Policy & Compliance
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national infrastructure to ensure that goods are delivered; the UK government should provide sufficient resources either to ensure their provision or to build these facilities. Rather like forwarding, driving commercial vehicles is not promoted as a career choice in schools. However, it is an important and responsible role and steps need to be taken by both government and industry to make younger people aware of a career in commercial driving. This is particularly important given the need to reduce the currently high levels of unemployment amongst younger people as part of post- pandemic recovery plans. However, one issue that will have to be addressed relates to high insurance premiums applied to younger drivers, which deters operators from employing them. Recently much has been made of the fact that drivers tend to be male; in fact only 2-3% of the current workforce is female. Effectively, driver recruitment is being undertaken from only half the potential workforce. Whilst driving is not a suitable career choice for everyone, regardless of gender, recent research has highlighted certain issues that discourage women considering such a career. The two most relevant are fears about personal safety and the lack of flexibility regarding working hours. Too often we hear the road sector lumped together as one; in fact it includes many activities and some are facing bigger issues than others. At a recent BIFA Surface Policy Group meeting, the shortage of drivers willing to provide container haulage was highlighted, being described as “the worst driving job in the country”. One problem for drivers, that few mention, is the boredom of having to queue to deliver or collect a container from a dock. No solution is seen to this issue. Whilst boredom is a problem, the flip-side is stress: having to meet tight delivery timescales imposed by delivery depots and having to use often busy roads made worse by roadworks and unexpected delays caused by accidents, etc. Another problem is the relatively high cost of obtaining an HGV licence and driver CPC. While everyone accepts the need
to ensure that drivers are competent and safe behind the wheel of their vehicle, many that BIFA have spoken to see no purpose in the driver CPC, which is relatively expensive and reduces driver availability due to the need to ensure that 35 hours of training is undertaken over a five-year period. For at least domestic drivers, BIFA believes that the need to maintain a CPC should be reviewed by the Department for Transport. The current difficult situation has developed over 15 years and it is going to take several years to resolve. In fact, other industries are facing similar problems and there is a common thread. The affected sector is often highly fragmented with a large number of small organisations operating within it, and roles that often involve the use of equipment and in some cases an element of manual labour. Government policy At the time of writing, the government is opposed to granting temporary permits for EU nationals to work in the UK, arguing that this would be a temporary fix; politically it would not reflect well on promoting the UK’s exit from the EU as a success. The government’s temporary fix argument has some merit with regard to the longer-term issues. However, if time limited permits were granted they would provide a breathing space for the UK road haulage sector, so disrupted by the UK’s exit from the EU and then the unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic, to adjust to the new situation. Some clearly believe that given higher wage rates the situation can be stabilised, particularly if the testing and licensing bottleneck can be resolved. Looking ahead, ways have to be devised to make the role more attractive in order to ensure its long-term sustainable future. This may be problematical as no one knows for sure how big the pool of potential candidates for driving roles is. Concurrently, working with industry, government must address its responsibilities to improve the road network with an emphasis on making it safe. It is going to take time to fix the problem but at least all know the importance to the nation of drivers and their vehicles.
October 2021
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