UK HAULAGE driver shortages have hit ‘catastrophic proportions’ with the Road Haulage Association reporting a loss of 15,000 drivers since Brexit.

The sector body has warned that this will lead to food shortages on supermarket shelves by the Autumn, and due to the difficulty in recruiting European drivers following Brexit, it has called on the UK Government to include HGV drivers on the Skilled Worker Shortage Occupation List.

Read more - Haulage sector must change or more drivers will quit

Over the last few years, Scotland has had a deficit of around 11,000 drivers – 60,000 UK-wide – as the industry has struggled to recruit and retain new blood. Scotland director of the Road Haulage Association, Martin Reid, said that this number has been exacerbated in the past year with training grinding to a near halt during the pandemic, amongst other challenges.

“For a long time, we have been running short of the numbers required for haulage drivers, so throwing Covid-19, Brexit and recent tax procedures into the mix has created a perfect storm,” said Mr Reid.

“In England there are a lot of trucks parked up as they don’t have the drivers and deliveries are being compromised. This pinch is now being felt across the UK.”

In a letter to the UK Transport Secretary, the RHA warned that a growing driver shortage will hit the supply chain and affect the Government’s plans to ‘build back better’ as hospitality opens up again.

It read: “If we do not do something soon the industry will be unable to maintain the integrated supply chains and cope with artificial spikes caused by hot weather and the easing of lockdown, increasing demand for food and drink into supermarkets, pubs and restaurants and goods into retail outlets.”

The Home Office has said that employers should be focusing on increasing a domestic workforce, rather than ‘relying on labour from abroad’. A spokesperson said: "The government is working with the haulage sector to promote jobs, training and a range of other initiatives to get more people into HGV driving.”

Responding, Mr Reid said that the RHA is planning for the future and has taken on 200 apprentices in Scotland in the last year, but that the UK Government needs to take action now to address shortages.

“It is a lazy comment by the Home Office, as of course everyone wants to develop our indigenous workforce, but that doesn’t help the challenges here and now. We have contracts now that need to be filled.”

NFU Scotland director of policy Jonnie Hall commented: “All inputs to a farm or croft, and their outputs, invariably require road transport and need a reliable haulage network staffed by qualified HGV drivers.

“Neither Scottish agriculture nor the food and drink sector it underpins can afford to be undermined by a lack of skilled drivers needed to make supply chains work. The disruption to supply chains during the pandemic, particularly in the early days, shows how important road haulage is to all parts of the economy.”