The troublesome shortage of lorry drivers in the UK is lessening, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has confirmed.
The FTA’s fourth quarter review for 2005 found 60 per cent of respondents reported no problems, or only short delays, in finding heavy goods vehicle drivers - up from 52 per cent last year.
Fitters are still in short supply, with nearly half of respondents experiencing long delays or no success in finding suitable staff.
But the situation has improved since January 2005 when 68 per cent reported recruitment difficulties.
The FTA’s findings are backed up by a recent report by Skills for Logistics (SfL), which declared a sharp fall in the general shortage of drivers.
SfL largely attributes the improvement to an increase in trainee drivers, growing numbers of foreign drivers working in the UK, a growing number of military recruits and a low growth rate in the national economy.
The FTA’s Quarterly Transport Activity Survey (QTAS) also claimed that while UK economic growth was measured at 1.8 per cent for 2005, it found domestic road freight activity growth remained weak and well below the long-term trend. FTA chief economist Simon Chapman, pictured, said the sector last experienced such weak levels in 2000 when the UK economic growth fell in response to a slump in the global economy.
These current findings are due to the fact business services and finance - the components driving economic growth - make limited use of freight, while activity dipped in the transport-intensive sectors of manufacturing, retail and construction, he claimed. The FTA found a particularly poor demand for third-party road transport, with contract-hire favoured and general haulage services experiencing a decline in use.
Contract distribution services also suffered its poorest year since 1999.Chapman said: “One explanation for this trend is that when business growth levels are weakening, transport buyers will look to scale back their use of contractors first, since these operators are used to supplement in-house fleets.
No comments yet