Drivers, forklift operators, logistics workers are in short supply. Yet part of the industry continues to grow and hire.
For years, the labour shortage has been portrayed as an emergency affecting everyone equally: few candidates, drivers retiring without being replaced, young people not entering the sector. On paper, a scenario that should hinder the entire industry.
In reality, the situation is far less straightforward. Some companies are turning down business opportunities because they cannot staff their shifts, while others, during the same period, have expanded both their workforce and the range of services they offer. Same market, same conditions, very different outcomes.
The market is naturally driving its own selection process.
The numbers in the sector tell a fairly clear story. According to the "Gino Marchet" Contract Logistics Observatory at the Politecnico di Milano, there were 84,500 companies in the sector in 2020 and 82,000 in 2021, with market exits concentrated mainly among the smaller and less structured operators. Today, there are about 79,000 contract logistics companies, in a market that reached 112.4 billion euros in 2025.
Revenue is growing, companies are decreasing. It is a selection process that has been ongoing for years, quietly, without any dramatic failures.
Meanwhile, the pressure on the labour market shows no signs of easing. In the first quarter of 2026, the sector anticipated over 95,000 entries, with a recruitment difficulty of 55.3% for goods transporters and 71.8% for warehouse forklift operators: the highest value among all operational roles in the sector. In Europe, there is a shortage of over 500,000 professional drivers, and the figure could exceed one million within three to five years (European Commission, IRU). In Italy, the gap is estimated to be between 20,000 and 25,000 drivers, with those under 25 stagnant at 2.2%.
The question at this point is what companies are really doing to find that staff.
The market is selecting its winners and losers.
Looking at the initiatives launched in the sector over the last two years, three models can be identified. They do not exclude each other, but require very different investments and timeframes.
Train instead of search. Several large transport groups have established in-house academies, often in partnership with vocational training institutions, to guide candidates through obtaining their Category C and CE driving licences and Driver Qualification Card (CQC), with direct employment opportunities upon completion of the program.
It is the most intuitive solution, but also the slowest: none of these initiatives can produce fully operational drivers in less than several months. On the other hand, it is the only approach that actually increases the overall number of qualified professionals in the market, rather than simply shifting them from one company to another.
Bringing talent to the source. A second group of operators has addressed the issue further upstream by organizing training programs directly in workers’ countries of origin. Industry associations and Italian companies have launched initiatives of this kind in Morocco and are exploring similar opportunities in India, with the aim of overcoming the challenge posed by the Driver Qualification Card (CQC), which is mandatory in Europe but cannot be obtained outside the European Union.
In this case, financial resources alone are not enough. Success depends on strong institutional relationships and the ability to manage complex administrative processes, capabilities that only a limited number of companies possess internally.
Creating the conditions for people to stay. The third model is the least common, and the most resource-intensive. Some industrial companies in Northeastern Italy have begun developing company-owned residential facilities near their production sites, based on a co-living model that combines private rooms with shared spaces for dozens of international workers.
Around housing, a broader support ecosystem is taking shape: Italian language courses, assistance with administrative procedures, and welfare services extended to employees’ families, starting with childcare support. The objective is not simply to attract talent, but to create the conditions for long-term integration and retention.
Three very different approaches. With one common element: none of these companies are trying to win the competition on salary.
Why the gap is widening
To understand what separates these companies from others, it is useful to start from a change that has gone almost unnoticed: the bottleneck has shifted.
For years, the constraint has been administrative in nature. Finding candidates outside of Europe was possible, bringing them in and putting them in a position to work was much less so, due to quota systems, long timelines, and unrecognised professional qualifications. In recent months, something has loosened, and broader entry channels have opened for descendants of Italians residing in major emigration countries, with Argentina at the forefront, where nearly a million compatriots are registered with AIRE.
This shifts the problem, it does not solve it. If the permit ceases to be the limit, the limit becomes the company's ability to welcome those who arrive. And welcoming means answering questions that have nothing to do with recruitment: where they sleep, how to communicate in the department, what their family does while they work.
There is then a second factor, which is rarely discussed but is quite selective: organisational preparation. The ordinary channel for foreign personnel remains based on a quota system that runs out within minutes of opening. It is not the one who needs personnel the most who wins, but the one who has prepared the paperwork weeks in advance and has someone in the company capable of following it up at the right moment. It is an administrative skill, not a logistical one, and many companies simply do not have it.
The third factor directly concerns the market. The Polytechnic Observatory reports that the vertical integration of logistics operators continues: direct employees are increasing and the supply chain is shortening, with the share of costs for services purchased from other operators declining. This means that groups with a stable workforce are bringing back activities that they previously outsourced. Those who cannot structure their personnel do not just lose productivity: they lose contracts that those operators no longer subcontract.
The effects are reflected in the employment data. In the second half of 2025, micro-enterprises with up to 9 employees recorded the highest levels of difficulty, with over half of the expected revenues affected by issues. Among the indicated causes are a reduced ability to attract and retain resources and a more limited use of structured selection tools.
It is not a matter of will. Academies, housing, and welfare require immobilised capital, administrative skills, and a long return horizon, which are difficult to sustain for those who need to close the month. But the point is precisely this: with each passing year, the gap between those who have embarked on these paths and those who have not widens.
Those who create the right conditions find the right people.
Bringing together the three models, the common element emerges on its own.
Those who train internally do not buy personnel on the market: they produce it. Those who train abroad do not wait for candidates; they go to build them where they are. Those who invest in housing and services do not hire a person; they settle them.
In all three cases, personnel has ceased to be a variable cost and has become something more akin to infrastructure: investment is made now, the return comes over the years, and in the meantime, value remains in the company. It is the same logic used to evaluate a warehouse or a fleet, applied to people.
For decades, competitive advantage in logistics has been measured in means, square metres, and technology. Those levers still matter, but on their own, they are no longer enough. An automated warehouse without operators is unused capacity. A fleet without drivers is idle capital.
For an entrepreneur or an operations manager, the question is no longer how to find the people needed this year. It is whether in five years their company will still be in a position to choose them, or if it will be among those that the market has already selected.