Action call on driver poaching
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URGENT action to stop the poaching of trained lorry drivers by own-account operators is being demanded by the Road Haulage Association.
This week, Mr G. K. Newman, director-general of the RHA, hit out at the present system of raising the training levy which imposed an "unfair financial burden on the road haulage industry."
Companies outside the scope of the Road Transport Industry Training Board were attracting drivers trained at the expense of hauliers. The RHA believes that the levy should be raised on the basis of operator's licence fees or vehicle excise duty.
Mr Newman said that an unpublished report by the Training Services Agency showed that 134,000 hgv drivers were employed by companies paying the levy in 1973, as against 319,000 employed by own-account operators. Hauliers had a 29.6 per cent turnover of class I hgv drivers compared with 18.6 per cent in the own-account sector.
Hauliers recruited 4.5 per cent of novices whereas the ownaccount operators recruited only 2.4 per cent. This suggested, said Mr Newman, that many hgv drivers trained by hauliers went to other industries.
The poaching problem, coupled with the reduction of permitted driving hours and any upturn in the economy, could quite rapidly produce a shortage of trained drivers.
The RHA will now ask the Training Services Agency to receive a deputation to discuss the matter in detail.