HGV driving tests to be relaxed to help lorry driver shortages ahead of Christmas

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sussex2
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Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 11:43 am

Re: HGV driving tests to be relaxed to help lorry driver shortages ahead of Christmas

Postby sussex2 » Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:14 am

Horse wrote:
GTR1400MAN wrote:It's not just a UK problem with "Europe needing 400,000 more lorry drivers and the US also struggling to fill posts." Yet, we are told our shortage is because they've all gone back to Europe.

Or could it be drivers are fed up with working conditions/practices?


It's one part of a gathering storm, with other issues such as:
- Ageing 'population' of drivers
- Low wages, challenging conditions
- Lockdown loss of newly trained and tested drivers coming on

Re EU:

In a report released this week, European Road Freight Transport 2018, the supply chain analyst shows that in just six countries – the UK, Germany, France, Denmark Sweden and Norway – the shortage of drivers adds up to 127,500.

The UK leads the way with a shortage of 52,000 drivers, but is closely followed by Germany at 45,000 vacancies – with predictions that this could increase by a staggering 28,000 each year.

The report says: “In Germany, the DSLV transport union reports that in the next 15 years, two-thirds of drivers will retire. Germany is facing a shortage of 45,000 truck drivers, with around 30,000 leaving the profession every year. This compares with only 2,000 people receiving truck-driving qualifications each year.”

France has a shortage of 20,000 drivers, while road freight associations in Sweden, Denmark and Norway report shortages of 5,000, 2,500 and 3,000, respectively.

This, of course, leaves out more than 20 countries in Europe where numbers have not been collected – although it is safe to assume that similar trends are likely across western countries, where driver numbers have been on the decline for the past two decades.

This gap in the labour market has been partly filled by an influx of East Europeans, but the report warns there is a limit as to how much this will ease the driver shortage.


So, if that set of shortages is from 2018, we led the list pre-Brexit.


The UK shortage I have read, is now about 100,000 and growing. It is a serious difference in numbers.

Triquet
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Location: Occupied North Berkshire

Re: HGV driving tests to be relaxed to help lorry driver shortages ahead of Christmas

Postby Triquet » Sun Sep 12, 2021 11:03 am

IIRC there are many people with HGV qualifications who have "retired" for a variety of reasons, a lot to do with pay, schedule pressure, bad facilities at service areas etc etc.

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angus
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Location: Colchester - Oldest Town, oldest roads

Re: HGV driving tests to be relaxed to help lorry driver shortages ahead of Christmas

Postby angus » Sun Sep 12, 2021 11:17 am

sussex2 wrote:
RiK wrote:Yeah, this won't cause any kind of problems at all, right?

https://news.sky.com/story/hgv-driving- ... s-12404161


I hear that the reversing part is being subbed out rather than withdrawn. It'll be interesting to know subbed out to whom and why, what was the tendering process and the what are the qualifications.


This is an "off road" (ie airfield or large tarmaced area) part of the test. I would think it's fairly straightforward to check competancy in that area without needing many qualifications (just lots of cones)

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Horse
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Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 9:20 am

Re: HGV driving tests to be relaxed to help lorry driver shortages ahead of Christmas

Postby Horse » Sun Sep 12, 2021 11:48 am

angus wrote:
sussex2 wrote:
RiK wrote:Yeah, this won't cause any kind of problems at all, right?

https://news.sky.com/story/hgv-driving- ... s-12404161


I hear that the reversing part is being subbed out rather than withdrawn. It'll be interesting to know subbed out to whom and why, what was the tendering process and the what are the qualifications.


This is an "off road" (ie airfield or large tarmaced area) part of the test. I would think it's fairly straightforward to check competancy in that area without needing many qualifications (just lots of cones)


Potentially- and this is just from experience of how it could be done, not suggesting that it will be - training organisations could be allowed to examine:

For motorcyclists, the 'Part One' test was carried out by examiners who had attended an accreditation course at Cardington. They could also down-train additional examiners.
Your 'standard' is how you drive alone, not how you drive during a test.


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