London, UK: The government is boosting the number of places available on its skills scheme to try to address a chronic shortage of lorry drivers.
Government funding for the HGV Skills Bootcamps has risen from from £17m to £34m, allowing them to offer 11,000 places instead of 5,000. But driver training firms warn that they are already fully booked.
The bootcamps provide taxpayer-funded courses that the government says are “designed to train drivers to be road-ready and gain their licence”. The first drivers will be on the road from March next year, according to the government.
The boost in training numbers has also caught out driver training schools that are now short of vehicles. And there is still a shortfall in testing, despite government changes that allow training schools to assess part of the test.
Elizabeth de Jong, policy director, Logistics UK, said: “There hasn’t yet been an increase in the number of drivers employed. And that would be the most important indicator, to give us that satisfaction that things are improving.”
“However, we are seeing these green shoots of indicators that in a few months, when more drivers have been trained, that there will be an improvement in overall driver numbers.”
“With the driver shortage showing signs of easing, the government and DVSA must continue to build on its work to speed up the backlog of tests, to ensure these new drivers can enter the workforce as quickly and as safely as possible,” she said.
The Road Haulage Association’s managing director for policy and public affairs, Rod McKenzie, said: “We have already seen a lot of interest in the HGV skills bootcamps which is very promising. However, it remains to be seen if the success of Government measures will result in an increase in the number of HGV drivers employed in driving roles. We are hopeful the increased testing capacity and training will lead to more truckers behind the wheel.“
