The RHA is to make an emergency submission to the government this week demanding that it steps in and sorts out the industry’s driver shortage, before it undermines the fragile economic recovery.

It comes as a survey from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) revealed that 74% of its members worked in organisations experiencing a shortage of HGV drivers. It also found 89% believe the government is not doing enough to deal with the problem.

RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said: “When we surveyed our members last September, 70% said they were short of drivers and, as we predicted, the situation is getting worse.

“The obvious solution is for the government to intervene with urgent funding for driver training. That’s why we’re making an emergency submission to the government in advance of the July budget, which sets out why it’s in the government’s own interest to heed the call of the RHA and step forward to help.”

He added: “A lack of drivers doesn’t just hurt our industry – it threatens to set the economic recovery back. And training more drivers will help in the government’s quest for full employment.”

Sally Gilson, the FTA’s skills policy development manager, said the government could be doing more and that it had been pressing ministers for help since last September.

She said: “The FTA has been pushing for an extension to student-style loans that mean individuals can self-fund or companies can sponsor recruits through their licence acquisition.

“Although there is a funding issue, there are other factors too. The FTA has also been attending meetings at DfT to discuss ways that the DVSA and DVLA can help the process, one of the problems being that there are hotspots across the UK where there are now long waiting times for tests due to greater numbers applying.”

Gilson added that the FTA was also exploring why the pass rate was so low, at 52%.

The CILT survey also found:

  • 61% use agency workers throughout the year
  • 51% have failed to recruit drivers over the last 12 months
  • 22% do not finance Driver CPC for their drivers
  • 80% claimed it was business’s responsibility to find solutions to the issue.

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