I have reflected how we have got to this point – a situation
which is frankly embarrassing to our country’s reputation as an advanced economy
and society.
Obviously, in the short term, the panic buying has been due
to irresponsible and inflammatory media reports that have escalated localised
issues due to tanker driver shortages, into a systemic crisis, poor Government
communications and the choices, rightly or wrongly, made by millions of
drivers.
But the longer-term causes of this and associated issues –
including the challenges of getting shipping containers out of the ports and to
the customers – are many and varied and centre around a national HGV driver
shortage, variously quoted as being between 80,000 and 100,000.
Rather inevitably, some commentators with left wing axes to
grind were quick off the mark to blame the entire situation on this country’s
democratic decision to leave the European Union (EU).
Not so fast, you Remainers. Data compiled for the Office for
National Statistics (ONS) estimates that there were 16,000 fewer EU nationals
working as HGV drivers in the year ending March 2021, than in the previous
year.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that a number of these may well
have left less due to Brexit, and more due to wanting, understandably, to be
closer to home and families during the COVID19 pandemic.
So, what else accounts for this alarming shortfall in the
people who are so central to businesses’ supply chains and people’s day-to-day
lives, both in the UK and many European countries within the EU.
In two words: systemic failures. And these failures have
been building for decades and can be laid at the doors of the very players who
should have been investing in the sector.
So who are the guilty parties?
Well the industry itself must shoulder some of the blame.
The Road Haulage Association and Logistics UK have hardly covered themselves in
glory in positively boosting the profile of the industry to potential recruits,
with the result that there are very few drivers under the age of 30. Indeed,
the average age of UK drivers is about 55.
And many employers need to hang their heads in shame as they
have held down salaries and implemented some incredibly dehumanising monitoring
and management practices that, quite frankly, have resulted in many drivers
saying enough is enough and either retiring or switching trades.
Then there is the perverse role of various Government
agencies. The cost and time it takes to train a recruit from scratch is too
long-winded (there is still a back-log of 25,000 applications) and expensive
(anything from £4000 - £7000). Greater priority needs to be given to HGV
testing and some of the costs offset against tax. Add this this the industrial
action and the working from home policy at the DVLA, both poorly handled by
Grant Shapps at the Department for Transport and it just made a bad matter worse.
Talking of tax, reforms to IR35 which affects those drivers
who are not employees but bill companies for their services, has meant that for
many the job is not worth the effort.
The job is, of course, incredibly stressful at the best of
times, made worse by poor local government planning decisions in terms of the
availability of decent places to eat, sleep and rest and by a road system that
is frankly unfit for purpose, especially so here in our region, whether that be
the A11, A12, A14, or most of the roads
‘maintained’ by the County Councils.
My surprise is not that the recent crisis has taken place,
rather that it hasn’t happened sooner and more frequently. And for that we have
to thank the resilience and hard work of the British men and women who are
still driving HGVs.
Only a national investment plan between the sector’s groups
and employers and all levels of Government will avert similar crises becoming
the norm.
You have been warned!
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