How we’re helping to address the HGV driver shortage
By James Clifford, CEO of HGVC, the company leading the Driver Academy Group with trade body Logistics UK and workforce solutions group Manpower
Recent action by the government and the industry is helping to ease the shortfall in HGV drivers, but there’s still more to do,
As long as the logistics industry continues to face an acute shortage of HGV drivers, consumers, businesses and the economy will continue to feel the effects.
As we saw last autumn, the impact of all this is clear: empty shelves and petrol shortages.
So how can we tackle this issue? We believe the answer lies in continuing to address barriers to entry, whilst improving driver retention long-term.
A chronic and acute shortage
There has been a chronic shortage of HGV drivers for some time. There are several reasons for this.
Training is largely self-funded and expensive. Three thousand pounds is a lot for younger trainees. These costs have meant many simply couldn’t consider HGV driving.
Now the average age of a lorry driver is around 50. Combined, these factors created a situation where the industry wasn’t producing enough new drivers to replace those who were retiring.
The pandemic then made this chronic shortage acute.
With a lack of testing, even those that could afford to train, couldn’t take a test. Some 25,000 fewer candidates got their HGV license in 2020/2021 compared to the year before.
So, the number of people working as HGV drivers in the UK has fallen steadily from 321,000 in 2017 to 268,000 in 2021, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Finding a fix
The first issue to fix is the cost of training. And the government has taken positive action.
The Department of Education launched Skills Bootcamps in HGV Driving in December, which provide full funding for 11,000 candidates.
As a result, the scheme has helped to remove one of the critical barriers to entry for new drivers: cost.
The Driver Academy Group has seen huge interest in the scheme with 8,300 applications since December.
Moreover, we’ve also seen an increasingly diverse range of candidates coming forward. For example, the proportion of women and those from ethnically diverse backgrounds that have applied are already far greater than those currently working in the industry.
Given the success of the scheme to date and the interest it has generated, there’s a compelling argument for the Department of Education to extend the funding of the Skills Bootcamps for another year.
This would go a long way to helping to get younger drivers into the industry and replace those who are retiring.
It also demonstrates how industry and government can work together to solve critical issues.
Looking to the long-term
Looking ahead, we’d also like to the government and industry work together to improve driver retention.
In some respects, companies are responding. Pay has increased dramatically in the past 12 months and working conditions continue to improve as companies finally discover just how valuable their drivers are.
However, in other areas the industry is stagnant. The best example of this stagnation is the DQC that requires 35 hours’ of training every five years (a day a year).
This training is often seen as boring, irrelevant, repetitive, and costly. In fact, many drivers towards the end of their career feel that when their DQC card comes up for renewal, it’s their time to leave.
We believe it is time for an overhaul of the DQC.
Instead, we believe the DQC courses should be uniform and modular.
Courses could range from advance driving skills, health and safely, hazardous loads and more.
Instead of the same courses being repeated, there should be levels that can build up skills, allow drivers to take more responsibility, and ultimately command a higher salary.
If the government wants to level up the UK, helping workers acquire new skills will be critical.
For the logistics industry, such an approach would help increase driver retention and go a long way to easing ongoing supply chain issues.
