London, UK: We know there is a shortage of drivers, one of many skills of which there are shortages, whatever government ministers might say.
Ministers talk about “working with sector leaders to understand how we can best ease particular pinch points” and that “similar challenges are being faced by other countries around the world”. The driver shortage is not a “pinch point” – it is a major problem.
And yes, Brexit is a factor in the labour shortage. The principal reason is demographics and the age of the workforce. It is why labour shortages, and the driver shortage in particular, have long been predicted. But the government, obsessed with its “taking control of our borders” Brexit mantra chose to ignore this.
Companies in the cold chain sector such as PML forecast the current scenario and its dire consequences almost 12 months ago, says Mike Parr, its managing director writing on this website.
The average age of a heavy good vehicle driver is 55, with less than 1% under the age of 25, according to the Road Haulage Association. It’s a physically demanding job with tough health requirements and annual medical examinations, which means that a lot of people are forced out before retirement age for health reasons alone.
Regardless of Brexit and Covid, the industry would be facing a driver shortage. But the problem has been masked to a large extent by drawing on EU drivers. Brexit, and the government’s obsessive determination to thwart immigration, has put paid to that. Covid has played it part too, with many driver retiring early because they were self isolating.
The Road Haulage Association’s survey of 616 hauliers, identified retiring colleagues and Brexit as topping the list the list of reasons behind the driver shortages. Respondents also cited tax changes to IR35 rules, which have made it more expensive for hauliers from elsewhere in Europe to work or be employed in the UK. And the post Brexit fall in sterling’s value has made it less attractive for EU citizens to work in the UK. Rod McKenzie, policy director ,Road Haulage Association, said that, on top of a historic shortage of drivers, the industry had lost 20,000 European drivers due to Brexit, while the pandemic had forced 40,000 driver training tests to be cancelled..
The government response has been pitiful and demonstrates a woeful lack of understanding about the problem or the nature of truck driving. In recent weeks, the Department for Transport has made it quicker for HGV drivers to get their licences, but the RHA criticised the changes as a risk to road safety. Nor does speeding up the licensing process help. The apocryphal line from driving instructors to their pupils passing their test and gain a licence is: “Well done, now that you have your licence, go and learn how to be a truck driver.”
Government minsters seem to think you can create truck drivers merely by boosting the number of examiners. They do not realise that a lot more training is needed to handle much of the ancillary equipment fitting to trucks, such cranes, tail-lifts, forklifts, fridges, as well as other loading and unloading skills, let alone how to use the tachograph. It takes time to learn how to handle the paperwork (which this government has done its best to increase) and the learn how to negotiate distribution centres and supermarkets. It all takes time, and when you are faced with loaded trucks and no drivers, time is not what you have.
The Road Haulage Association says the UK is 100,000 drivers short, and has urged the government to relax visa restrictions for foreign workers. But the government said it wanted employers to make “long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad”.
This flies in the face of economics: for an economy to grow its needs labour: it is why every major European economy including Britain has sucked in migrants. It becomes even more essential when the domestic population is not growing, again a feature of all major European countries.
McKenzie said: “Something urgently needs to be done by the government… We’ve asked for a short-term measure – it’s very short-term -–to allow drivers onto the shortage occupation list, and look at seasonal visas for overseas drivers, not European necessarily.” Supermarket Iceland, which is about 100 drivers short, joined Morrisons and Ocado in calling for the government to add HGV drivers to the ever growing list of shortage occupations. That would allow foreign workers to apply for skilled worker visas to fill the current gaps. “I think the solution – even if it’s temporary – is very, very simple. Let’s get HGV drivers onto the skilled worker list,” said Richard Walker, managing director, Iceland.
Speaking on BBC Question Time on Thursday evening, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps suggested visa changes would not solve the problem, but said nothing had been ruled out. He said the “bottleneck” had been caused by getting new drivers qualified and bringing people back into the job market after the pandemic.
The gap between the government’s ideological-driven policy and what’s plainly needed for the benefit of business and the country remains as large as ever.
“Combine the HGV driver shortage, the customs clearance issues and the impact of the pandemic and it is plain to see that the country is destined to be facing some very challenging conditions,” Parr says.
“Surely the government should have seen some of this coming and prepared for these problems? The approach taken by the powers that be seems to be very much reactive rather than proactive – if I ran my business in this way, we would have gone bust.
“The fact is, there should be a long-term strategy in place to deal with all of these concerns,” Parr says.
