Cost of the HGV Driver Shortage

Recent news stories have highlighted the fact there’s a nationwide HGV driver shortage in this country, which seems to be affecting most industries and is even leading to empty supermarket shelves. But what’s causing this shortage of HGV drivers, and what impact is it having on the UK economy?

Brexit and Covid – a perfect storm
Recent changes in the immigration laws due to Brexit, have resulted in many European HGV drivers to return to their home countries. Reports suggest around 14,000 drivers left the UK, with only around 600 returning. And the global pandemic has made international travel difficult at best, with foreign drivers opting to remain in their own countries.

The Road Haulage Association claims there was already a shortage of around 60,000 HGV drivers before the pandemic struck, but Covid has wreaked havoc on the industry and there is now a shortfall of around 100,000 drivers.

Spiralling costs of employing HGV drivers
Many former HGV drivers say they’ve changed their profession due to previous low pay and long working hours. In an attempt to encourage new and former drivers into work, companies are offering dramatic pay increases, with some agencies paying over £250 per day. And supermarkets are now regularly advertising driving jobs with salaries of £56,000.

Avoiding the current HGV issues
At GenRev, we don’t rely on HGVs to supply parts to our customers. Instead, we use 3.5 ton vehicles or lighter vans, including makes such as Ford Custom, Ford Transit, Nissan NV400, Nissan NV300, MAN TGE and VW Crafter. This means we’re not affected by the HGV issues that are causing so much chaos for deliveries across the UK.

While Nando’s ran out of chicken, and McDonalds was forced to suspend sales of milkshakes across its UK outlets, GenRev drivers have been continuing to deliver those all-important spare parts across the country.

Our In Boot parts delivery service places all the spare parts needed for that day’s work directly into your service technicians’ vehicles before the start of the working day. So instead of going searching for them, or having to wait around for deliveries, your engineers can get started on their jobs, enabling them to work at maximum productivity.

Meanwhile, our In Night distribution service avoids the usual traffic jams and delays so often associated with daytime deliveries, enabling parts to reach you on time, every time.  You won’t have to worry about a lack of skilled HGV drivers, and your crucial time-sensitive deliveries won’t be impacted by the distribution problems affecting so many aspects of the logistics industry.

Getting customer repairs done on time requires a seamless spare parts delivery strategy. Instead of relying on major supply chains and HGV drivers, GenRev’s smart delivery solutions will help you get the right parts to your field engineers on time, so they can fix urgent customer repairs.

Avoid supply chain disruption and spare part delays with GenRev. Contact us to find out more about the benefits of our In Boot and In Night services.