Requests for professional drivers in Spain’s car logistics sector have climbed sharply. ONLOGIST reports a 50% to 60% jump in driver transfers by road over the past year. Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Málaga now anchor the country’s busiest vehicle routes.
Rental car companies are driving much of the surge. They need to move cars quickly to match sudden swings in tourist and business demand. Vehicles sitting idle in the wrong city mean lost profits. Data from the Spanish Car Rental and Leasing Association (AER) shows that 282,438 vehicles were registered for leasing in Spain from January to September 2026, a 9.69% rise from the year before. Leasing now accounts for 26.09% of all registrations. Leasing company investments reached €7.035 billion, up 18.77%. The figures show why moving cars between cities and clients has become so urgent.
In the first nine months of 2026, Spain’s rent-a-car channel registered 204,088 vehicles, 7% more than in the previous year and 19.3% of the total market, Europapress reports.
Dealerships are adding to the rush. More cars are sold across provincial lines, and showrooms need to swap stock daily. Owning a big fleet is no longer enough; what matters is getting the right car to the right place quickly. Europapress notes that logistics demand comes from tourist peaks and the growing reach of rental and leasing fleets across Spain.
The changes go beyond moving more cars. ONLOGIST’s latest report points to new service patterns. Same-day city transfers remain common, but long-distance and cross-border trips, especially to bring back cars registered in other European countries, now make up a big part of the job. The Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) says Spain welcomed 12.3 million foreign tourists in August 2026, up 9.2% from August 2025. More tourists mean more cars moving between airports and tourist spots.
Augusto Macedo, director of ONLOGIST Iberia, puts it plainly: “In the sector, having a big fleet is useless if the cars are parked where there’s no demand. The growth we’re seeing in cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga or Valencia shows that moving a vehicle quickly and flexibly is now the basic operational challenge. Today, the speed of fleet redistribution is what separates a profitable car from a lost sale.”
AYK Global says independent industry reviews identify truck drivers and logistics specialists as among Spain’s most in-demand professions, citing expanding supply chains and the need to replace retiring workers. The assessments are not official vacancy statistics and do not confirm a specific shortage of car transfer drivers.
The job itself is changing. ONLOGIST’s platform lets drivers see each trip’s terms and set their own price. The network now has more than 18,000 verified drivers across Europe.
Long-distance and international transfers are not new for Spain. As reported earlier, the country has become a basic player in cross-border vehicle movement. New agreements are paving the way for more new idea.
Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Málaga have become the country’s basic logistics centers. Their locations and infrastructure make them the top choice for companies seeking to keep fleets moving and cut downtime.
Companies that cannot keep up will fall behind. For drivers, the shift means more work, along with a need for new skills and digital know-how.
