketing gimmicks, but concrete tools that improve the working day and reduce frustration. And a less frustrated driver is a driver who stays.
What fleet managers can do today
The driver shortage won’t resolve itself in the short term. The demographic data is unambiguous, and training timelines for new professional drivers are long. But there are concrete actions every fleet manager can take right now:
- Measure current efficiency. How many deliveries per driver per day? How many empty kilometers? What’s the first-attempt delivery rate? Without data, there is no improvement.
- Adopt automated planning tools. Even starting with a pilot on a subset of the fleet, to measure real-world impact.
- Digitize the driver experience. Apps, integrated navigation, paperwork elimination.
- Invest in retention. Training, technology, and working conditions are more effective (and less expensive) levers than across-the-board salary increases. An often underrated turnover driver is poorly handled promotions to supervisor: a senior driver promoted without managerial preparation often resigns within a year, taking two or three colleagues from their shift along. Some verticals have an even more specific version of the mechanism: in waste collection, routes unbalanced by habit rather than data are a documented turnover driver abroad, and only partly so in Italy.
The driver crisis is real and structural. But companies that take a technology-driven and data-driven approach to fleet management don’t suffer from the shortage: they manage it, turning a constraint into a competitive advantage.
Sources. CGIA Mestre, research office, 10 August 2024 (Italian) · Uomini e Trasporti, CQC holders from Ministry data (Italian) · Unioncamere and Ministry of Labour, Excelsior 2025 (Italian) · IRU, global truck driver shortage, November 2023 · IRU, truck driver ages on 2024 data · IRU, Italy’s driver shortage, August 2026.