The industry will slide back into the same shortage of drivers it experienced during the pandemic if it does not resolve a huge wave of retirements due to hit haulage in the next few years, according to Driver Hire.
Empty supermarket shelves, delays in vaccine deliveries and a lack of fuel in forecourts featured prominently five years ago before government incentives and bumper salaries turned the tide on the chronic shortage, writes Chris Tindall.
However, Driver Hire Training warned that the majority of the professional driving population remains over 50 years old, with 55% aged between 50 and 65.
These drivers will start to retire in the next five years and with little interest from school leavers on careers in HGV driving, it said there was an imbalance that threatened to swing back towards a major skills shortage.
John Keelan-Edwards, MD of Driver Hire Training, said: “There are several factors at play when we discuss why we are at risk of a shortage of HGV drivers again in the near future.
“We don’t have as many drivers from overseas as we once did so we are more reliant on ‘home-grown’ talent. Recent government initiatives have been useful, but professional driving as an industry still lacks diversity in a big way.
“And the average age of the current workforce is cause for concern – there is soon to be a wave of drivers retiring and leaving the industry.”
He said the imbalance in age meant the situation could soon become critical and he called for more incentives to attract a younger generation:
“Incentives such as sign-on bonuses work on a temporary basis to boost the workforce, and this may be necessary again should we have a sudden shortfall,” he said.
“For a sustainable and stable future for the logistics industry, we need more of the current school age generation to enter the industry, and for them to know the fulfilling and varied careers they could have.
“There are many challenges in attracting younger people, but timing and image are two of the big ones. Many people will have already decided on a different career by the time they are able to do their HGV training and gain a professional driving qualification.
“People also now aspire to different career choices – the glamour of travel and the freedom of the open road are not what they may have been in the past.”
Driver Hire’s warning came after the RHA published a report in February with a forecast showing 40,000 new HGV drivers needed to be recruited every year for the next five years – 200,000 in total – to fill the skills gap.
It said HGV drivers had a very different age profile to the general working population, with the majority of lorry drivers between the ages of 50 to 59 and just 1.6% under the age of 24.
However, the report also found retirement was only one reason for drivers leaving the sector. An increasing number were leaving due to ill health and over a third leave for other reasons.
“The peak of the HGV driver shortage showed the severe impact on goods, services and supply chains when we did not have the workforce we need,” the RHA report said.
“Both the industry and government must ensure the right planning, forecasting and contingencies are in place to prevent future driver shortage crises.”
