The RHA met the Government yesterday (Wednesday 16 June) to highlight the growing peril to UK supply chains from the worsening driver shortage.
RHA Chief Executive, Richard Burnett told Roads Minister, Baroness Vere: “The need for action is clear and urgent. We and many others have provided overwhelming evidence that the shortage is getting worse – the situation must be addressed right now.”
Other trade bodies and supply chain companies representing food, retail, manufacturing, and hospitality were also at the meeting which was told details of the growing difficulties of recruiting truckers.
Along with Baroness Vere, the Government were also represented by Minister, Mims Davies from the Department of Work and Pensions.
The meeting lasted more than two and a half hours, with wide-ranging discussions around the scale of the problems hauliers face, and measures that can be taken over the short, medium and long-term.
The RHA re-emphasised the need for urgent actions to deal with the immediate shortage. The RHA highlighted issues around driver training and apprenticeships, Driver CPC, short-term access to non-UK labour, parking and facilities for drivers, and the need to treat drivers and the sector with the respect they deserve.
The Government gave a commitment to continue to look at actions that can be taken to address the issues raised by industry.
The job needs bringing into the modern world, it’s not about driving fancy new trucks, we need better service areas with more parking and facilities for drivers, we park in services with inflated prices but coach drivers get discounts/free meals. We need better pay, some firms paying £10/£12 per hour, you can earn that in warehouses. We work long hours to bring in a wage, if their is a shortage which I don’t really think their is, make the job more appealing to people, money is what we work for and it’s getting a lot harder with legislation that’s being brought in. As for the shortage, go around these so called big companies and ask them how many spare drivers they have a day, I’ll think you’d be surprised
I am sure if driver facilities and a decent rate of pay for a 40 hour working week like most Industries, then drivers would probably return to the job that they were trained to do
I read all the articles by many so called transport companies, RHA etc and it’s just plain annoying claiming there to help drivers etc. No one takes on board the main problem is MONEY! Drivers do not get paid enough we have for many years complained about it and no one takes it on board. They make excuses why there is a driver shortage and the plain fact the first thing is it’s money!
I earned more in 2008 than I do now in 2021! A class one driver should be on no less than £15 an hour! But still today you can go on say indeed for example and there is class one jobs advertised for £9 and some actually less! Agencies are plain terrible there is not many good ones left now. They put up false adverts claiming say £16 an hour and then you find out it’s only £10 and they have a range of lies and excuses saying customer dropped the price or the person who did the advert put wrong price etc etc.
When are people actually going to listen to drivers that we should get better wages be treated with respect and understand we work long unsociable hours for peanuts. If we did not deliver the goods supermarkets and hospitals etc would have nothing. Many of us worked over Covid no extra pay or anything.
Some of us to keep our licence we have to pay a fortune out of our own pockets. Pay for digi card medical and cpc and none of it is cheap and that’s just to keep our licence! People have had enough hence the shortage. Yes there is a shortage and I guess it will carry on because are not listening! Yes parking etc is all a big problem. You drive down the motorway and you see foreign trucks parked up for the night where they should not be parked and nothing is done. But a UK driver parks there and the police and vosa are all over you! People should just listen to drivers and not just make claims that there is a shortage because of no parking etc.
The terrible wages which get worse is the first big problem!!