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Lack of qualifications
Page 29
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More than 30% of truck dryers have no educational qualifications of any sort, according to Skills for Logistics (SfL), so it is hardly surprising that literacy and numeracy are issues in the industry. SfL chief executive Paul Hetherington describes it as the great hidden challenge" for the haulage business: "It's easy to talk in clichés about drivers, but it remains true that while there is a lot of practical skill— not to mention native wit— among drivers, English and basic mathematics are all too often a big problem."
This problem reeds to be addressed among the current workforce, not just future recruits — if only because these employees are likely to be in the industry for a long time. SfL figures suggest that 80% of the logistics workforce in 2020 will be made up of staff who are already in the industry.
The good news, both for haulage employers and the drivers themselves, is that doing something about literacy and numeracy will not cost them anything. Government funding means that evening classes for both are centrally funded so it will cost nothing more than some swallowed pride and a little effort to put a big dent in the Industry's literacy and numeracy deficit.