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R ates of pay, lack of prestige, responsibility levels, working conditions
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and stress: these are just a few of the factors whch turn potential HGV drivers away from the industry. But if we do not take urgent action to boost the numbers of available drivers in the UK our industry will be unable to function effectively.
When CM read the Driving Standards Agency's figures last October, we realised that things had to change. DSA statistics showed that the number of newly qualified HGV drivers had plummeted by 50% between 1990 and 2000. Our campaign, Driver
Drive 2001, was launched last October. Essentially, we
sought to highlight the driver recruitment crisis but, more importantly, we strove to identify exactly where the problems lay—and, ultimately, how fresh blood could be attracted into the industry.
One year on there have been many positive developments, but there is still a long way to go. The lastest figures from the DSA do not make encouraging reading: in the financial year 2000/2001 5 total of 27,921 people took the Class I test. Of these, 4,539 passed; but in 19 9 9 /2000 21,030 gained the right to drive a top-weight truck. So the figures have dropped again and there is still a mountain to climb.
In an industry as large as road haulage, positive developments can take time to manifest themselves. A cash injection is welcomed, although its effects are usually delayed. A staggering 1.2
million employees work in the UK road transport sector. It is a vast workforce; but as haulage is a private-sector industry the powers-that-be have no duty to financially support it.
But this March they did just that. In his Budget Chancellor Gordon Brown stated that the sector would receive Doom, including i3om for retro-fitting emission-reduction equipment, fi5m for a fuel efficiency programme, L5m for training and i:3111 for enforcement (CM 15-21 March).
It could be argued that Z5m for training is insignificant, given the size of the industry, and the problems it faces, but such a fund would have been unthinkable in 2000.
The fuel protests showed that operators were serious about venting their frustration at government policy, and this had an 0 undoubted impact on public perception. The Road Haulage Forum, which started life in 1999, has also made progress in getting the haulage industry's message across to the government. Divided into six sub-groups, including the training and enforcement sub-groups, the forum's chief role is to address the government at ministerial level. The Freight Transport and Road Haulage Associations, the SMMT and Transport & General Workers Union are all represented, as are major fleet operators such as Tibbet and Britten.
So how instrumental has the Forum been in securing that Doom fund, and with it the km for training? FTA chief economist Simon Chapman believes it has been a catalyst for change. He says: "The imam will not solve the industry's problems, but it is a pump priming mechanism to get things on the move, "Last year we [the industry] got nothing from the government. The Road Haulage Forum provided the key to the lock—it got the government to recognise that the industry faced problems."
The forum, says Chapman, led to the government taking measures which would make "a telling contribution" to tackling the industry's problems. It is all about "better dialogue'', he suggests.
Training company
So now at least we have the mechanism in place with which the industry can communicate with the government. When we launched our campaign last October we looked at Vakopleiding Transport en Logistiek, the nonprofit making Dutch training company. It is an unqualified success story. At Vakopleiding, unions and haulage firms of all sizes pool their money to train drivers.
Last year it was in the process of putting 2,5oo students through their paces. To help with this, the organisation runs zo of its own HGVs, and has So more trucks at its disposal, hired in from training schools. The statistics
may not seem great, but bear in mind that the Dutch haulage industry is a fraction of the size of the British industry.
Importantly, student figures in Holland this year are on a par with zoo°. Unlike here, the trucking species has a sustainable future.
More food for thought: although the Dutch government liases closely with Vakopleiding, it plays no active role within it. Instead success is built on the foundations of a solid partnership between unions and hauliers.
Every UK operator must recognise that driver recruitment is reaching crisis point. In the last Budget, hairdressers were given a whopping Dom for training, compared with km for transport (CM o-2,6 Sept). The reason, says Ian Hetherington, chairman of the Road Haulage and Distribution Training Council, is simply that hairdressers are better at getting their message across.
Hair needs cutting—and goods have to get from A to B. Haulage, along with its raft of regulations, is a far more complex industry than hairdressing. Yet the attitude of some hauliers leaves much to be desired. Take the story of John Birch, from Walsall.
After redundancy from the accounts department of a large company, Birch took the initia tive and invested his pay-off in his future. Th year he trained for the C test, then continue. to gain the full C+E licence. "The whole thir cost me ii,Goo," he says. 'It was fantast when I got the C+E licence. It was a great fe ing, being able to drive an artic."
The newly qualified Birch sent three spec] lative job-seeking letters to hauliers. He d not secure a job with any of them. Of cour! this could happen with any speculative jc seeking letter. More alarmingly, Birch did n. even get a letter from any of the thr( hauliers, thanking him for his interest Birch says: "It was a disappointment. T1 fact that they dismiss you like this is out I hand." He has since found work with a agency, and he is guaranteed a decent wa packet at the end of the week, even if wo: goes quiet. "But I would prefer to work for haulier," he says.
Fresh recruits
The hauliers who neglected to acknowleciE Birch—and countless others who ignol interest shown by potential drivers—may I thinking dangerously short-term. One ch their existing C+E drivers will have to retir Maybe then they will regret ignoring offe: from fresh recruits, or at least saying "thar you" for the interest. For in-depth coverage newly qualified drivers who have found hard to secure work, see CM u-17 January.
Fortunately, there are hauliers out the: who are prepared to invest in the future. Or of them is Ronald Sinclair, managing direct( of Evesham-based R Sinclair Transport. It is typical family haulier, which was founded i T947. Today it runs 20 artics and six rigids.
The firm prides itself on its history of takir trainee drivers under its wing. In the past a company has run the Young HGV Drive: Training Scheme, which subsidises firms train drivers. Then the scheme ceased for fi.) years, taking the subsidy with it.
This posed no problems at R Sincla Transport: "We funded the training ou selves," Sinclair says proudly. "We are a fami that has been brought up to put our ow bread on our table, and that of the 5o me who work for us."
He applauds the reinstatement of if Young HGV Drivers Training Scheme. "} last we have made a start to get into a trainir system again," he says. In this business the: is a need to train your youngsters."
Gary Curtis, training principal of Driv( Training Centre in Hastings, knows only tc well about the shortage of new HGV recruit His company's services are comprehensiv students can study for the GrE, qualificatio: the CPC and ADR qualifications: they ca even learn to operate lorry-mounted crane
Curtis spreads his net wide, and seeks attract trainees from as far afield as Devo and Dorset. To do this he advertises on loc radio stations, the Internet, and in loc. newspapers. But he reports that tk response has been mixed: "Each year vs
Lye the capacity to train 5 oo people for the ass i test," says Curtis. "But last year we lined 3o people for the Class 1," The problem is not just about a lack of terest by prospective drivers: sometimes ere is more interest than opportunity. Ve get unemployed customers who come us but they cannot get the funding to sin," he says. "There are lot of people ho could find themselves work if they got e Class r qualification, but we cannot do lything for them."
Luckily for Curtis, Driver Training Centre is secured a lucrative contract with a itional fleet operator to train its personnel r the C, Cr and Ci-E licences. But, like the vner of any going concern, he would like to !nerate more business. He :aises CM s Driver Drive 2001 mpaign. For Curtis, coverage hich stresses the recruitment :oblem must be useful: :orrimercial Motor is bringing awareness to the marketace," he says.
But the fact is that potential :ivers are reluctant to fork out sh to train and, as Curtis lows all too well, assistance is ird to come by. He says: `here does not seem to be anying available at the moment, ru cannot get access to funding. is frustrating."
It is a question of so near, yet so far. 'riding is available—the issue is how you your hands on it.
'raining programmes
1st autumn we ran a feature on funding for lining (CM 2-8 Nov 2000). Individual !arning Accounts provide a £150 subsidy wards vocational training programmes, we ported—that's not an awful lot towards Lining a C+E licence.
In the same issue we looked at the New eal. This is a "back to work" scheme !signed for people who have been unemoyed for more than six months. Under it, 'employer signs a contract to train the stunt. The financial aid to the haulier is not to 'sniffed at (see panel, left). For the poten
tial trainee, however, there is a drawback: training can only be undertaken if there is a job at the end of the course. So the ball is still in the hauliers' court.
It is important for hauliers to get on the other side of the fence, and look at HGV driving from the perspective of the potential recruit. Rather than merely bemoaning the recruitment crisis, they must understand why it has come about.
Every campaign issue of CM over the last year has carried a coupon, which has enabled readers to pledge their support for Driver Drive 2001. But we have only received a handful of coupons from hauliers—a tiny show of support when you bear in mind that CM sells more than 24,0 on copies a week. Training schools and driver agencies have been more forthcoming with dozens of pledges of support.
Nigel Deacon, managing director of Evesham-based driver training and recruit ment specialist Westbourne Services, says that hauliers must take on drivers, even if they do not have the coveted two years' experience. He adds: "The industry desperately needs to raise its profile, and must attract more iti to 18 year olds. Hauliers are sticking their heads in the sand. Somebody must put their hand in their pocket."
As Ian Hetherington asserts, the industry recognises the recruitment problem. "We have just defined the battleground," he says. Progress has been made, then, but there is still a lot of work to be done.