In 2021, the economic crisis that has hit the world has impacted many industries, logistics and supply chain is no exception. According to BBC, there is a shortage of truck drivers in the Western world including the United Kingdom and the United States. The trucker’s shortage in Britain has been growing for the past few years; however, the COVID-19 situation has made it even worse.
The shortage of truck drivers is definitely going to create problems for the United Kingdom’s economy since there are increasing numbers of drivers that are needed in this industry and they are required to do the same ad courier UK delivery to several customers across the country. In this post, let us discuss the issues related to truck drivers shortage in the United Kingdom and how moving the essential goods from one place to another through multi-drop courier services is becoming more difficult each day.
Truck Drivers Shortage is a Problem for the UK LogisticsBusinesses
The companies need to move essential everyday products and goods using next-day courier services. Many European delivery and pickup services are unable to cater to the growing demands of customers because there are several reasons behind this acute shortage of truck drivers. Let us discover how bad this issue has become and what if there is a solution for that problem.
The truck driver shortage is really bad in the country. There is almost a shortage of 76,000 HGV drivers published in the report of ITV. The statistics have shown that this figure was little bit lower in 2019 as 59,000. This shows that there is an enormous demand of truck drivers in the country and all across Europe. Companies, especially, UK-based logistics and economy parcel delivery services are desperately looking to hire new experienced truck drivers to cater to their needs. This is essential for moving the goods across the UK for these door to door courier UK service delivery people.
In the report published by the Freight Transport Association, it was relieved that 64% of storage and transport companies now face challenges related to the skills shortage and human resources. The report also shows that by 2022, the shortage of truck drivers will increase by 257,000. The FTA representative Sally Gibson also reveals that for the growth of this nation and economy, the logistics sector is the lifeblood of this industry. It is such an essential part of the UK’s whole supply chain. The fact remains that the country’s economy cannot operate successfully without HGV drivers.
Without these vital components of the logistics backbone, the truck drivers, it will be extremely difficult to successfully operate the business and some of them will come to a grinding halt. That includes all businesses such as weekend parcel deliver yuck companies in addition to large parcel deliver UK firms. The lack or shortage of truck drivers appears to be a much bigger problem throughout Britain and growing throughout Europe in 2021. For example, in Germany, more than 45,000 truck driver vacancies have been announced recently. This is because two-third of drivers in Germany will retire in the next fifteen years.
The Reasons behind the Shortage of Truck Drivers
Since the United Kingdom has an aging population that also includes many truck drivers, new and young drivers are difficult to find and hire on short notices. The average age of an experienced truck driver in the UK is 48 years; more than 48% of the UK’s truck drivers are above the age of 50. That means that most of these drivers are unhappy with their jobs or won’t even consider truck driving a respectable and fruitful professional.
Times are changing rapidly and leaving truck drivers is surely creating a negative image of this industry. This also shows that due to poor working conditions, most of the old truck drivers are uninspired to work for the same companies and retiring early or changing jobs.
This also means that putting off younger generations of drivers shows there is an acute shortage of young truck drivers in the UK. Even worse, the stats show that when a young truck driver aims to join this growing industry of logistics, many fleets become uninterested in hiring them due to their age of 25 or below. For this issue, it is becoming very hard for SMEs to operate successfully and event logistics UK firms are suffering losses due to no or late deliveries to customers.
Moreover, the stats also show that the turnover of Ivory drivers in the country is also significant due to the low motivation of drivers. This has created a huge problem for this growing food and agriculture logistics industry. Manufacturing logistics UK also needs drivers on a daily basis to deliver products to newer destinations where they can reach retailers. Unfortunately, amidst COVIDa-19, if the working conditions are not improved for truck drivers, this issue will escalate in 2022.
