1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186 
East European drivers not so much a flood as a trickle
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The flood of East European drivers never happened. Guy Sheppard reports.
EXPANSION OF the European Union has not led to a big influx of drivers into the UK but it is creating a valuable source of potential recruits, according to driver agency ADR Resources.
ADR says it has brought in 25 drivers from Eastern Europe in the last month and has placed all of them with clients.
Mark Howitt, operations director of the St Albans-based company, says: "Clients that have so far used these people have been delighted with the results because they are committed, loyal and hard-working."
He adds that a recruitment campaign was started by ADR well before the 10 new member countries joined the EU on 1 May.
"It takes three to four weeks from the point of identifying someone as suitable to assessing them and training them and then getting them working for a client," Howitt explains.
"We will definitely be looking to increase the numbers we have already got," he says,"but this sort of recruitment is not easy and we will always do it in a controlled fashion." Howitt estimates that ADR finds work for between 600 and 700 drivers each week.
Manpower Driving, which places an estimated 2,000-plus drivers each week, says there was a modest increase in foreign job applicants after the new EU members joined, but only 3% were suitable for commercial driving work.
Director Andrew Blakesley predicts that there will be a small influx rather than a flood of migrant drivers to the UK over the next few years. And he warns: "They will provide minimal relief to those distribution companies continuing to find the driver shortage tough on business."
Research for Manpower shows that 53% of companies in the transport sector find it difficult to recruit skilled drivers; a fact backed by the results of the CM/ Michelin survey on page 22.
-EU enlargement and the wider labour pool that has become available will not provide a magic solution for the lack of commercial drivers in the UK," Blakesley concludes.