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The Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy (1) sets out a roadmap for putting transport in the Union firmly on the right track for a sustainable and smart future. One of the milestones (2) on the path towards sustainable, smart and resilient mobility is that by 2030, automated mobility will be deployed on a large scale. The strategy recognises that changes in the transport sector, in particular those relating to automation and digitalisation, are creating many new challenges as well as opportunities for the transport workforce. Therefore, the Commission considers it appropriate to adopt this Recommendation (Action 69 of the strategy’s action plan).

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In the EU-27, approximately 10 million persons (3) are employed in the transport and storage services sector (including postal and courier activities), which represents 5,2 % of the total workforce (4). Approximately 53 % of them work in land transport (road, rail and pipelines), 3 % in water transport (sea and inland waterways), 4 % in air transport, 26 % in warehousing and supporting and transport activities (such as cargo handling, storage and warehousing), and the remaining 14 % in postal and courier activities. Women are underrepresented in the EU’s transport sector’s workforce (22 %). An analysis by age of the EU transport workforce in 2021 (5) shows that the share for persons aged 30-49 years was similar to that for the whole economy, but the share of older workers was higher in the transport sector (36,9 % are aged 50-64 years), while the share of younger workers was lower (12,1 % are aged 15-29 years).

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With around EUR 555 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) at current prices, the transport and storage services sector (including postal and courier activities) accounted for about 5 % of total GVA in the EU-27 in 2020 (6).

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The European Pillar of Social Rights sets out 20 key principles and rights essential for fair and well-functioning labour markets and social protection systems. The Pillar is the European rulebook to make sure that the green and digital transitions are socially fair and just, both for transport users (7) and the transport workforce. The Council Recommendation of 16 June 2022 on ensuring a fair transition towards climate neutrality (8) sets out comprehensive guidance to Member States on the necessary policy packages to leave no one behind in the green transition. The Union’s digital strategy (9) aims to make the digital transformation work for people and businesses, while helping to achieve its target of a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. The Digital Decade policy programme 2030 (10) has established digital targets, including for a digitally skilled population and highly skilled digital professionals, as well as for the digital transformation of businesses.

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The study on ‘The social dimension of the transition to automation and digitalisation in transport, focusing on the labour force’ (11) assessed the awareness, preparedness and need for guidance of transport stakeholders. It found that, in general, in the sector, there is little awareness of the impact of automation and digitalisation on the transport workforce. Transport stakeholders are, on average, moderately prepared for this transition. Trade unions and national public bodies seem to anticipate or manage change more than employers. The surveyed stakeholders indicate that if guidance and additional measures are needed, they should mostly focus on knowledge sharing, as well as training and education of the workforce. Since transport employers – small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (12) in particular – are often not aware of measures or strategies aimed at facilitating the transition for the labour force, the social dimension of automation and digitalisation appears not to be their priority topic.

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The conclusions of the study were placed in a methodological framework inspired by the results of the High-Level Expert Group on the Impact of the Digital Transformation on EU Labour Markets (13). That framework provides an overview of preconditions that are essential to a smooth transition (namely awareness of the social dimension; identification of future skills needs; constructive social dialogue; enabling legislative environment; positive attitude towards change) and enablers that will contribute to facilitate the transition.

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The draft content of the present Recommendation was discussed with the Commission’s expert group on horizontal social issues in transport (14) and, at a stakeholder conference in March 2023 (15), with all relevant stakeholders from the transport sector, including public authorities, employers’ organisations, trade unions, education and training providers, companies, and transport professionals. The sectoral social dialogue committees established in the various segments of the transport sector (16) were also consulted.

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Automation and digitalisation are not new phenomena. They are interlinked, but their impact on the workforce is not necessarily the same. Automation is part of a broader notion of digitalisation and is defined as ‘the replacement of human input, in full or in part, by machine or software input (17). The broader notion of digitalisation is defined as ‘the integration of digital technologies and digitised data into all aspects of life’ (18). Rather than replacing human input in full or in part, digitalisation therefore means the use of digital tools in the workplace.

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Labour market developments will not only be influenced by technology, including its cost and acceptance, but also by other factors, such as globalisation, demographic change, the green transition, economic and other social trends, and the regulatory environment. In addition, the pace of automation will vary across countries and regions, modes of transport, types of occupation, and skills and competences.

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According to a recent report on the future of work in transport (19), there is a great variation in job automation risks across the more industrialised countries. Between 5,7 and 50 per cent of low-skilled jobs (such as dockers or baggage handlers) are exposed to a high risk of automation. The risk for the middle-skilled jobs (such as able seafarers or heavy truck drivers) is between 7 per cent and 23 per cent. With only up to 2 per cent, the high-skilled jobs (such as ship officers, aircraft pilots and professionals) have the lowest estimated potential for job loss resulting from the introduction of automation technologies.

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The European research project SKILLFUL (20) has identified the jobs and positions that are expected to be most affected by the present and future changes and developments of the European transportation system. Amongst the transport jobs that are likely to change are drivers, manual operators, ticket issuers and controllers, logistic centre staff, security controllers, and booking clerks and travel agents. Amongst those that are expected to become more relevant are logistics managers, logistics operators at terminals and delivery dispatchers, experts on artificial intelligence, digital transformation, big data, security and cybersecurity experts, legal services personnel and privacy protection specialists, and automated vehicle and drone operators.

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Different stakeholders may perceive the objective of automation and digitalisation and their impact on the workforce in different ways. Fostering a common understanding of the possible benefits and challenges of these developments and the issues at stake will reinforce cooperation and team spirit across stakeholder groups.

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Transport-related European Partnerships under the Horizon Europe programme, such as Connected, cooperative and automated mobility (CCAM) (21), Towards zero emission road transport (2Zero) (22) and Zero emission waterborne transport (ZEWT) (23), can facilitate the exchange on the social impact of the transition, as they bring together diverse and extensive public-private stakeholder networks.

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Upskilling and reskilling are crucial for managing the green and digital transitions. Having a workforce with the right skills contributes to sustainable growth, leads to more innovation and improves companies’ competitiveness. Principle 1 of the European Pillar of Social Rights states that ‘everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and lifelong learning in order to maintain and acquire skills that enable them to participate fully in society and manage successfully transitions in the labour market’. The European Year of Skills (24) aims at helping people get the right skills for quality jobs and helping companies, in particular SMEs, address skills shortages in the Union.

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The transport sector has been identified as one of the sectors where the implementation of the European Green Deal (as well as relevant national strategies) will require new skills and labour, and where the skilled workforce is already scarce. In addition to shortages linked to the shift towards renewable energy sources and sustainable and energy-efficient materials, products and modes of transport, significant labour shortages are already very visible in certain transport occupations. Heavy truck and lorry drivers have been in the top 10 rankings as regards labour shortages in all reports on labour market imbalances in Europe (25) conducted since 2017. In 2022, bus and tram drivers were ranked in the top 10 occupations with an identified shortage for the first time. Labour shortages may accelerate automation, which could at the same time be an opportunity to compensate for missing workers.

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The European research project WE-TRANSFORM (26) identified the level of importance of different skills and competences necessary to meet the challenges of the future automated and digitalised work environment, including by mode of transport.

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The Commission, assisted by its agencies, can provide guidance as to skills required under the transition to automation and digitalisation, for instance through studies. One recent example is the European Maritime Safety Agency’s study on competences for operators of maritime autonomous surface ships from remote control centres (27).

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Digital tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) can also help with identifying future skills needs and gaps at national level and help individuals to identify future career paths and learning opportunities. These tools, which are already being piloted by some public employment services (28), can also offer opportunities for more systemic solutions across sectors.

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As for other sectors, the trend towards greater automation and digitalisation in the transport sector highlights the need for adequate initial and continuing training programmes, including vocational education and training. These programmes need to effectively prepare workers for the challenges of future work in a timely manner, since automation and digitalisation could lead to a mismatch between skills demand and supply. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of jobs in which cognitive abilities are crucial, making advanced training and complex problem-solving skills more important for several types of jobs. Moreover, there is already increasing demand for advanced competences in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and expertise in IT, and this is expected to further increase in the future. Rising skills requirements can potentially further reduce the pool of available workers.

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One of the priorities of the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027 (29) is to enhance digital skills and competences for the digital transformation, including by promoting high quality and inclusive computing education from an early age, and by encouraging women’s participation in STEM. This could help, in the long term, address the difficulties faced by employers to recruit highly skilled workers, including in the transport sector.

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The European Skills Agenda supports the acquisition of skills for the green and digital transitions. One of its flagship actions is the Pact for Skills (30), which aims to strengthen collective action on skills development through partnerships.

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Against the backdrop of global value chains, the cross-border nature of many transport activities, new business models and forms of work, it is crucial that all workers are incentivised to participate in training measures to keep pace with changing skills requirements in the transport sector. For digitalisation to be inclusive, training on digital matters should be accessible for all groups at higher risks of exclusion, in particular persons with disabilities.

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Short training periods can be a solution to motivate the workforce to participate in training measures, and for employers to support this. The Council Recommendation of 16 June 2022 on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability (31) asks Member States to put in place legal frameworks that facilitate records of learning outcomes (for example certificate or award) from small learning experiences (for example short online courses).

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Schemes such as individual learning accounts (32) and an enabling framework, including guidance and validation opportunities, can promote the effective take-up of training in the transport sector.

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Union rules on the qualification and training of bus and truck drivers (33) stipulate that the subjects to be covered in the periodic training take into account technological developments. The upcoming revision of the Train Drivers’ Directive (34) is intended to better align driver training and certification with the possibility and needs of rail digitalisation and to make it easier for train drivers to operate cross-border.

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On the one hand, automation and digitalisation are expected to improve working conditions in the transport sector, offering, higher safety levels and increased flexibility (for example part-time work), and removing many monotonous and physically difficult tasks. This could make the sector overall more attractive, and notably for female workers and underrepresented groups of workers, such as groups at higher risk of exclusion, young workers and workers with disabilities. On the other hand, there is a risk of higher stress levels (35) for some workers owing to a perception of continuous monitoring and surveillance, including through algorithmic management tools (36) or AI in general.

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The Union aims to build trustworthy AI that puts people first. For that purpose, the Commission has proposed three inter-related legal initiatives, which include a regulatory framework proposal (Artificial Intelligence Act) (37) to provide AI providers and users with clear requirements and obligations regarding specific uses of AI that poses risks to safety and fundamental rights of persons, including workers’ rights (38). At the same time, the regulatory framework proposal seeks to reduce administrative and financial burdens for business, in particular SMEs, and to foster innovation. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has detailed its vision for addressing the challenges and opportunities of AI in aviation, based on a human-centric approach (39).

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The Commission proposals to improve the working conditions of people working through digital labour platforms include measures to correctly determine the employment status of those people (40), which will be relevant for delivery riders and ride-hailing drivers. The proposed Directive (41) also aims at increasing transparency in the use of algorithms by digital labour platforms, ensuring human monitoring on their respect of working conditions and giving the right to contest automated decisions. These new rights should be granted to both workers and the genuinely self-employed. The Guidelines on the application of Union competition law to collective agreements (42) clarify when certain self-employed people can get together to negotiate collectively better working conditions without breaching Union competition rules.

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The negotiations between organisations representing employers and workers (social partners) through social dialogue and collective bargaining help improve working conditions. Against the backdrop of the variation in the degree and quality of the involvement of social partners across countries and the unequal coverage of workers by collective agreements, the Commission has presented an initiative (43) to further strengthen and promote social dialogue with concrete actions at national and Union level. On 12 June 2023, the Council adopted a recommendation on strengthening social dialogue in the European Union (44), where it sets out several ways through which Member States might reinforce social dialogue and collective bargaining at national level, including by involving social partners in policy design, promoting the benefits of social dialogue, and strengthening the capacity of trade unions and employers’ organisations.

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According to the Workers’ Representatives Convention 135 of the International Labour Organization, currently ratified by 24 Member States, workers’ representatives can be persons who are recognised as such under national law or practice, whether they are trade union representatives, namely, representatives designated or elected by trade unions or by members of such unions; or elected representatives, namely, representatives who are freely elected by the workers of the undertaking in accordance with provisions of national laws or regulations or of collective agreements and whose functions do not include activities which are recognised as the exclusive prerogative of trade unions in the country concerned. Where both trade union representatives and elected representatives exist in the same undertaking, such representation should not be used to undermine the position of the trade unions concerned or their representatives. Cooperation between the elected representatives and the trade unions concerned or their representatives should be encouraged.

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The Commission’s study on social aspects within the maritime transport sector (45) includes recommendations and possible initiatives that can contribute to ensuring adequate working and living conditions of seafarers, including to modernise maritime education and training to take into account technological developments. The study on Air Traffic Controller (ATCO) and Engineering Staff (ATSEP) (46) provides an overview of current and future human and social issues and working conditions as indicated by ATCOs and ATSEPs in the EU Member States.

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All modes of transport will be affected by automation and digitalisation, whether by automated vessels or vehicles or digitalised processes. A combination of a lack of awareness, lack of understanding of new requirements and fear of not coping with change contributes to scepticism and sometimes resistance to change in the transport sector. Against this backdrop, the transport sector would benefit from introducing and implementing ways to better manage this change. Change management includes methods and manners in which a company describes and implements change within both its internal and external processes to ensure a constructive and beneficial transition to automation and digitalisation.

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In line with Principle 8 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, which includes that ‘workers or their representatives have the right to be informed and consulted in good time on matters relevant to them, in particular on the transfer, restructuring and merger of undertakings and on collective redundancies’, change management plans should be designed in a participatory manner and in close collaboration with workers’ representatives.

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Social dialogue also plays a key role in adapting to the changing world of work. The 2020 Framework Agreement on Digitalisation (47), concluded by the cross-industry European social partners, is an example of the willingness of social partners to shape the future together. Likewise, the European sectoral social partners in the transport sector have carried out various joint projects on automation and digitalisation, which included joint recommendations to their affiliates.

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In the short, medium and long term, sufficient financial resources are essential for the implementation of measures to ensure a smooth transition to automation and digitalisation for the transport workforce. It is crucial for workers to be able to adapt to changing skills needs. However, training is often perceived as costly by employers, and this can act as a barrier for them to provide training and lifelong learning opportunities. If no sufficient funding is dedicated to support the training and lifelong learning of workers, their skills might no longer be aligned with their job requirements, further increasing labour shortages.

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At national and Union level, various funding opportunities exist for upskilling and reskilling to support the transition to automation and digitalisation. However, those who could potentially benefit from these instruments are often not aware of their existence or do not know how to access them. Information on relevant funds should therefore be further promoted.

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European and national transport stakeholders – including employers, workers, education and training providers, sector associations, and the social partners, while respecting their autonomy –, civil society organisations representing all groups of workers, in particular groups at higher risk of exclusion from the labour market, and policymakers and public authorities at national and regional level are invited to consider and promote the following means to address the impact of automation and digitalisation on the transport workforce, with a view to addressing the challenges and taking advantage of the opportunities related to raising awareness, upskilling and reskilling, improving working conditions, managing change, and funding,