rob22888:
A lot always gets made of pay & conditions etc. which aren’t incorrect observations, however I think the crooks of the problem now lies with an unsustainable demand for drivers to fulfil society’s desire for convenience and just general mass consumerism.
The UK isn’t alone in being short of drivers, there is a problem in most rich economies all over the world. We are seeing booming commercial vehicle sales, all these thousands of extra vehicles on the road need drivers. Covid has seen a huge rise in people wanting stuff delivered to their house these days; the food shop, online shopping, prescriptions, meals. Home delivery services are booming. Again, it all requires drivers and these van jobs could well have soaked up some of the HGV driver supply, particularly in the 7,5t/Class 2 department.
Then we have the boom in next day delivery services. This adds massively to the amount of HGV’s needed on the road because of the pressures to get gear from A-B-C in a very short frame of time, so consignors are unable to consolidate loads. Anyone that has done parcel work will know it’s very common to be running plenty of fresh air about in your trailer. So that it adding to the driver demand.
Then there is the fact so many people these days just want everything cheap, brand new, now and then to throw it away at their convenience. Look at the tents in fields after festivals as a prime example. It’s hardly worth repairing anything these days, just as cheap to buy a new one. All this extra stuff being bought means more lorries on the road, more containers full of tat coming in from China & more refuse vehicles to take all our crap away. Again, this is all means more drivers required.
Could it be that as much as businesses try to recruit drivers, we will never really have enough people wanting to be drivers to fulfil modern societies insatiable appetite for convenience & throwaway goods? Filling 100,000 vacancies looks like a pipe dream to me no matter how much cash you throw at wages.
I think you’re on to something there.
The world was gently moving towards ‘online everything’ even before Covid. The pandemic just gave everyone a massive shove and once they saw the convenience combined with removal of ‘in person’ sites it became normal to do everything online.
Example - in my local area they’ve closed four different bank branches. If you want to physically visit a branch for any reason you’re traveling ten miles.
During the pandemic we had to teach our parents (in their 70’s and 80’s) how to do online grocery shopping. Now they understand it, they no longer shop in store.
My daughter gets McDonald’s delivered to the door. I know we’ve always had food delivery, but this is something else. It’s “normal” instead of a treat at weekend.
I think this was always going to happen. Covid just made it happen at break-neck speed.
Amazon has a lot to answer for. They have next day and even same day delivery. How the hell do they do that? It boggles my mind how I can order a mobile phone at 7am and it’s at my door by 3pm! It’s amazing and incredibly convenient but I know someone, somewhere is being abused for my convenience.
The supply chain is trying to adapt to a new world that was thrust on them virtually overnight.
Will they need more drivers (car, van, 7.5, class 2, class 1)? YES. Lots!
Will they pay for it? Sadly it seems not. Their models never accounted for decent pay or conditions. They worked on the gig economy, zero hours contract, self employment, IR35, and of course cheap foreign labour.
Brexit, IR35 and the latest Uber court cases concerning workers rights has thrown a massive spanner in their works. Their whole business model fails without cheap labour.
So what happens next?
The public have been conditioned to shop online. They’re doing it in record numbers for everything.
Will the public pay a realistic price to get their goods delivered? Probably not.
Will firms pay a realistic rate to get their stock moved? They probably should if they’re saving on expensive retail space and shipping directly from warehouses which is considerably cheaper than retail space.
Will drivers enter this industry?
They’ve been entering for years. They’ve worked in the industry, seen how awful the hours, conditions, and pay are and have left just as quick. There’s 80,000 qualified drivers in the UK most with in date CPC who left for whatever reason. Just think about that. 80,000 qualified drivers not using their licence. What driver shortage?
Maybe with so much moving online it will require more drivers and maybe there will be the opportunity to work more ‘normal’ hours because so much freight is being moved and so many different shifts available.
The driver shortage isn’t unique to the UK or even Europe. There’s huge shortages in America and Australia as well so it’s obviously not down to Brexit.