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Road transport software specialist Aquarius is reporting a marked increase in the number of agency drivers being employed by its UK customers during the pandemic.

Demand in November and December 2020 rose by 74% compared to the same period in the previous year, according to data from the company’s ClockWatcher Elite tachograph analysis software.

It also detected a 30% rise in the number of agency drivers being used by operators during the months of August, September and October 2020 compared to the same months in 2019.

Guy Reynolds, director at Aquarius IT, said the marked increase from August reflects the industry’s attempts to recover from the first lockdown, and the economic uncertainty at that time about the pandemic and the Brexit impasse.

He said: “The use of agency drivers during times of economic uncertainty makes perfect business sense. As compared to full-time drivers they offer operators a flexible way of supplementing an existing workforce in line with demand.

“However, aligned with this, the surge in agency drivers also sadly suggests that many driver redundancies have occurred during the pandemic - we know first-hand for customers involved in non-essential industries that these have been, and continue to be, very difficult times.”

These latest figures from Aquarius IT also reflect the statistics from other industries, with the Recruitment and Employment Federation reporting in October that the level of anticipated use of agency workers had already recovered to pre-pandemic levels from May to July.

The industry report also showed that businesses were more likely to hire contingent workers than permanent staff during the following three months as a route to recovery from the impact of the pandemic.

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