Students help Pall-Ex with campaign to ease sector skills shortage

Pall-Ex turned to students at De Montfort University to help tackle the industry’s skills shortage and devise a marketing campaign to promote a career in logistics.

The students worked in teams to develop ideas that could be used to attract young people aged 16 to 24, including black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.

The winning campaign, ‘Whatever the Weather’, looked to utilise Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill as a strong female role model to inspire young women to train as HGV drivers, noting early starts, dedication and hard work as key parallels.

Other ideas included ‘No Normal Day’, highlighting the opportunities open to HGV drivers, and ‘Lorry Share’, a spoof of Peter Kay’s BBC series, Car Share.

Abby Langley, Pall-Ex UK & European marketing manager, said: “Recruiting young people into logistics is a key topic of discussion within our industry, so it is refreshing to see new ideas put forward by young people themselves.

“There are some inspiring creatives here that we can develop into actionable campaigns in the future.”

The project was inspired by the logistics industry’s driver shortage, caused by an ageing workforce and lack of recruitment among young people.

Research has shown just 1% of HGV drivers in the UK are aged under 25, compared to 13% who are over 60.