5 minute read
Driver shortage
by 55 North
COVER STORY: CRISIS IN WHOLESALE
Long Road to Recovery
Availability issues continue to hit retailers and consumers as the HGV shortage and other issues hit wholesalers.
Shoppers are increasingly reporting availability issues as the sector battles the effect of the driver shortage, the ‘Pingdemic’ and Brexit, new research reveals.
Latest consumer research conducted for IGD over the past weekend, 6 to 8 August 2021, finds that 56% of adults claim to have experienced shortages of some food and groceries in-store or online recently, up from 48% a week earlier.
There have been changes in claimed shortages by region, the research shows, with concern now highest in Northern Ireland (74%), London (63%), and the North East (61%).
Claimed shortages remain highest for fresh produce (27% compared to 17% last week). Other high-ranking categories include fresh meat or fish (16%), dairy (13%), tins & packaged foods and soft drinks (both 11% each), bakery and household paper (both 10% each).
The research shows that more adults (32%) have recently felt the need to stock up or purchase more than they normally, up from 27% last weekend. This is still relatively low (50% in January 2021 and a high of 64% in April 2020).
A third (34%) say they will or might stock up. This has remained stable compared to last weekend (33%). However, this is still lower than in January 2021 (45%) and March 2020 (60%).
Stockpiling is highest among 18-24s (45%), those with children at home (38%), and those living in London (48%).
RETAILERS ACT
In recent weeks independent retailers have been taking matters into their own hands by collecting their supplies from smaller wholesalers. Walsall retailer Amrit Singh has bought a forklift to help. He tweeted: “I’m buying so much out of symbol so con-
sistently pointless breaking mine and my staff ’s backs. This tool is a testament to our belief that buying from multiple suppliers and not relying on one will pay dividends.”
Coventry-based retailer Paul Cheema was pictured in the Financial Times unloading stock he’d bought from a wholesaler in Birmingham. He told the newspaper: “It’s a pain, but we are here to serve our community and we need full shelves.”
Adrian Costain, who owns stores on Merseyside, also told the newspaper that he too has resorted to stocking up at a cash and carry. “We are obtaining a much better service from our smaller suppliers,” he said.
Meanwhile, supermarket staff have made with ingenious ways of hiding empty shelves – including single lines of products, filling the empty shelves with cardboard boxes featuring pictures of the missing items, and removing aisles all together.
One shopworker tweeted: “Feel like permanently having a tab open on my phone regarding the issue. How can people be so blind to the fact that having a driver shortage is the issue not that the staff are too thick to order the stock in?”
NO END IN SIGHT
And there seems no quick resolution in sight. Using military drivers had been touted as an easy solution to the problem, but this week the boss of the Road Haulage Association (RHA), Richard Burnett, told Sky News this week that deploying army personnel “will not scratch the surface” of the crisis.
Reports suggest there are potentially 2,000 military drivers who could step in, but both the Department for Transport and Ministry of Defence have said that no official request had yet been made.
SHORTFALL
The RHA estimates the shortfall of drivers, which stands at 100,000, will take 18 months to solve. Burnett says drivers are underpaid and wage increases will need to be paid for by customers. He RHA says the industry needs more government help with training and apprenticeships and is calling on the government to relax Brexit immigration rules to allow foreign driver to return on a temporary basis.
The call is supported by the Federation of Wholesale Distributors, who tweeted: “Putting the army on standby and extending drivers hours may be necessary short-term fixes for the food distribution crisis, but don’t solve the HGV driver shortage. We need a seasonal visa scheme to bring in skilled EU drivers until longer-term measures are in place.”
However, in a letter to Labour MPs – seen by the PoliticsHome news website – Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was opposed to foreign workers being used to tackle the shortfall in truck drivers.
Writing to Shadow Roads Minister Kerry McCarthy, Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds and Shadow Transport Secretary Jim McMahon, Shapps said: “Leaving the EU has provided us with the opportunity to introduce a new immigration system while building a more resilient domestic workforce.”
He added: “I am sure you would agree on the importance of utilising our domestic workforce and supporting the many UK-based workers who now face an uncertain future due to the impact of the measures to tackle Covid-19 and need to find new employment opportunities.”
OCTOBER EXTENSION
So far the government has extended the relaxation of drivers’ hours until October. The move has been criticised by the Unite union, which believes that the relaxation of the driving regulations will not resolve the problem of driver shortages and could actually make the situation worse. They claim that more drivers will decide to leave the profession as a result of being required to work even longer hours.
Unite National Officer for Road Transport Adrian Jones said: “Minimum driving hours are there to keep people safe. Relaxing them for six months of the year is foolhardy and will inevitably put workers and road users at risk.
“We will continue advising our members not to put themselves in danger and to exercise their legal right to refuse to drive if they are too tired. The union will fully support those who make that decision, legally and industrially.”
The government is also currently consulting on a package of measures to support recruitment and retention within the road haulage industry to ease pressure on the sector.
