Brexit, “The Vid” and the Driver Shortage

Article by Elizabeth Adeogun

What is the crisis with lorry drivers?

Over the last few months there was a shortage of lorry drivers in the UK and Supermarkets and other big retailers were competing to recruit lorry drivers, offering pay rises and “golden hello” payments. This is in turn made it more and more difficult for haulier firms and suppliers to hold onto their drivers. Industry experts have said most of these pressures were being felt by businesses, rather than the consumers and the issue was more about getting the items to the shelves opposed to a shortage in product.

What was the cause of the shortfall?

The lorry industry has blamed the shortfall on the post-Brexit exodus of European drivers and a lack of driver training during the coronavirus crisis.

However, the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps insisted that leaving the EU did not play a part in the shortage issue, claiming that it has actually helped “provide a solution” to the problem. He continued “Not only [was] there very large and even larger shortages in other EU countries like Poland and Germany, which clearly can’t be because of Brexit… actually because of Brexit I have been able to change the law and alter the way our driving tests operate in a way that I could not have done if we were still part of the EU.”

A spokesman for Logistics UK, a representative of hauliers, described the driver shortage as “a very serious issue that needs urgent Government and industry action to resolve”.

It seems that Covid is arguably part of the problem. Travel became restricted last year, which resulted in large parts of the economy shutting down and several European drivers returning home. Following this mass exit haulage companies explain that very few drivers have made their way back.

The pandemic also caused a backlog in HGV driver tests, which affected the number of drivers that were able to start. Additionally, the industry reportedly disclosed in June that there were 25,000 fewer candidates passing their HGV test in 2020 than in 2019. Fewer people passing the HGV tests resulted in a smaller driver pool.

What was the impact of the issue on our everyday lives?

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) survey of its members estimates there is now a shortage of more than 100,000 qualified drivers in the UK. This shortfall led to supermarket shelves and restaurants and pubs being depleted of supplies ranging from KFC menu items to bottled bear. Though these issues are ‘first -word’ issues, they break in consistent convenience caused quite a stir and disruption to public life.

What was done to try to solve the issue?

So far, we understand that a number of government led initiatives were put forward to address the issue.

• To allow more foreign workers into the UK from October,
• Ministry of Defence examiners brought in to increase the number of HGV driving tests.
• Free intensive ‘bootcamps’ to train 3,000 people to become HGV drivers, with another 1,000 to be trained through courses funded by the adult education budget.
• The government proposed writing to nearly one million drivers who hold an HGV licence to encourage them to return to the industry.
• The government to slightly relax the Drivers’ Hours rules, which means drivers will be able to increase their daily driving limit from nine hours to 11 hours twice a week.
• A £7,000 per person funding for the Large Goods Vehicle Driver apprenticeship scheme.
• A temporary visa scheme which aims to grant 5,000 three-month permits, which will barely put a dent in the shortfall. However, this scheme has been criticised by the EU national drivers as not being a long enough time to make the amount of money which would be worth accepting this scheme. Many have indicated that 12-month visa would be more compelling.

The HGV driver shortage has been a problem prior to Brexit and the pandemic. Furthermore, this problem isn’t only affecting the UK however multiple factors have transformed the problem from a long-term challenge to an issue requiring immediate attention. The need to address this problem has never been higher and as we see with the governments’ attempt at a multi-pronged approach the fix requires action on several fronts