"Consolidation and polarisation" on the cards for UK haulage industry as driver shortages continue
The UK’s haulage industry is likely to become far more concentrated in the hand of ...
Truckers being “underpaid and under-appreciated for the better part of two decades” is responsible for the ever-worsening driver shortage plaguing Europe and America.
Figures for the UK alone suggest the full scale of the driver shortage may not be realised for some time, but reputedly there is a shortfall of at least 100,000 and very little to suggest a fix is forthcoming.
One former driver told The Loadstar they moved to warehouse work as it paid the same, gave them more time ...
Comment on this article
Dave Holladay
July 15, 2021 at 8:17 pmThe greatest impact seems likely on those cutting the cost of a permanent employee driver cohort, and running an orange disc fleet, with agency drivers, which I’ve noticed, used to regularly be EU27, often coming over for intensive work, often seasonal, and returning a few months later with a healthy wad of money
Add to this the loss of back-working Irish vehicles & drivers, now massively transferring to the Cork/Rosslare-France/Spain sailings, and often load-only, making more effective use of drivers & tractors,
Plus the other EU27 no longer crossing to the UK – one forwarder with 30 years of filling outward or back load space reckoned that c.80% of the trucks & drivers coming through Dover were EU27, who have now stopped coming, blowing a hole in available ‘opportunity’ capacity
On of the longer term deliveries is in the nascent UK Cycle Logistics sector. Here are base-level jobs to engage those new to working, local work, a job that can break the Catch 22 of no references = no jobs but no job = no reference. Riders can work their way up, learning the logistics industry, and moving onwards. We see similar with other cycle projects – kids who have practical potential, often dropped by the academic system (some as young as 12 and long term truants) have rocked up to fix bikes, gained mechanics skills, and moved on to maintain and repair other machinery. We have an immense labour resource but fail to engage with it?
The local logistics also makes a more efficient use of the right vehicle for the work, using the new tools of electronic data and tracking to disperse or consolidate traffic for the journeys, and vehicle sizes that fit resources better