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Small hauliers face recruitment crisis
Page 7
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• The industry faces a jobs crisis in the next five years from which many small employers will never recover, warns Malcolm Filsell, chairman of the European Transport Maintenance Council.
Filsell blames the crisis on neglect of driver training, low wages and a 20% fall in school leavers — who have rising expectations. Drivers who won their HGV licences through "grandfather
rights" are retiring, and operators have not devoted enough effort to attracting replacements through training, higher wages and promoting the industry in schools, he says. Risen, managing director of Wellingborough-based homedelivery specialist Store to Door, says stores such as Asda are competing with transport companies for youngsters by paying 2211 a week to 18year-old warehouse workers.
"This is more than an HGV3 driver earns," he says. "Retailers are having to step up how attractive they make their jobs — our industry is not." He says big transport companies are promoting lucrative jobs in logistics and distribution for graduates, at the cost of basic training for drivers, and apprenticeships for mechanics. "I could fill my office with graduates, but drivers are gold dust," he says.