Act now over worsening driver shortage crisis to avoid supply chain meltdown, RHA tells government

The RHA has renewed its plea to the government for urgent action to ease what it calls a growing crisis in driver shortages - made worse by the introduction of IR35 tax changes.

The association said pallet firms, in particular, are having to extend-next day deliveries by up to five days.

The situation was critical even before the pandemic, it said, with many EU truckers heading home for Brexit-related reasons. But the 'complete failure to test new drivers during lockdown' has left a backlog of thousands of tests and and made matters far worse.

Potential drivers have been sidelined and the introduction of the IR35 tax rules is now hitting many firms and drivers, it added.

Anger and frustration among drivers has reportedly resulted in walkouts and self-furloughing, further exacerbating the driver shortage. 'Drivers’ hours relaxations won’t help,' the RHA added, 'because that doesn’t deal with the fundamental underlying problems. Making people work longer hours isn’t the solution.'

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Repeating its call for greater maximum priority for vocational drivers to clear the test backlog, it said the RHA’s Road to Logistics recruitment and training programme and programmes like KickStart remain vital to get new blood into the industry.

The association demanded that lorry drivers be put on the government's Occupation Shortage List, thereby allowing EU and other foreign drivers to fill some rota gaps. There is also a massive driver shortage in the EU, it added.

The RHA also revealed it had paid £500m into the Apprenticeships Levy but only had £50m back – 'a very unfair payout for an industry with a critical staff and youth shortage,' it said.

Further demands were also made for extra funding to pay for expensive HGV driver training and improved welfare facilities.

Rod McKenzie, RHA policy MD said: “The RHA firmly believes that if the voice of the industry isn’t heard there will be uncontrolled supply chain disruption. This will impact the ability of many businesses to recover from the pandemic. Time is tight and action now is critically important.”