Top hauliers give mixed response to claims driver shortage crisis is easing

Driver Require’s CEO, Kieran Smith, was quoted by Motor Transport in an article "Top hauliers give mixed response to claims driver shortage crisis is easing"

The article report that logistics companies are reporting signs that the HGV driver shortage crisis may have turned a corner this month. However some cautioned that, unless wage rises are maintained and facilities improved, the easing of the crisis could be short lived.

Kieran Smith, MD of specialist driver agency Driver Require Group, told MT the company is recruiting “strongly”. He believes that recent increases in driver numbers are not just a result of the seasonal fall in January volumes fed by hauliers letting agency drivers go after the Christmas peak.

“It is both seasonal and a case of the permanent driver pool being enhanced with new passes that are starting to come through,” Smith explained.

However, he said maintaining driver numbers has to be a long-term strategy. “What we do not want is Groundhog Day. The government, by putting all this extra capacity into the training and testing system, may well be creating its own Sorcerer's Apprentice.

“If there is an over-supply that floods the market, then the government could cut its training programme, wages could drop and everyone could start treating the drivers as commodities again, and before you know it we will be back where we started,” he warned.

Read the full article by Carol Millett for MotorTransport