Haulage Driver Shortage.

The UK is still struggling with the ongoing challenges caused by the of the lack of haulage drivers.

The shortage of EU drivers is for a number of reasons, holiday, quarantine and some who were furloughed over lockdown have since moved to other jobs or retired. The Road Haulage Association (RHA) has conducted a survey of its members and now estimates that there is a shortage of more than 100,000 qualified drivers in the UK.

With retailers also warning of significant disruption to their supplies in the run-up to Christmas, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office has announced, it is introducing temporary visas for 5,000 fuel tanker and food lorry drivers to work in the UK in the run-up to Christmas.

Brexit had caused many issues for European drivers who went back to their home countries, or decided to work elsewhere, are now unable to return. Questions are now being asked if this temporary solution will attract drivers to come back.

According to the latest news from the BBC, the government will be allowing more foreign workers into the UK from October while the Ministry of Defence examiners will be brought in to increase the number of HGV driving tests. There will be free intensive 'boot camps' to train 3,000 people to become HGV drivers, with another 1,000 to be trained through courses funded by the adult education budget. The government is also writing to nearly one million drivers who hold an HGV licence to encourage them to return to the industry.

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KTL understand the challenges ahead and for time sensitive items we have other methods of transporting your freight, get in touch with our sales team to find out more.

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