The RHA has urged ministers to add HGV drivers to the Home Office UK Shortage Occupation List to help fix the growing driver shortage.
RHA Chief Executive, Richard Burnett told Grant Shapps that Government needed to do more to help the industry recruit new talent as the driver shortage exceeds 60,000.
Haulage firms struggle to get access to Apprenticeship Levy money to fund training, and the shutdown of vocational driving tests last year saw a loss of more than 30,000 test slots. New IR35 tax rules have seen some firms cancel deliveries as they can’t get agency drivers.
In a letter to the Transport Secretary he said the industry is facing a perfect storm and warned that a growing driver shortage will hit the supply chain and affect the Government’s plans to ‘build back better’ as hospitality opens up again.
He said: “If we do not do something soon the industry will be unable to maintain the integrated supply chains and cope with artificial spikes caused by hot weather and the easing of lockdown, increasing demand for food and drink into supermarkets, pubs and restaurants and goods into retail outlets.”
Easing rules to allow HGV drivers from abroad to live and work in the UK would help in the short term but he warned against relaxing drivers hours amid concerns that truckers are already working to their limits and are exhausted. “We really need to consider the impact of HGV driver mental health and of course road safety,” he said.
He urged ministers to help the industry resolve the driver shortage in the longer term. “We must work collectively and towards a sustainable way to recruit and train a homegrown workforce so our reliance on foreign labour lessens over time.”
Hi
Speaking as a hgv driver for nearly 40 years the industry need a complete overhaul shorter hours 15 hour ?? and better hourly rate of pay some driver are working for less than the minimum wage I see young drivers coming into start a hgv driving job and last 1 week and leave saying I would rather stack shelfs in a supermarket and get more money than do this job ( in this day a age hgv drivers wages and hours should be up with the likes of plumbers, electricians ) thanks for taking the time to read this
Regards
Alan Quirk
AND ONCE AGAIN THE RHA STAB THE DRIVER IN THE BACK WILL SMILING IN THEIR FACES, It is time the industry realised the answer is not the RHA, mainly because it is the bosses (who are the members of the RHA) who do the dirty on the drivers. This call for the rules to be changed is simply because the bosses CAN’T get the cheap labour/drivers anymore now that we have left the EU. Let us not forget it was the bosses who pushed for the job to be down graded when we where in the EU, so they could get lots of cheap workers/drivers, now that we are out and things are changing against the way they want them to, now the bosses bitch about how the job is high skilled and needs to be put on the skills list (so once again they can get their cheap drivers over to work for low wages/long hours) along with the British drivers (who are told they are useless lazy so and so who should be grateful for the bosses crumbs of their table and happy we have a job in the first place, (the number of times i was told i could be replaced at the drop of a hat and a quick phone call to some one on the list of drivers waiting to take my place, and how i should get on with the job and carry on working even if it is over my hours)) ALL I CAN SAY IS DON’T LISTERN TO THE RHA. If you want answers to the problems talk to drivers and then maybe things will start to change for the better……