The exodus of EU truckers leaves UK hauliers in the face of a severe shortage of drivers

An exodus of EU truck drivers from the UK since Brexit has left the UK transport and logistics industry facing a severe shortage of staff and an approaching crisis for industrial and retail deliveries, he warned the sector.

Industry associations and major UK freight companies said that unless urgent action is taken to address the shortage, the tensions that are now visible in the industry will become apparent to the public in late summer.

Although the sector has suffered from a chronic shortage of drivers in recent decades, these have worsened thanks to a “triple blow” of Brexi put an end to EU recruitment, an accumulation of driving tests caused by the Covid-19 and self-employment tax reforms that have aggravated the exit of EU drivers.

“Britain has had a chronic shortage of drivers for many years, but the problem is now acute. In ten years of campaigning on this issue, we have never seen members as concerned as we are now, ”said Alex Veitch, policy director at Logistics UK, the former Freight Transport Association.

The cancellation of an estimated 28,000 heavy vehicle driving tests as a result of Covid-19 restrictions has also hampered efforts to expand the national pool of drivers in the pool of some 300,000 qualified truck drivers in the UK.

Rod McKenzie, director general of policies and public affairs for the Road Haulage Association, said the industry was now facing a perfect storm. “For the public, unlike the industry, this is a quiet storm, but it could soon become a hurricane with obvious shortages, which increases stress and tension between suppliers and carriers,” he said.

The heads of the transport companies said that the end of the closure of Covid-19, which had caused a sharp increase in demand for trade, construction and hospitality, had exposed a problem that had remained hidden by the fall of the demand caused by the pandemic.

Paul Day, CEO of Turners Soham Ltd, a major transport company with 2,300 lorries in Cambridgeshire, whose workforce is made up of about 40% of Eastern Europeans, said cracks were already starting to appear. .

“Within three months, the goods will not be delivered. In fact, it is already happening, there are already loads that are not being covered now,” he said, citing a major retailer and a large supplier of building materials that it had not covered 30 charges last week.

Lee Juniper, chief operating officer of FreshLinc, another large UK logistics operator with nearly 700 trucks, said the shortage was real and now forces it to raise hourly wage rates from 10 to 30 per cent per second. the region and type of transport involved.

In ten years of campaigning on this issue, we have never seen members as concerned as we are now

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

Grocer magazine, a commercial publication, also appeared last month reported this wholesalers limited deliveries to some Spar convenience stores in mid-areas, where driver shortages have been most intensely noticed.

Driver shortages are an early test of government post-Brexit immigration policies that prioritize highly skilled immigration and make it legally impossible to hire foreign drivers of heavy vehicles, an occupation that is not considered sufficiently qualified to be eligible for a skilled worker visa.

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

Many were self-employed and operated as small businesses limited to reduce their tax burden, but now the so-called IR35 reforms by HM Revenue & Customs requiring all contractors with a turnover of more than £ 10 million or a staff of 50 people to pay their drivers ’full national taxes and insurance.

Although the industry welcomed them widely, the reforms added to the exodus of EU drivers who will not accept the drop in revenue that comes with regularizing their tax situation.

“The initial exit was driven by Covid, but we estimate that another 5,000-10,000 will now leave because of the IR35. Many did not pay limited corporate taxes, but even with inflated wages, there are still none. enough to get the same net income, ”he said.

Companies and industry associations have put a lot of pressure on them to put on heavy vehicle drivers the list of shortage occupations but the government has made it clear it will not, as it has said companies must adjust to the post-Brexit immigration regime.

Day, the head of Turners, who has been actively recruiting in the EU since 2005 and has his own driver training program in the UK, said this was still the easiest solution due to the delayed time of six months to recruit and train UK drivers and limited availability of candidates.

“The government must act before things get out of hand. If the government does not change its position on the matter, it will donate 15% to 20% of transport costs to the UK. Is it really ready for UK plc? “He said.

Veitch said the government needed to do more to support its recruitment policy in the UK to take on the march left by EU drivers, including prioritizing canceled driving tests and awarding grants to cover the cost of driver training.

The government said it had launched a campaign to hire 300 more examiners, with the DVSA, the testing agency, now makes 4,000 tests available each week.

However, across the industry, the Financial Times heard significant doubts about whether domestic recruitment could make up for short-term shortcomings, while in the long run it was unclear whether there would be enough British workers to accept an industry with long working hours and difficult working conditions, even if paid rates increased.

Smith, of Driver Require, added that data analysis of the Bureau of National Statistics showed a “catastrophic decline” in the last 20 years in the number of qualified heavy vehicle drivers staying in an industry where nearly a third of the 300,000 drivers are over 55 and they lead to retirement.

“We have this cohort of 150,000 drivers over the age of 50 heading into retirement and behind this group is a very exhausted staff. We can’t do much in the short term except prepare for the impact,” he said. he said.