ready for this… went to a conference the other day and the F.T.A sent a couple of guys to do a talk. part of it was some stats that may or may not make you, especially the younger ones sit up and take notice.
2013 drivers retiring / not renewing licences / no intention of taking cpc 9,400
new drivers taking vocational tests( all classes) including those who have not completed the sections for cpc 12,000
the amount of said new drivers taking P.S.V 4,500
this leaves 7,500 new drivers to fill a potential 9,400 lost jobs. they have analysed that this will increase over the next 5 to 10 years leaving a huge shortfall in drivers in this country. the concern was such that there is talk throughout the industry in dis-regarding the “standard” 2 years experience, the over 25 years old insurance poilcy that a lot of companies have in place and the slackening in IN10 and D.D convictions( the length of time they are on the licence in which a companies insurance will consider them negatively)
As i say this was from them and my only conclusion to this is that firstly the “better” companies out there will have to increase there wages to keep any good drivers that they have and secondly the crap firms out there of which there are thousands will eventually start losing drivers.
the outcome to this is that only the transport companies who give the best employment conditions will be able to keep there drivers or a new way will have to be found to recruit new drivers or find another way to deliver goods through the U.K. this has come from the horses mouth so to speak so i dont speak with fork tongue !
please feel free to contradict, put forward arguments, or take the p***
H-ow many drivers that already hold their licences are returning?
How many PSV changing over to LGV?
How many ‘overseas’ drivers relocating for better pay and conditions (hah!)?
Stats are all well and good but they never tell the whole story.
The ‘experts’ have been going on about a driver shortage for years, If our foreign friends (I have no issue with them by the way) were to return home then we may just be short of drivers, but whilst people are free to come over and work there will never be a shortage.
If an insurance company is to underwrite a policy adding such things as no DD’s and 2 years experiance (licence held) will drop the premiums for the company, I cant see many companies dishing out more for insurance when they are looking at cutting costs not increasing them.
Try it with your car insurance renewal, it pretty much works the same way.
The shortfall could be worse than that, if, as we are getting told the economy picks up. How many truck drivers will go and find job with better pay and conditions away from driving and how many of those taking the test are not doing it to get a job as a driver, but to drive horseboxes, racecar transporters etc.
Saying that we do have free movement of labour in Europe, but will we get the same influx from Poland or many of the other 10 Countries that came last time. Most of these economies are far better than they were and those who wanted to come over have done so and either settled down here or gone home. So that leaves Romania and Bulgaria, both countries populations don’t add up to the population of Poland. but I suppose we might see an influx of Spanish workers as unemployment there is horrendous.
Of course if the industry starts struggling to get drivers and is having to put up wages and pay for training and DCPC’s to get and keep drivers, the big boys will go off to see the PM and say they want special dispensation to bring drivers in from outside they EU, they’ll say “The extra costs in the supply chain will put inflationary pressures on the economy, that means higher prices in the shop and unhappy voters.”
I reckon this is going to be a Europe wide problem if things pick up, and if a loads of East European drivers come here or Germany, Benelux etc, where are the East European haulage companies going to get their drivers from?
GBD:
went to a conference the other day and the F.T.A sent a couple of guys to do a talk. part of it was some stats that may or may not make you, especially the younger ones sit up and take notice.
Do the phrases “vested interest” or “axe to grind” not spring to mind?
GBD:
went to a conference the other day and the F.T.A sent a couple of guys to do a talk. part of it was some stats that may or may not make you, especially the younger ones sit up and take notice.
Do the phrases “vested interest” or “axe to grind” not spring to mind?
