Driver Require has just released its latest Report – a comprehensive investigation into “A Perfect Storm of Elevated Demand and Reduced Supply in the UK Haulage Sector in 2021”, which has brought together a panel of haulage sector experts to validate its workings and conclusions through a series of workshops, named the Think Tank.
With representatives from the REC, Logistics UK, Think Logistics, Road to Logistics, haulage and distribution operators including grocery suppliers, a statistics expert, a national fleet hire supplier and an established HGV driver training school, the Think Tank has concluded that haulage activity has recently returned to pre-pandemic levels, and there is demand for approximately 300,000 HGV drivers, and that this is likely to increase throughout the remainder of 2021. It also anticipates that further pressure will come from HGV drivers taking vacation over the school summer holiday period.
Driver Require has been tracking the UK’s HGV driver shortage issue for a number of years prior to the Coronavirus outbreak and then more closely as we progressed through the pandemic. Our findings show that, prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the haulage sector was already suffering from a chronic low-level shortage of HGV drivers that became severe in times of rapid uplift in requirements or during seasonal peak demand. Previously, the sector had relied heavily on EU HGV drivers to avoid a supply crisis in the event of a rapid increase in demand.
Driver Require’s Report concludes that the impact of the Pandemic on HGV driver supply is that the “most likely” shortage scenario is a 22,000 (7%) drop, rising to a worst case drop of 30,000 (10%). This drop in supply was caused by:
- Reduced inflow of new HGV drivers due to restricted HGV training capacity during lockdowns.
- Increased outflow of HGV drivers due to:
- Retirement of HGV drivers.
- EU HGV drivers leaving the UK because of COVID-19 and subsequently implementation of IR35 reforms in the Private Sector.
- Drivers seeking other careers due to poor pay and conditions.
The conclusion of this analysis is that the “most likely” impending deficit position will be a shortage of 22,000 HGV drivers, which could increase to as many as 50,000 if supply worsens and demand exceeds expectations.
The Government’s points-based immigration rules effectively prevent EU drivers coming to the UK to offset this deficit, leading the Think Tank to conclude that this could be the first time in 20 years that the UK is likely to experience a true HGV driver shortage, along with potentially serious consequences for the UK’s economic recovery.
The Report’s author, Driver Require’s CEO, Kieran Smith says “As a temporary recruiter, we are at the coalface of the impending, predicted crisis but it will be our clients and ultimately businesses and consumers who rely on the movement of goods across the UK who will pay the greatest price. We believe that, as a sector, we have a responsibility to take action and alert the wider community to the possibility of a driver shortage crisis. We need to raise the profile of this issue, dispel common perceptions and provide industry key influencers and decision-makers the opportunity to act to secure the UK’s economic recovery.”
The report proposes actions to mitigate against the impact of this impending HGV driver supply crisis. It specifically looks at:
- How to increase HGV driver training capacity and throughput.
- How to attract back UK HGV licence-holders who are not currently driving for a career.
- The possibility of permitting EU HGV drivers to enter the UK for work.
Smith states, “Our Report acknowledges that most of these actions will have limited effect in the short-term. Nevertheless, it reinforces that these initiatives should be progressed as quickly as possible if they are to have any chance of mitigating the medium to longer-term impact of the shortage crisis. In the interim, competition over a depleted available HGV driver workforce will force up driver pay rates, initially in the agency market and eventually across the permanent driver pool.”
Smith, quoted last week in the Financial Times, said that “analysis of data from the Office for National Statistics showed a “catastrophic decline” over the past 20 years in the number of qualified HGV drivers staying in an industry where nearly a third of the 300,000 drivers are over 55 and heading for retirement. “We’ve got this cohort of 150,000 drivers over 50 heading into retirement and behind that group is a severely depleted workforce. There’s not a great deal we can do in the short term except brace ourselves for impact,”.
If you want to fix the problem then stop making drivers lives more difficult while simultaneously letting our wages remain at almost the same level they were at 15 years ago. We are constantly disrespected everywhere, not provided with adequate restroom facilities or enough showers at a reasonable price. It costs an absolute fortune to eat a decent meal down the road anywhere, which is essentially an extra tax. Overnight parking places are constantly being made off limits leaving us having to pay ever increasing parking fees at so called secure service stations and truck stops, not all firms cover the whole price of that fee, and those facilities are less and less adequate in the services provided. When you then add in that we are expected to work 60 to 70 hours a week and be away from home all week long all for a flat rate of pay we earned 15 to 20 years ago, with no overtime rates is it any wonder no one wants to do the job anymore. You can almost earn the same hourly rate stacking shelves in supermarkets, plus you get to be home every night, eat decent meals for a normal price and get treated with much more respect! Stop looking to foreigners to fill the gap and start fixing the system! The haulage sector has been systematically stepped all over for too many years and we have warned you for years that this issue was coming!!
Agree!!!!
Spot on you have it ,but your wasting your time & energy the people who can change this aren’t listening they have no idea of a driver’s lot I have bean a HGV driver for 45 years & would still be doing it but you can only take so much ,the only time people take note is when the the shops have no goods I hate to say it but a united stop of delivery’s by drivers in this world if you are forceful you get things done (sad) go look ,,tramper,
One way to solve the driver shortage is to get the dvla to sort themselves out. My digi card runs out in August couple of weeks ago i applied for my new card. Recieved it no problems When the company i was going to work for did a licence check my digi card said invalid been ring dvla every since been told you cannot have two cards explained one runs out on the 3rd the other starts on the 4th spoke to 7/8 different people all said the same. So i cannot work till the 4th August anyone any ideas
Phone dvla you’ve lost card about to runout.
Run on manual for 14 days
The answer is in the article:
Conditions identified as causing a shortage:
• Reduced inflow of new HGV drivers due to restricted HGV training capacity during lockdowns.
• Retirement of HGV drivers.
• EU HGV drivers leaving the UK because of COVID-19 and subsequently implementation of IR35 reforms in the Private Sector.
• ****Drivers seeking other careers due to poor pay and conditions.****
The report proposes actions to mitigate against the impact of this impending HGV driver supply crisis. It specifically looks at:
• How to increase HGV driver training capacity and throughput.
• How to attract back UK HGV licence-holders who are not currently driving for a career.
• The possibility of permitting EU HGV drivers to enter the UK for work.
Notice anything missing from the second list?? Somehow pay and conditions isn’t seen as a solution to the problem. The industry doesn’t give a toss about it’s drivers, only keeping the costs as low as possible by exploiting drivers from poorer areas of the EU. Now this option is gone, suddenly there’s a crisis.
I have never seen a shortage where firms pay £16 + per hour + London waiting+ time and a half for overtime, infact they have queues to get in. In fact professional lorry drivers should not work for less as we are proffesionals especially when something goes wrong.
Bottom line if you want lorry drivers that can read and write and have logitiment qualifications pay the correct wage,no more shortage job done.
Only firms that pay crap wages have shortages,we all know who they are
About 98% of the industry apparently
😂
The big issue is IR35 let alone the condition of night out drivers and that fact that wages are being same for decades.. All the ltd drivers lost in average of 45% of their earnings. There is no motivation to do this job anymore. If you don’t believe, then spent some cash on collecting only primary data through surveys and you will see the results.
There is no shortage of drivers. There is a shortage of cheap drivers. There are 3.7 million drivers in the UK
Who will not do HGV because of the long hours poor wages and lifestyle.
Companies are running on profit margins of 1-2 percent the easiest squeeze is drivers wages.
The whole industry is trying to run trucks at £1.49 a mile and it can’t be done.
Good luck
25 years ago you were looking at £1.50 for a sprinter van.
Looking at adverts now it’s £115 a day but people that don’t know its slavery working for the big companies. Find out the hard way.
An that’s the problem in uk big companies controlling cost on transport..
An having suppliers in a death hold.
It’s going to change.
When shelves are sparse of goods
An 10 hr home delivery doesn’t happen.
Drivers have taken a lot last 25 years time we got a bit back
I would love to be a hgv driver i have wanted to be for years its just so expensive to get a licence
Look on indeed XPO are starting apprenticeships as long as you have a car licence 12 months training.
Simon, this is spot on. Was reading yesterday RHA a suggesting recruiting foreign drivers again. Fix our problems and the situation will sort itself. RHA is not representing our industry as what you have identified has been systematically been happening for decades now. They should be outside the transport ministers (Grant Shapps) on a daily basis.
Nearly min wage poor conditions poor wage. Everyone treats you like nobody and nobody give a damn about you same wages as 15years ago as mention you can make same in factory and be at home every night
Company’s push drivers to work abnormal load
24h a day
Shift 13-15hours
Travel to work and home 1.5h
When home eat shower and then only 5h left for sleep and they thinking you will start 05.00am again
It is a joke and not a job
You liable for load to be on time for truck you risk every day on the road with your life and for what 12£ an hour lmfao,
Few more months and im leaving this industry so you can count 1 more driver 😉
Oh btw we dont have life we working 60-70hours a week thats double shift for majority of people
We dont have time to stay with family go to gym etc
We selling our time just to pay bills!
Look on indeed XPO are starting apprenticeships as long as you have a car licence 12 months training.
First of all, companies should stop just focusing on profits only and start treating van drivers equally. For years large companies have mistreated drivers, by forcing excessive work loads on them for low wages.
Why have they been doing this this???
These large companies have been spoilt with cheap labour from Europe where they were again getting the maximum out of the drivers, in other words more for less and undercutting the British workers. This can only last so long and now the companies will feel the pinch with the new EU bill preventing any further cheap labour entering the UK.
It’s only to get worse, unless these large firms start to change their old greedy business traditions by offering an incentive to drivers I.e. free HGV training within, higher wages, better treatment towards drivers, promotion after a certain period, you could some sort of a difference.
If things continue with business just focusing on profits, this could really spiral out of control.
Hi 8v been doing this job over 23 years and the respect 4 a hgv driver as gone out of the window with the crap hours we do finding sum were 2 park up 4 nite is a joke only places 2 Park is at the side of a busy road only rest we get is when we get home 4 weekends money is so bad now so hard 2 make end meat now days to top it of we have moor test 2 take 2 keep a hgv drivering licence love 2 no why we have 2 take a push bike cruse think they need a cruse on looking were there are going not us
The problem with driver shortage is how drivers are treated, ivbeen driving for 35 years now and can’t wait to get out of the profession,were treated like 2nd class citizens by the public and the customers were delivering to,most rdc customers make you sit in a small room sometimes for 2/3hours with just a coffee machine, you can use there facilities on site,were expected to work 60 hours plus every week because of the minimum wages we are offered,back in the day you got overtime rate after 40 hours now all the big company’s pay straight through so no incentive, then if your lucky enough for your company to pay your parking of there truck on services the showers are dirty never any room to park due to foreign drivers being there for 3 days ,and when you overcome all that the food were offered is mainly junk food at ridiculous prices,if your company don’t pay parking your in a lay by for the night,no toilets or shower or a hot meal,so somebody tell me what the attraction is to driving a truck in this country.
Same as you il take the money going up for the next few years.
Then off to pastures new truck won’t be involved
Just do car movements nothing to stressful
1st and foremost the government has to finally acknowledge that hgv driving is a skilled job and not as they classify it as unskilled this will mean that companies will have to treat it as such and begin offering wages that reflect this
Unskilled to me, means I can go an apply for a unskilled job.
Like be a night machine cleaner skelmersdale £13.50 a hour.
How many people can drive a unskilled artic job.
No experience.
No licence
No tacho card
No DCPC
Exactly
Yes we’re so unskilled
But there rules.
So I’m going to enjoy this driver shortage to the enth degree.
Unskilled as I am
If I can’t crack £2,000 a week il be disappointed
But the ball has just started to roll.
An it’s looking gpod
There is no shortage of drivers. DVLA have confirmed in a government enquiry there are more than enough LGV licence holders to meet demand.
What there is is a lack of drivers willing to work for poor pay for bad companies, a lack of drivers willing to leave home at 4am Monday morning, be out all week putting in 60-70hrs getting home late Friday night doing one of the 10 most dangerous jobs in the country just to earn the same money as the median UK wage for a 37hr week. Some companies in my area advertising for drivers are still advertising an hourly rate I was earning in 2008. And then they wonder why they can’t find drivers.
Companies that are run decently and pay a decent wage have no problem recruiting. The Owens and Stobarts of this in this country and their like who pay barely above minimum wage and run their drivers ragged due to poor planning and poor management will struggle to put bums on seats now that the endless stream of Eastern European drivers has come to an end. Even those Eastern European drivers already here are starting to refuse to work for such companies because they realise the pay and conditions are bad.
Owens an stobart who I’ve had dealings with over the years are done an dusted.
Always moaning about M4 , brexit etc
Pay crap an run you to death.
You’re not even a number with these companies.
But il work for them through agency.
If money best I can get.
God knows il get the hours.
Supply an demand
Fantastic driver shortage, won’t get any better.
An owens apparently set wages in South Wales with a few other companies a few years ago.
Look at there expansion since.
Says it all
I wholeheartedly agree with ALL the comment in this post and would like to add to it,
There are certain official organizations ( which used to be government agencies)
that look on truck drivers as a cash cow.
As a Dvsa man said an he has been on videos.
Trucks are just big piggy banks to them
And I naively thought that doing the driver CPC would solve everything!
Very nieve my friend
If you want to fix the problem then stop making drivers lives more difficult while simultaneously letting our wages remain at almost the same level they were at 15 years ago. We are constantly disrespected everywhere, not provided with adequate restroom facilities or enough showers at a reasonable price. It costs an absolute fortune to eat a decent meal down the road anywhere, which is essentially an extra tax. Overnight parking places are constantly being made off limits leaving us having to pay ever increasing parking fees at so called secure service stations and truck stops, not all firms cover the whole price of that fee, and those facilities are less and less adequate in the services provided. When you then add in that we are expected to work 60 to 70 hours a week and be away from home all week long all for a flat rate of pay we earned 15 to 20 years ago, with no overtime rates is it any wonder no one wants to do the job anymore. You can almost earn the same hourly rate stacking shelves in supermarkets, plus you get to be home every night, eat decent meals for a normal price and get treated with much more respect! Stop looking to foreigners to fill the gap and start fixing the system! The haulage sector has been systematically stepped all over for too many years and we have warned you for years that this issue was coming!! ## copied
It’s true wages are low. And very hard for a one man truck owner to get up and running.cpc manager required .o licence req.etcetc.yes o licence is fair.but to have CPC managers licence.they could make some leeway .
Just look in truckstop news etc
Plenty people will be a cpc holder
Or register trucks in holland, Poland etc u get the idea
The above comment nails it. This is yet achieve article that pays little reason to the real reason for this crisis: poor driver working conditions
I chose this career after twenty odd years serving my country and after 18 months I’m already looking at getting out. I don’t expect after a 10 hour day to be told I’m going back out. I don’t expect to be lied to or talked down too – the managers that did learned a very sharp life lesson.
You won’t recruit and retain quality drivers until you reward them appropriately and treat them with respect…. and EU recruitment is not a fix.
This is the second article I’ve read that fails to focus on the real issue. Until management grasp the real issue the problem won’t be addressed and the industry will continue it’s race to the bottom.
Says it all lgv driving is worse than being on tour in a shit hole only getting shot at an watching friends die. Only joking mate ex army myself.
But just shows hardships you’ve put up with. But driving lorrys nah don’t blame you.
I agree wholeheartedly with Simons comment’s. Whilst not being a fan of government intervention, I think it is now time for the UK government’s to step in for a full root and branch assessment of the industry as a whole. Virtually every tangible item consumers use has at some stage been transported so the importance of having a working logistics network is vitally important. As mentioned in Simons comment, new drivers aren’t attracted to the industry and with the long hourss, time away from home and poor job status who can blame them. Let’s have better facilities such as at services and improved turnarounds at col/del points (how many drivers have had to spend additional nights out due to delays at del points?) Let’s make the industry an attractive career again. Yes that will come at a cost but if its a sustainable cost then it will be to everyone’s benefit in the long run
We’ve all seen this situation before in the 90s.
Mr Blair an EU sorted that. Situation is a bit more desperate if you’re a company that relies on regular timed uplifts and drops.
For drivers like myself I can only see my personal financial situation improving very quickly.
I can live with the way truckers have been treated for many a year.
We all know if you’re a new into the industry tramper chances are the candidate won’t last
Because nothing ever will change for Trampers apart from less layby, industrial estates to park.
This country hadn’t got a clue how much they relied on us. Till pandemic. People waving at us from bridges, banners etc.
Back to normal now except boot is on our foot now.
Highest bidder gets me.
Personally I’d like to see the end of fixed pay for tramping.
£550 an 70 hours a week
The industry needs government legislation for once on the side of the driver.
More an more companies advertise a salary on adverts
Bet that salary is unachievable
So government get a grip
Just like we couldn’t work for bonuses.
Make companies advertise a hourly rate.
It doesn’t t help our industry when you hear employers say they are paying the average wage in your area…. They need to paymore and look after their drivers. Whilst they have ve them. Dsv in harwich last year laid off 19 drivers.. And now they are looking to employ more drivers.. And nodoubt they aint the only firm looking…. I recently read its a drivers market. And if you are tramping. it wont matter where you are based as its all about your earnings…. WAGES AND CONDITIONS MATTER SO DO DRIVERS
STOP TALKING TO THE BOSSES AND START TALKING TO THE DRIVERS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS. It’s the bosses that got the industry into this mess and they WILL NOT SORT IT OUT, they love their profit too much. How can you expect to get anyone to do this job when all you get is disrespect, low wages, long hours, no work/life balance, etc etc. IS ANYONE SEEING A COMMON THEME WITH WHAT WE ARE TELLING YOU. For god sake wake up and read what DRIVERS are saying. For years they (the bosses) said driving was not a professional job (until something goes wrong then suddenly we are). They have used foreign drivers to cover them (which brought driver’s wages down and down) then when all this stops they wounder why things are falling apart for them. Everyone here knows what to do to sort out the problems, just wish those in power who can do something about the problems would read these comments. Personally i have been driving for over 30 years and now can’t wait to be out of this industry, maybe, just maybe i will get treated with respect one day with a honest day’s wage for a normal day’s work (less than 15hours) until then…..
WAYS TO SOLVE SOME OF THE PROBLEMS IN THE HGV DRIVING INDUSTRY….
1) Decent pay (a living wage would be nice)
2) Shorter hours (3x15hour days is not good along with a 3x13hour days giving you a normal 6 day week of 84 hours or 71hours for a 5 day week…..THINK ABOUT THAT WHEN YOU START TO BITCH ABOUT YOUR 40 HOURS, 5 DAY WEEK.
3) Ties into 2) better work/life balance, long hours away from home for trampers. Driving time to and from work (for many drivers an extra 1 – 2hours added to the day just to go to and fro from work). For a family man/woman, that mean time away from love ones.
4) Poor working conditions, how many of you would be willing to sleep under your desk after a full days work, without the use of the toilet, no food (any food you do find will cost you 2 – 3 times the normal price. Oh yes and lets not forget you also have to act a security for your work place, (anything happens and your to blame, with the cost coming out of your wages just for laughs).
5) Pressured by a person who has no idea of what is going on (never driven a HGV in their life, many not even holding car lics – (“ON THE COMPUTER THE DISTANCE IS ONLY 2 INCHES, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THAT” – NO IDEA OF TRAFFIC/TIME OF DAY).
The list could go on and on, with Councils (YES TALKING ABOUT YOU NOW KENT COUNTY COUNCIL) who do their best to make drivers live a misery (NO PARKING OVER NIGHT ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTY).
Until someone who can actually do something about the problems (START BY NOT TALKING TO THE BOSSES WOULD BE A GOOD START) the problems in the industry are only going to get worst (oh AND FORGET USING THE BLOODY ARMY – THERE IS ONLY ABOUT 95,000 OF THE POOR BUGGERS LEFT AND MOST OF THEM ARE OVERSEA – (SEE BRITAIN’S COMMITMENTS TO NATO ETC.) SO THEY CAN’T HELP YOU.)
Most of the people here leaving comments are drivers, WE KNOW WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE – LISTEN TO US FOR A CHANGE, and then maybe things will get better… YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. If you want the industry to get better then read and learn………..
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