The demographic the bomb
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• Small companies will be hardest hit by the skill shortage currently facing the road transport industry. They are most likely to suffer from the lack of school leavers and the decrease in population, according to the Road Transport Industry Training Board.
A survey to determine where skill shortages lie, the cause of labour turnover and how it can adapt its courses for Britain's unskilled workers is currently being undertaken by the RTITB.
Retraining
Although the final results of the survey will not be available until Spring 1990, it is already clear that hauliers will have to look at retraining existing staff and employing over-55s, the long-term unemployed and women with families. Larger operators may also have to forge closer links with education, says the RT1TB.
The Graduate Employment Matching Services (GEMS) could be one such valuable link for hauliers. Graduates from 12 universities and polytechnics in the Midlands are being matched with job vacancies in small businesses, in a scheme backed by a E30,000 Department of Employment grant. There are already 10 operators on its register including Jeffrey's Haulage of Woodville, Burtonon-Trent; Midland Fox of Leicester; Redland Aggregates of Rugby, Leicester; and Steetley of Nottingham.
Such links will become vital as the number of school leavers in England declines from 616,000 this year to some 535,000 by 1993.
In North Yorkshire a study into how small and mediumsized companies can attract labour in the next decade, is being run by York Chamber of Commerce and the College of Ripon and York St John. The findings of the project, called Meeting the Challenge of Demographic Change: The Small Business, will be explored at a seminar in January.
Pay back
Temporary drivers' agency Overdrive has attempted to overcome its problem of a shortage of HGV drivers in the South-East and South-West, by training new and existing staff. The cost of training is paid by Overdrive, until the driver is on HGV rates. He or she must then pay back half the cost.
Employment problems don't end with recruiting staff; more than eight out of 10 companies have trouble retaining staff, says an Industrial Relations survey published last month.
Overdrive has introduced its Five Star Driving Scheme for its best drivers, which guarantees them a weekly wage.
BRS has tackled the shortage of skilled HGV engineering staff in the South and South-East by adding up to 50 apprentices to its 1,300-strong engineering staff.
At last month's Institute of Motor Industry's conference or Employment in the 1990s — The People Crisis, delegates were warned that they should change their employment practices now. "A more imaginative use of the European workforce, supported by better training and education, will largely defuse the demographic time bomb," claimed motor industry analyst Garel Rhys.