High mobility is a defining feature of road transport and a core source of risk for truck drivers. Drivers operate across long distances, frequently crossing borders and jurisdictions, and working in constantly changing environments such as highways, ports, warehouses and customer sites. The 2019 ILO Guidelines on the promotion of decent work and road safety recognise that this mobility creates significant gaps in protection, as drivers often fall between regulatory systems where labour standards are inconsistently enforced.
This mobility limits access to basic rights and protections, including safe rest facilities, sanitation, healthcare and effective labour inspection. Drivers may spend extended periods away from home, increasing fatigue, social isolation and exposure to unsafe conditions. High mobility also makes it difficult for drivers to access grievance mechanisms or engage with trade unions, weakening their ability to report abuses or seek remedy.
Cross-border operations further increase vulnerability, particularly for migrant drivers who may face language barriers, discrimination or differing legal protections depending on where they are working. The ILO highlights that these structural conditions can obscure accountability and allow unsafe and exploitative practices to persist undetected.
As a result, high mobility is not simply an operational characteristic but a structural risk that undermines decent work, safety and effective enforcement of labour rights in road transport supply chains.