EU truck exodus leaves UK truck drivers in dire need

The sector has warned that the exodus of EU truck drivers from the UK, Brexit has left the British transport and logistics industry suffering a severe shortage of workers and a crisis for industry and retail shipments.

Industry associations and major UK commodity companies said that unless urgent measures are taken to address the shortcomings, the tensions that can be seen in the industry will be apparent to the public by the end of the summer.

While the sector has suffered from a chronic shortage of drivers in recent decades, these have worsened Brexi An end to EU recruitment, a delay in driving tests caused by Covid-19 and autonomous tax reforms that have increased the exit of EU drivers.

“Britain has had a chronic driver shortage for many years, but the problem is serious now. In the 10-year campaign on this issue, we have never seen members as concerned as they are now, ”said Alex Veitch, policy manager at Logistics UK, a trading body that was formerly the Freight Transport Association.

As a result of the Covid-19 reduction, the cancellation of approximately 28,000 HGV driver tests has reduced efforts to expand the internal recruitment of drivers in the UK’s pool of 300,000 qualified truck drivers.

Rod McKenzie, the Road Haulage Association’s chief policy and public affairs director, said the industry is in for a perfect storm. “For people in front of the industry, it’s a calm storm, but it could soon turn into a hurricane with shortcomings revealed, increasing the stress and tension between suppliers and carriers,” he said.

Haulage company executives said the end of the Covid-19 blockade has led to a sharp rise in demand for retail, construction and hospitality, and revealed a problem that has kept the fall in demand caused by the pandemic hidden.

Paul Day, CEO of Turners Soham Ltd, the main trucking company with 2,300 lorries in Cambridgeshi, the drivers that make up about 40 per cent of Eastern Europe, said cracks have already begun to appear.

“Within three months, the goods will not be delivered. In fact, it is already happening, there are already loads that are not covered now,” he said, referring to a major retailer and a large supplier of construction materials that did not cover 30 loads last week.

Lee Juniper, director of operations at FreshLinc, another major UK logistics operator with nearly 700 trucks, said the shortage is real and now forces hourly wage rates to range from 10 to 30 per cent, depending on the region and any type of transport.

In our 10-year campaign on this issue, we have never seen members as concerned as they are now

“We can’t get drivers to drive trucks and every day it’s a challenge to cover the volumes. It’s constantly a struggle to keep delivering loads on time and to customers’ schedules,” he said.

Grocer magazine was also published last month reported wholesalers sent them to some of the central Spar convenience stores, where the shortage of drivers was most noticeable.

The shortage of drivers is an early test of the government Post-Brexit immigration hiring foreign HGV drivers who prioritize high-skilled immigration and who are legally unable to obtain a visa for a skilled worker are not considered skilled enough to obtain a visa.

Kieran Smith, director general of the recruitment agency Driver Require, said his research suggested 12,000-15,000 EU drivers had returned home, partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic and tax changes.

Many were self-employed, operating as small limited companies to reduce the tax burden, but it has now stopped following what is called IR35 reforms HM Revenue & Customs requires all contractors with a turnover of more than £ 10 million or 50 employees to pay full tax and national insurance to their drivers.

Although the industry was very well received, the reforms were adding to the exodus of EU drivers who would not accept the drop in revenue brought about by the regularization of the tax situation.

“The initial exit was driven by Covid, but we estimate that IR is 5.35 and another 5,000-10,000 will come out now. Many were not limited to paying direct taxes to limited companies, but even with the inflated salary, it is still not enough to get the same net income,” he said.

Companies and industry associations have come under heavy pressure to put HGV drivers on hold list of shortage occupations but the government has made it clear that it will not do so, and has said businesses need to “adapt” to the post-Brexit immigration regime.

Day, who has been actively hiring Turners since 2005 and has his own driver training program in the UK, said this is the easiest solution, given the six-month time frame for hiring and training UK drivers. limited availability of candidates.

“The government has to act before things get out of hand. If the government does not change this attitude, then it will put between 20% and 20% of UK transport costs. Is UK plc really ready? he said.

Veitch said the government needs to do more to raise awareness of the peace left by EU drivers in favor of UK recruitment policy, including prioritizing canceled driving tests and providing aid to cover driver training costs.

The government said it had launched a campaign to gather 300 more examiners DVSA, examination agency, now makes 4,000 tests available weekly.

However, while the Financial Times across the sector heard serious doubts that while hiring at home could fill gaps in the short term, in the longer term it was not clear that enough UK workers would take on an industry with long working hours and harsh working conditions, despite rising wages. were.

Smith, Driver Require, added data analysis The National Statistics Office has shown a “catastrophic catastrophe” over the past 20 years, with nearly a third of the 300,000 drivers over the age of 55 skilled in the industry and retiring in the number of qualified HGV drivers.

“This cohort of 150,000 drivers over the age of 50 is going to retire and there is a very exhausted employee behind that group. In the short term we can’t do much except to make an impact,” he said.