The HGV Driver Shortage in Ireland and the UK in 2026: What’s Really Going On and What Hauliers Can Do About It
If you run a haulage business in Ireland or the UK in 2026, the driver shortage is no longer a temporary problem you wait out. It is the operating environment. Every haulier we work with tells us the same thing: routes are running short, overtime budgets are blown, and qualified Class 1 drivers are getting harder to find every quarter.
This article sets out where the shortage actually stands in 2026, why it is not fixing itself, and what hauliers are doing that genuinely works.
Ireland: the IRHA’s 4,000-driver gap, and getting worse
The Irish Road Haulage Association estimates the Republic needs 4,000 additional HGV drivers over the next five years to meet demand. That figure has been repeated by successive IRHA presidents, most recently by Ger Hyland, who has called the situation a “tipping point” with one Cork haulier alone short 40 drivers and lorries parked up as a result. SoloCheck
The underlying demographics are alarming. 30% of current HGV drivers in Ireland are expected to retire by 2026, according to industry analysis cited by RTÉ. The IRHA’s own data puts the average age of drivers in Ireland at somewhere between 57 and 60 years old, with the warning that “we will have an exodus from the industry in the next three to four years and we have no replacements.” SoloCheckSoloCheck
The retention picture is no better. Nolan Transport, one of Ireland’s largest hauliers, reported increasing driver pay by 20% simply to retain existing staff. Three years ago, a competent CE driver could be hired in Ireland for €18 to €19 per hour. That rate now struggles to attract applications. Apple App Store
International recruitment, which has been the relief valve for many operators, is also getting harder. Recent visa changes for South African nationals are expected to make it more difficult for Irish employers to recruit drivers from a key source market, adding further pressure to the system. SoloCheck
The UK: 60,000 drivers a year for the next five years
The UK picture is the same problem at a larger scale. The Road Haulage Association now estimates that the UK needs to recruit and train 60,000 HGV drivers every year for the next five years to meet demand and support growth. That is up from the RHA’s earlier estimate of 40,000 per year, reflecting a steady worsening of the underlying picture. RocketReach
The 2021 crisis peaked at over 100,000 drivers short. Training programmes, licensing reforms, and pay increases pulled the headline figure down, but the structural shortage in 2025-2026 still sits at between 40,000 and 60,000 drivers. IrishtruckerIrishtrucker
What has alarmed the RHA most recently is not retirements, but mid-career drivers leaving the profession. More than 117,000 qualified HGV drivers allowed their Driver Qualification Cards to lapse in the past 12 months, with many of those leaving in their 30s and 40s — a departure that cannot be explained by ageing alone. RHA Managing Director Richard Smith has been blunt about the implications: “To future-proof businesses and the supply chain for the long term, driver recruitment, training and retention must be an urgent priority for government.” FacebookRocketReach
The Department for Transport’s own quarterly figures show the problem easing only marginally. In the fourth quarter of 2024, 24% of HGV businesses reported driver vacancies, down from 28% the previous quarter — the first decline following a steady climb since late 2023. Yet context is key: at the height of the shortage in Q4 2021, 43% of operators were struggling to fill positions. Transway
In Northern Ireland specifically, the Road Haulage Association estimates a shortage of between 4,000 and 5,000 HGV drivers, with fewer than 2% of HGV drivers in Northern Ireland under the age of 25. KompassKompass
Why this is not fixing itself
Every year for the past five years, industry bodies and government departments have published optimistic projections about the shortage easing. Every year, those projections have been wrong. Three structural forces explain why.
An ageing workforce that domestic recruitment is not replacing. According to the Office for National Statistics, the average age of HGV drivers in the UK is 55, and the Road Haulage Association reports that less than 1% of drivers are under 25. Logistics UK’s Q1 2025 figures show that over 50% of HGV drivers are aged 50 or above, with under-35s representing a small minority of the workforce. Ireland’s demographic profile, with an average age in the high 50s according to the IRHA, is even more skewed. TranswayTransway
Slow and expensive licensing pathways. The IRHA highlights that it can take two years or more and over €1,000 to get an HGV licence for a young man or woman leaving school in Ireland. Hyland has called this “unacceptable” and a major deterrent to young people entering the industry. In the UK, the picture is similar: licence and CPC costs combined run into thousands of pounds, and the cancellation in 2025 of the £34 million HGV Skills Bootcamps programme, which had provided 11,000 fully subsidised driver training places with an 89% pass rate, removed the largest centralised route into the industry. SoloCheckTransway
Bureaucratic friction on international recruitment. Ireland’s permit system has been described by the IRHA as a “complete mismatch” between three government departments. According to the IRHA, there is a complete mismatch between the operation of the licensing exchange programme operated by the Department of Transport and the RSA, the visa requirements operated by the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Employment Permit Schemes operated by the Department of Enterprise. Each of these entities applies differing rules, requirements and timescales which are not joined up or operated effectively. Bringing in drivers from abroad can take over a year. The UK situation is more streamlined under the Skilled Worker visa route, but small and medium hauliers without an existing Sponsor Licence still face a six-to-eight-week setup before they can hire internationally. SoloCheck
What hauliers are doing that works in 2026
Operators who have stabilised their driver numbers through 2025 and into 2026 have generally taken one or more of the following routes.
Internal driver training. A handful of larger operators have built their own training and licensing pipelines, sponsoring promising warehouse and yard staff through HGV qualification in exchange for service commitments. This works, but only at scale and only for operators with the capital and patience to invest 12-18 months before seeing a return. Most small and mid-sized hauliers cannot afford it.
Pay-led retention. Significant pay increases have stabilised driver numbers at many operators. Nolan Transport’s 20% pay rise is one example; many Irish hauliers are now paying €22-26 per hour for experienced CE drivers, compared to €18-19 three years ago. This stems the bleed but does not fill the gap, and it transfers margin pressure straight into customer pricing.
International recruitment with proper visa support. This is where the meaningful volume is now coming from. Hauliers in both Ireland and the UK are working with regulated recruitment partners to source qualified drivers from South Africa, the Philippines, Colombia, and Bangladesh, with full visa sponsorship arranged in advance.
For Irish employers, the route is the General Employment Permit, with HGV driver currently listed on the eligible occupations list. For UK employers with a Skilled Worker Sponsor Licence, the route is the Skilled Worker visa.
The international recruitment route works when three things are in place:
- A regulated recruitment partner. In Ireland, this means an agency holding an Employment Agency Licence issued by the Workplace Relations Commission. Sama Talent’s licence is EA 5649. In the UK, the Home Office Sponsor Licence sits with the employer, but a recruitment partner handles the candidate sourcing and Certificate of Sponsorship process.
- Verified candidates. A proper agency will assess licence validity, CPC equivalence, digital tachograph experience, and English to the standard required by the visa route before a CV reaches you.
- Realistic timelines. International deployment for Irish hauliers typically takes 14-18 weeks from brief to start. UK deployment runs 10-14 weeks if you already hold a Sponsor Licence. Anyone promising faster is misleading you about the system, not beating it.
What this means for hauliers in 2026
The driver shortage is not a recruitment problem you fix with a job advert. It is a structural workforce problem that requires a structural response. The hauliers who are coming through 2026 in good shape are the ones who:
- Treat driver retention as an operational priority, not an HR afterthought
- Build a parallel international recruitment pipeline before they need it
- Work with regulated, accountable agency partners rather than chasing the cheapest CV they can find
- Plan hiring on a 12-month horizon, not a 30-day one
Sama Talent works with hauliers across Ireland, Northern Ireland, and the UK on exactly this problem. We start with the local market through a free Labour Market Needs Test. When local sourcing does not deliver, we deploy verified, trade-tested drivers from our test centres in Manila and Johannesburg with full visa sponsorship.
If the driver shortage is hitting your operation, get in touch. We will give you a straight answer on what is achievable, in what timeline, and at what cost.
About this article: Citations are drawn from the Irish Road Haulage Association, the Road Haulage Association (UK), Logistics UK, the Office for National Statistics, the UK Department for Transport, the Irish Times, RTÉ, and industry trade press. All figures are current as of publication in May 2026. Sama Talent is a regulated Irish employment agency, EA 5649, placing skilled trades and professionals into roles across Ireland, the UK, and Europe.
