Business Called on the Government to Regulate the Work of Freight Transport Drivers Due to Their Shortage

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Медіацентр
Business Called on the Government to Regulate the Work of Freight Transport Drivers Due to Their Shortage

31.08.2026

The Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC), together with leading agricultural and food associations of Ukraine, has appealed to Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi over the critical shortage of professional freight transport drivers. Industry representatives call on the government to temporarily adapt the rules for monitoring drivers' work and rest schedules to the conditions of martial law.

As business representatives note in the appeal, the shortage of drivers is already turning into a systemic constraint for domestic logistics, production processes, and exports. The problem is especially acute during the harvesting campaign, when the harvest needs to be transported out of the fields, and products delivered to elevators, processing enterprises, the domestic market, and export routes, within tight deadlines.

"The full-scale war has simultaneously increased the economy's need for road transportation and reduced the market's capacity to perform it," the appeal emphasizes.

Among the key reasons for the complication of the situation, the associations name the blocking and periodic restrictions on the operation of sea ports, the need to constantly change routes, systematic strikes on logistics centers and transport enterprises, as well as the destruction of elevators and warehouse infrastructure. Because of this, the length of trips and the number of transshipments increase, while the available vehicle fleet shrinks. An additional factor has been the shortage of qualified drivers, connected with the fulfillment of the state's mobilization tasks.

According to the estimate of the sectoral associations, with the current number of drivers and vehicles, it is practically impossible for business to simultaneously ensure the necessary volume of transportation within the set deadlines and fully comply with the established requirements regarding the duration of driving, breaks, and rest.

"This is a consequence of a systemic shortage of people and equipment, and not of business's unwillingness to comply with the rules. Control and penalty measures do not restore destroyed vehicles and do not replace drivers, but they can cause additional downtime, the disruption of the supply of food and other goods, harvest losses, a reduction in export earnings, and an additional fall in GDP," the appeal states.

The UAC and other specialized associations propose that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopt a separate resolution that would, for the period of martial law, temporarily regulate the specifics of monitoring drivers' work and rest schedules.

In particular, the proposed draft provides for temporarily suspending, until March 1, 2027, scheduled, unscheduled, and raid inspections specifically with regard to compliance with the requirements on the duration of working time, vehicle driving time, mandatory breaks, and the daily and weekly rest of freight transport drivers.

In addition, it is proposed not to request or use, during subsequent inspections, the data of tachographs, driver cards, printouts, and other accounting documents relating to this period.

The signatories of the appeal emphasize that the current rules already provide for certain mechanisms for adapting to wartime conditions; however, they do not solve the problem of the acute shortage of drivers and rolling stock caused by the war and systematic strikes on civilian transport infrastructure.

The appeal was signed by:

the Public Union "Ukrainian Agrarian Forum"

the Ukrainian Agri Council

the Agrarian Union of Ukraine

the Association of Farmers and Private Landowners of Ukraine

the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation

the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club

the sectoral association "Ukrkharchoprom"

the Millers of Ukraine

the All-Ukrainian Association of Bakers

the NGO "Ukrkhlibprom"

the "Ukroliyaprom" Association