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The country lost 1.2 million truck drivers in ten years and Santa Catarina registers 8 thousand idle vehicles without drivers with R$ 30 million in monthly losses, while the road profession ages without replacement and turnover in companies reaches 97.5%.
Brazil has seen approximately 1.2 million truck drivers leave the workforce in the last ten years, a combined result of retirements, migration to other activities, and a growing disinterest from new generations in a profession that requires long hours, months away from family, and daily exposure to risks on the roads. Data from SETCESP (Union of Cargo Transport Companies of São Paulo and Region) reveals that less than 20% of active truck drivers in the country are under 30 years old, while about half of the professionals are over 45 years old, an age profile that indicates a category aging without sufficient replacement of young workers. In Santa Catarina, the scenario mirrors the national trend: Setransc (Union of Cargo Transport and Logistics Companies of Southern SC) recorded in 2025 about 8 thousand idle heavy vehicles due to a lack of drivers, generating an estimated loss of R$ 30 million per month.
The numbers from CAGED confirm that most formally employed truck drivers in Santa Catarina are concentrated in the age range between 30 and 49 years, with an increasingly sparse presence in the age groups below 30. The turnover rate among transport companies reaches 97.5%, with an average tenure of only 14.8 months with the same employer, a combination that indicates an unstable market where drivers frequently change companies and companies cannot retain those they hire. The result is a sector that transports more than 60% of everything that circulates in Brazil, but that cannot find enough people to keep the vehicles running.
Why young people don’t want to be truck drivers
The list of reasons is long and none of them are simple to resolve. Insecurity on the roads, lack of infrastructure for basic needs such as adequate places to sleep and shower, poor quality of many highways, and exhausting work hours create a set of conditions that drives away anyone who has an alternative job that is less taxing. Luiz Henrique da Cunha Souza, a 29-year-old driver who lives in São José (SC) and started driving trucks at 25, reports that he has worked for companies that ignored mandatory rest, leaving him almost three days without adequate sleep.
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Law No. 13.103 of 2015 stipulates that truck drivers must rest for at least 11 hours for every 24 hours of driving, with 8 of those hours being uninterrupted. In practice, drivers who work on commission face pressure to drive more and earn more, a dynamic that endangers not only the life of the professional but also that of everyone sharing the road. According to the PRF (Federal Highway Police), sleep deprivation reduces attention and significantly increases the likelihood of accidents, a problem that the drivers themselves recognize as one of the reasons why the profession has lost its appeal for those choosing a career.
What truck drivers earn and what they sacrifice for the profession
The gross monthly earnings of truck drivers range from R$ 7,000 to R$ 11,000, an amount that at first glance seems competitive but needs to be put into context. Truck drivers spend weeks or months away from home to reach these amounts, sacrificing family time, watching their children grow, and any social routine that requires physical presence. Luiz Henrique reports that his last trip lasted two and a half months without stepping foot in Santa Catarina, traveling through Bahia, Goiás, São Paulo, and Ceará before returning.
The driver acknowledges that the profession allows him to provide material comfort for his family, but the price is absence. The driver reported to NDTV Record that he can provide material comfort for his daughter, but he is not present to share that comfort with her, summarizing the dilemma that thousands of truck drivers face daily. Despite having fallen in love with life on the road and the possibility of visiting places he would never see in another profession, Luiz states that he would do anything to prevent his own daughter from following the same path, given the current level of insecurity on the highways.
What happens when truck drivers disappear
The impact of 8 thousand idle vehicles in Santa Catarina goes beyond the loss of R$ 30 million monthly. When trucks do not run, goods do not arrive: industrial inputs are delayed, agricultural products expire, supermarket shelves are left empty, and the entire production chain that depends on road transport feels the effect. In a country where more than 60% of cargo moves on wheels, the shortage of truck drivers is a logistical problem that quickly turns into an economic problem.
The aging trend of the category worsens the outlook. If almost half of active drivers are already over 45 years old and the entry of young people remains insufficient to replace those who leave, the shortage of truck drivers tends to deepen in the coming years. Transport companies compete for an increasingly smaller number of qualified professionals, which explains the 97.5% turnover rate: qualified drivers can change employers at any time because they know they will be hired elsewhere. The system as a whole loses out, operating with an increasingly smaller capacity margin.
What would need to change for the truck driver profession to attract young people again
The solution is not a single factor. Improving road infrastructure, ensuring rest stops with decent resting conditions in states like Santa Catarina, enforcing legal working hours, and offering remuneration that genuinely compensates for the risks and personal sacrifices are minimum conditions for young people to reconsider the truck cabin as a career option. As long as the truck driver profession is associated with sleepless nights, months away from family, and dangerous roads, no discourse on the importance of road transport will be enough to convince those who have alternatives.
Automation and autonomous driving appear on the horizon as possible technological answers, but they are still far from replacing drivers on a large scale in Brazil. Until autonomous trucks are viable on Brazilian roads with all the complexity that entails, the country depends on people willing to take on an essential role that fewer and fewer people want to perform. The 1.2 million truck drivers lost in the last decade are not just statistics: they are the exact measure of how much Brazil has neglected those who keep its economy running on four axles and asphalt that often isn’t even asphalt.
And you, do you know any truck drivers who left the profession? Do you think the salary compensates for the risks and the distance from family? Leave your opinion in the comments.
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