Interesting article in The Grocer. Quite a long article but interesting figure on the numbers of EU drivers. Does that sound a bit short?
Plus, according to ONS data, the loss of EU drivers is only a minor cause of the shortage. At the start of 2020, before the pandemic hit, there were 37,000 EU drivers in the UK. Now, there are 24,500. That loss of 12,500 drivers only goes a little way to explaining the current shortfall. Given a total of almost 70,000 drivers have left during the pandemic alone, this represents just 18% of those who have exited the HGV industry. It led a logistics thinktank led by Driver Require to conclude “EU drivers leaving the UK did not significantly contribute to the current shortage”, in a new report published this week. Brits are certainly the more significant factor. Over 55,000 domestic drivers left the industry during the pandemic. Retirement, a lack of driving tests during Covid, and tax changes have all been cited as the cause.
Very interesting read. No mention of long hours although it does mention ‘working conditions’ but until the issue of 12-14 hour days as standard gets tackled then I don’t think this problem will go away any time soon.
sounds to me its a bit like the immigration numbers when the gov try and tell us that there are only a few thousand visas handed out every year all the rest are sent back apparently once they have found out where they came from because they all report to the police station or wherever they are told to at regular intervels .
Thing is they have to show a token amount of ee drivers because they are right across the service industry and even the nimbys cant miss them in thier posh coffee shops and nail bars.
Maybe a load of workers, drivers among them - didn’t realize they actually COULD afford to “Retire” - until being put on furlough woke them up to the realization that “If I can manage on 80% of my pay, then I can manage on around the same amount for the pension I’ve got coming…”
Why retire @ 67 for a pension barely higher than retiring at 60 gives you?
It seriously isn’t worth booting that retirement down the road 7 years just for an extra £85 per week… You’d have to live well into your 90’s to make such a deferred pension pay…
Statistically, only one-in-a-thousand people live to be aged 90+.