Notts-based Taylors Transport raised awareness of the national driver shortage recently on BBC Radio Nottingham.
Alan Taylor MD of the Taylors Transport Group and Jonathan Else of Taylor’s Driver Training School explained to the BBC’s Sarah Julian that the average of age of UK truck drivers is 53, 13% are over 60 years of age and only 2% of drivers are under 25.
The shortage has been affecting the entire UK logistics industry, with estimates from the RHA and FTA putting the current need at between 45,000 and 60,000 drivers. As the UK economy grows, the shortage will worsen.
The parliamentary Transport Committee this week (15 Sept) announced its inquiry into the road haulage skills shortage and the government’s measures to mitigate it. This move has been welcomed by the sector.
Taylors is using its driver training school to entice new drivers into the sector.
I don’t why hauliers are so surprised! I’ve now got class2 HGV licence with full new CPC as well as health & safety certificates etc and digi card and currently unemployed and keen to get cracking but no one wants new drivers or if they do want you driving 7.5t first (which I done 15 years ago when I was 21!) or pay trainee wages of £7 an hour!! No wonder there’s a shortage! Give a few of us guys a chance and things might change!
I think Alan should commission a survey of the 1000’s of qualified & experienced drivers within commuting distance, to ask why they wouldn’t work at Taylor’s if it was the last job on earth.