Shropshire firm fears return to ‘dangerously low number of professional drivers’

It comes after major efforts following Covid have seen the driver shortage ease - helping to keep the nation’s logistics industry moving. But Steve Dulson of Dulson Training says the signs are already there of worrying times ahead.

He said: “Pre 2020 we saw IR35 tax changes for self employed drivers and driver agencies, Brexit and an ageing driver group heading into the pandemic, meaning the driver shortage went from concerning to crippling for the UK within a few months.

“We then saw no training or testing for almost two full years due to Covid, followed by the scrapping of the B+E test, removing the staging for LGV and allowing you to go from car to Class 1 without taking a Class 2. It was a huge move aimed at getting more drivers onto the road more quickly.

“The Government provided funding for its Skills Bootcamp programme which started last year and continued into 2023 and this has had a significant impact in helping to reduce the driver shortage - but there have been flaws with the funding which has seen many training providers both local and national, big and small, forced into liquidation

“Normal service is now resuming and the driver shortage and national promotion of careers in logistics has reduced. Funding has slowed and a more reasonable steady flow of learners has resumed, but with demand for drivers reducing temporarily there are already heavy indicators that within the next three to five years we will be back to dangerously low numbers.

“The age of the average driver is still over 55 and more drivers are retiring and leaving the industry than are joining - which is something that needs to be addressed to avoid more looming chaos.

“At Dulson Training we have moved and adapted to every change and have maintained an excellent grasp of what was going on and how things were likely to look going forward. We are proud of this and feel we are operating normally now.

“Many training providers have been caught off guard with growth based on the long term and not enough on the here and now. We have some exciting contracts starting and with the opening of two new sites we are on track to hit our future development targets.”

Mr Dulson said 2023 had seen Dulson Training secure new sites in Ludlow, on the Herefordshire border, in Willenhall, West Midlands and at Llay Wrexham, which is creating more accessible training opportunities for learners alongside existing training and testing centres in Shrewsbury and Telford.

“We have recently upskilled five members of staff as part of a restructure which ensures our instructors and staff are always kept up to date with changing trends and techniques - resulting in training being delivered to the highest standard,” he added.

“We joined forces with the Government to ensure hundreds of HGV learners left high and dry when a national training provider went into administration could resume their licence acquisition courses.

“It meant working closely with the Department for Education resulting in us signing a new ‘Rescue Contract’ to carry out the training programme, helping learners complete their training and pass their test to get them out on the road.

“These are exciting times for the company as our centres continue to deliver on our commitment to run all categories of lorry and bus licence acquisition courses, including B+E safe towing and MHE including Lorry Mounted Crane, ADR, Driver CPC Periodic, forklift, and Level 3 Emergency First Aid at Work courses.”