Haulage firms find it hard to recruit
Date: 02 July 2007
Road haulage companies are continuing to find it difficult to recruit new workers, according to a new survey by the Freight Transport Association (FTA).
Some 25 per cent of FTA members claimed that they were unable to find suitable replacements for HGV drivers, or faced long delays when attempting to recruit them.
This was a slight improvement on the figure of 27 per cent last year, but still demonstrates the skill shortage among drivers, which affects freight forwarding companies.
Respondents also claimed that recruiting warehouse staff, fitters and transport managers was proving difficult, and that this problem was also faced on the continent where manufacturing jobs were becoming more plentiful.
However, there was good news from the FTA study. In terms of international road freight activity, UK-based hauliers enjoyed 3.5 per cent more business per year between 2004 and 2006. This indicates better haulage loads, all in all.
This followed a fallow four-year period when volumes for UK firms dropped and their market share fell from 39 per cent to 26 per cent.
"The rebalancing of economic growth rates across western Europe has led to import and export volumes in and out of the UK growing [more rapidly]," the report stated.
"This has helped UK-based international hauliers stabilise their market share despite rapid growth in the presence of low-cost hauliers from 2004 accession states in the cross-channel road freight market."
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