Probably a mix of the reasons I outlined, long hours, poor conditions, coupled with expensive training and older drivers retiring without being replaced.
It’s not just about incentives, it’s also about the paperwork, any drivers crossing the channel are now buried in paperwork. Many of the EU drivers couldn’t be arsed and ****ed it off, I remember reading an interview with a haulier about it back in July. The was also the fact that this country was celebrating the end of FoM with Patels new immigration rules, that excluded most drivers due to the points system. So those who’d ****ed off couldn't be replaced. Lastly there was cabotage, multi country drops from one load, this country relied on foreign hauliers to a large extent, and again due to the paperwork they’ve largely taken us off their routes, not worth the hassle. All of these issues were in the yellow hammer report on the effect of becoming a 3rd country to the EU, and they failed to plan to negate any of it.
Pinkie is right that the facilities for drivers here are ****e and pretty infrequent so far too often they have to resort to stopping in lay bys or if lucky at a transport cafe with a big yard .
So I was right all along. So maybe France, Germany and Poland should up their wages and give better conditions for drivers, then they will be able to fill all their vacancies.
It might have been the accepted standard back in the day, but as I've said, with older drivers retiring, you have to attract younger people to the profession. Are they going to accept the same ****ty conditions ? The evidence so far is that we'll have to drastically incentivise the profession to bring on board the numbers needed.
What about the rest of Europe, whole list of countries that can't get drivers, so maybe the EU need to up their standards, if they did that, they might be able to attract young drivers.
As I mentioned earlier. For young people with families, the idea of driving 15 hours, having to pay to stop in some ****ty truck stop, to then drive 15 hours back simply isn't attractive. It might have been 25 years ago, but in general, working conditions have improved across most sectors. So the haulage industry are going to have to incentivise the profession. For a basic start to get us out of a hole, the Govt should pay for driver training. I think it costs something like £5k to train to be an HGV driver ?
As I’ve said, the haulage industry needs to make the profession more attractive if they are going to recruit the numbers needed
Yup, article from 2018... One-fifth of German trucks is unused. We simply cannot get more drivers – admits Sebastian Lechner, board member of the Federal Shipper’s Union in the interview for Bayerischer Rundfunk. There are many reasons for the lack of drivers in Germany – low pay, stress and time pressure. In Germany, there is a shortage of about 45 thousand truck drivers and the deficit is growing. According to the local media, about 30 thousand truckers leave the profession every year. Demography is at a disadvantage to the transport industry. Of the 1.5 million drivers who had a driver license in 2016, more than one million are over the age of 45. German transport unions are beating the alarm: https://trans.info/en/germany-is-de...0-percent-of-trucks-are-at-a-standstill-97306
the Govt should do no such thing but the industry should and then pass on the cost to consumers same as other industries .
Lol, don't mention the EU Even the haulage industry has cited Brexit as exacerbating the problems. 'The lorry industry has blamed the shortfall on a post-Brexit exodus of European drivers and a lack of driver training' https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/hgv-dri...losures-lorry-driver-crisis-explained-1215930