The message is stark: distribution firms need to start getting serious about training and developing drivers in order to avert a possible recruitment crisis in the future. That is the warning from Skills for Logistics (SfL), the sector skills organisation which recently published a survey revealing some potentially worrying findings for the industry - one driver in six is over 55 and only 8% of driver vacancies last year was filled by new recruits. Current recruitment trends could be concealing
future problems for the industry if an aging workforce is not being replaced by younger, new recruits.
A high level of mobility within the industry suggests that drivers are quick to move from one employer to the next and could be causing complacency among employers, with only 8% claiming they had experienced difficulty in recruiting drivers with C+E licences. But while the number of employers trying to recruit staff dropped from 40% in 2005 to 30% in 2006, the number of vacancies in the industry has seen a rapid increase in 2007 - 7,606 vacancies for LGV drivers were advertised in June 2006. By June 2007 this figure had increased 95% to 14,853.
Skills for Logistics believes that investing in drivers by offering professional development schemes will help companies ensure they have a lower rate of staff turnover. Operations director Dr Mick Jackson believes that it is vital that companies systematically get to know their workforce and understand their employees' experience,
skills gaps and career aspirations. To that end, Jackson believes that putting into place a proper structured professional development programme will help with the cultural change that is needed in the industry if recruitment and retention are to be tackled properly.
He points to Skills for Logistics' Professional Development Stairway which is made up of 12 steps and everybody - drivers, warehouse staff, administration staff and freight forwarders - follows the same path. It may be that most drivers will reach Stage 4 - when drivers have a licence and have some experience, knowing the roads and the customers - and stay on that stage. Others might progress up to senior drivers and mentors or training supervisors.
"With a structured career programme, we will end up with an industry that considers itself to be a profession and which other people can see is a profession," says Jackson. "But this is not something we are going to change overnight," he admits. He says that it will cost distribution firms money to invest in the training but the payback is that companies will have good, qualified staff at the end. And by developing staff, firms can build loyalty. Skills for Logistics is also keen to help young school-leavers who are keen to become drivers by "bridging the gap" before they can legally go behind the wheel.
MT can exclusively reveal that Skills for Logistics is considering developing a "Logistics Apprenticeship" scheme whereby companies can take on a 16-year-old and initially train him or her in the office aspects of the job, help the young person obtain a car licence so they can drive light vans, then put them through the Category C and then C+E licence at 19. "With this three-year apprenticeship companies could end up with an employee skilled in the craft of driving," says Jackson. "These days it is not that difficult to find drivers per se, but it is difficult to find skilled drivers with experience."
One of the main barriers for young drivers is waiting until they can drive, as in principle young people cannot obtain their LGV licence until they are 21. Skills for Logistics has the 'Young Driver Scheme' which allows people to acquire it at 18. The age of entry is set to come down to 18 anyway, come September 2009, says Jackson. But insurance costs remain a big problem with young drivers of 21 and even of 25. "So a lower age limit is not in itself a panacea," adds Jackson.
Another thorny issue is the government's immoveable stance on the funding of mandatory training. As a result, would-be drivers cannot get funding help for their LGV licence acquisition. Jackson says there are some schemes like those for women or the unemployed or the European Social Funding but the fact that there is no funding for mandatory training is a "big disincentive".
This is echoed by David Fiske who runs the website http://www.drivershortage.co.uk/. He tells MT: "I receive hundreds of emails from prospective drivers and they all relate to the topic of finance. They would love to become HGV drivers but they cannot raise the money required. And I receive quite a few emails from overseas drivers who have driven HGVs for ten years or more but when they migrate to Britain, their licence is not recognised." Fiske believes there should be a financially accessible route into truck driving.
"The haulage industry should take a look at the PCV driving industry where companies like First Bus and Stagecoach train drivers for free in exchange for a minimum term contract. They hold a retainer equivalent to the training costs from the driver's wage. Then, after the minimum term has been served, the driver gets that lump sum back." Fiske points out that some hauliers offer this sort of scheme but it needs to become more widespread. "There are loads of people out there who want to drive trucks but the only things stopping them are a lack of finance and a dearth of experience."
Fiske says a "train for free" style scheme should be adopted throughout the industry wherever feasible. The larger haulage companies should (and perhaps will have to if the driver shortage continues) assess the viability of this concept and set an industry standard.
Mick Skerrett, operations manager for Manpower's Driving Division, also believes that training is the key to attracting more young blood into driving. "The industry needs to set up centres of excellence and training schools to encourage the young into driving, as training is the key to feeding the industry with new drivers," says Skerrett. And he points out that, with the average of drivers increasing, the industry needs to look to public relations as a way of improving the profile of driving. "Most people enter the driving industry these days by accident, so the industry needs to make a conscious effort to encourage the young (21-30 age group) into a career within the driving industry. The industry has changed completely over the last decade with the introduction of new regulations, so the challenge for the future is to make driving a career option with a good salary and work - life balance."
Robert Parker, head of human resources at Nightfreight, says that it is a massive challenge for industry to woo young drivers. He agrees that there is an issue with the school-leaving age being 16 and young people having to wait a few years in order to drive HGVs. "That is a huge bridge," says Parker. "Especially for a company like us that employs LGV drivers rather than van drivers."
If companies cannot attract school-leavers then they have to focus on other sectors. To that end Nightfreight is following in the footsteps of Tesco and others by training some of its warehouse staff to become LGV drivers and providing the funding. But Parker thinks there is a more fundamental issue here in that many warehouse staff do not earn enough to buy and run a car. A controversial idea is that the industry might need to look at helping potential lorry drivers gain a car licence initially as a way of starting their driving career, says Parker.
Nightfreight has taken on more than 100 Polish drivers and most of them have a predetermined amount of time they want to spend working in the UK before returning home to their families. So looking to Eastern Europe is probably not a long-term solution, says Parker. Women and indigenous ethnic minorities are other groups that the industry could tap into although more flexible working in the form of part-time hours and job shares is needed in order to attract more women. As far as ethnic minorities are concerned, the industry needs to demonstrate that distribution can provide a professional career path with a wide range of opportunities such as sales and management that other sectors offer, adds Parker.
The government has a role to play if the industry is to woo more young people into the industry and not put barriers up by making it difficult to become a driver and qualify, believes Parker. "You cannot knock the government's objectives in wanting to have safe drivers on the road, driving safe trucks and driving up standards but this has to be balanced alongside the challenges of attracting people into the industry. Because if we can't and struggle to get drivers it will have a knock-on economic impact as prices will have to go up significantly," says Parker.
The Freight Transport Association says that, overall, the shortage appears to be easing and there are three main reasons for that: one is that the working time directive did not have as dramatic an impact as predicted, the second is that Eastern Europeans have helped plug the skills gap both in driving and warehousing. And thirdly, there has been a beneficial impact from people coming out of the military. The Road Haulage Association's head of international affairs Peter Cullum says that members do not appear to have shortage problems at the moment, apart from at some local or specialist levels. However, the association is concerned about the impact of the driver CPC in 2009 and refresher training - both on the retention of existing drivers and the recruitment of new drivers.
"By and large it is a question of demographics," says Cullum. "Employing Eastern European drivers may not be a permanent solution as they will go back home once wages rise in their own countries." Guy Buswell, chief executive of Business Post, says: "The industry has always insisted that drivers have previous experience before taking them on so you could say that the shortage is our own fault. Now we ask for far less experience - if someone has an LGV licence then we can use our own in-house training. We are also taking on more and more female drivers, immigrant drivers and female immigrant drivers."
Andrew Blakesley, formerly with Manpower Driving and now managing director of Protemp, says that there is no single answer to the recruitment crisis that could affect the industry in years to come. "There is no magic wand, no short-term fix," he says. However, there are some initiatives that the industry can grasp, such as looking at the issue of insurance for newly qualified drivers, joint ventures between driver agencies and training schools (Protemp is working with a training school and trying to find work for the newly qualified) as well as drawing on female drivers and those from Eastern Europe.
"But eventually we will have to look at pay rates and also move away from the traditional image of a truck driver in order to encourage more entrants." Blakesley refers to a recent BBC programme, The One Show, where the message sent out was that blue-collar workers could escape the 9-5 grind by moving into driving. Funding is critical, says Blakesley. "The government managed to put funding into the NHS when there was a recruitment crisis there - well what about logistics?"
Reed Business Information Limited.©2009
