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MI ix months after CM launc its Driver Drive campaig; . 2000 to highlight the shor t
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of truck drivers (predicted t( between 50,000-100,000 vers over the next five ye; the government announce
response. In March 2001, it ring-fen L5m from the gim fund set aside form ernising the road haulage industry England (separate funding arrangemi exist for the devolved countries). Six moo since our last campaign update (CM 2! Oct 2001), initiatives designed to addr these shortages have reached the start blocks. And there is hard evidence t things are already improving: in the y 2000/200i a total of 27,794 people gait thir Class 1 licences. This compares sA 20,988 in 1999/2000.
Next month (April) the Road Haub Distribution Training Council expects begin financing pilot schemes based on modern apprenticeship framework. II, will target 18 to 25-year-olds in areas eitl side of three business corridors: the w ( em end of the M4 (Swindon-Bristol); i Mr in the East Midlands (Northamp ( Leicester); and the At in the North-East
Local issues will also be addressed, sc as recruiting more young women drive appealing to ethnic minorities and you adults with learning difficulties.
Recruitment options
On ii April a conference spawned from i tiatives involving the Transport & Gene Workers Union and educational establi: ments such as City College in Manches will consider options for recruitment in 1 North-West.
By the end of April independent con tants called in by the It H DTC will have p duced an initial feasibility study Transfer Training Loans. TTL schemes a; to bind trainees to companies provic i the training by making individuals liable repay a proportion of their training cost1 they leave prematurely.
Positive feedback could help encom a more companies to invest in training making it harder for 'parasite' compani to 'poach' freshly trained recruits.
Greater use of funds resources direct ough a revitalised Young Driver Scheme Iready helping operators. Whereas peooutside the YDS must wait until they are :o take an HGV driving test, trainees with S-registered companies can take the ;1/ driving tests—and drive commerLly—much earlier.
:hristian Salvesen is already exploiting the S advantages and expects to have more n too people between the ages of 18-19 ned up by the end of the year.
)ther high-profile operators are also wing more flexible approaches to recruitmt. Exel and Wincanton are typical of .jor players in the East Midlands using !cially trained drivers as 'mentors' to ng on new recruits. The companies have m helped in this innovative approach by ania Driving, a driver training co-opera! based in Burton on Trent.
'While some of the new drivers we are wing have previously been employed in companies as warehousemen, increas;ly they are new recruits brought in from tside," says Omnia's Len Gair. Onmia has o developed a key role as a training and iployrnent placement 'facilitator', match; new HGV licence-holders with logistics npanies who need them in an initiative it can benefit operators of all sizes.
However, Gair says operators must help to ike themselves more appealing by chang; their long-held views about driving expence. Why, he wonders, do they so often rsist in ruling themselves out of a battered labour market with adverts that continue to insist on two years' HGV driving experience?
Insurance companies also have an important role to play, by looking once more at clauses that discriminate against drivers under the age of 25.
In-house driver training programmes will always be a cornerstone in the recruitment of new entrants to the profession—and here too CM is pleased to report new initiatives. In February, (CM 7-t3 Feb) DFDS announced plans to train car licence holders to become Class i drivers (see accompanying feature). It had 480 applications, suggesting that given opportunities, the labour market will respond. Figures from the Driving Standards Agency already show an increase in the number of HGV tests taken last year; the most, in fact, since the rush to beat the test restructure in 1996 and 1997.
If the RHDTC's three pilot projects succeed no one will be more pleased than Peter Simpson, MD of Newcastle-based Simpson Bros. His company is typical of those struggling to find new recruits for their activities in the East Midlands.
Much of the shortage here is a result of the presence of many large logistics concerns competing for the same drivers. While some agency drivers in the area are said to be earning between £7-8 an hour on some logistics contracts, this is nothing like the going rate for a typical driver who works directly for a haulier.
Last December (CM 6-iz Dec) we reported a survey from Income Data Services that shows drivers are still working longer hours for less pay than workers in most other industries. It quoted a median basic hourly rate of £5.87 for a C+E licence holder and a basic weekly wage of i24o.
However, the unions are unable to report a general trend towards a more acceptable rate among the larger operators. There seems little hope of a lead from the small independents in the present economic climate.
Nobody believes that km is anywhere like enough cash to solve the skills shortage that the UK industry is facing as a whole. But at least we are now seeing positive action on several fronts. The hope must be that these initiatives will lead to more, as the industry gets used to training its own people. And this will give our trade bodies leverage to draw further financial commitment from the government.
• The conference on ii April will be held at the T&.G's office in Salford under the banner of the North Western Logistics College, which is a partnership between the union, local employers and educational specialists established in April 2ooi.
The Logistics College, says the T&G, will be "a crucial way of helping to recruit new entrants to the industry and keep in many more who might otherwise leave".