News

The UK is not presently experiencing a driver shortage crisis, but industry insiders warn that current solutions, particularly the use of foreign workers, are only short-term answers. Skills for Logistics (SfL) chief executive Ian Hetherington says that in the next five to ten years, UK hauliers may face a problem "as demographics kick in". He also anticipates that as pay rates in migrant workers' home nations rise on account of labour demand, it is more likely they will return.

"There's  only one real solution," he insists. "We need to have a systematic recruitment of young people into the industry." Road Haulage Association (RHA) head of international affairs Peter Cullum told an IRU seminar in Amsterdam last week that the UK has "solved [the driver shortage problem] by short-term measures and can manage at the moment". The seminar revealed that other EU member states were facing worse shortages.

"We tapped into the foreign market like no other country, but in the medium term using foreign labour is not a solution unless you have a permanent supply," Cullum says.