Blinkered government to blame for HGV crisis

WE are slipping into a desperate crisis which has been inflicted by this blinkered government.

There is a massive shortage of 100,000 HGV drivers that is having a knock-on effect.

Drivers of local authority recycling vehicles are now being poached by desperate haulage companies. Already recycling collections are being affected around the country.

I read of one HGV driver being offered an increase of £7 an hour to stay with his present employer! The cost of these cash bonuses will, of course, be passed on to the consumer.

Why has this happened? The government has made European HGV drivers feel unwelcome and they went home when the pandemic hit,

and have not come back. The government’s solution to this crisis – bonuses for HGV apprentices.

But the National Haulage Association states it takes 18 months to train an HGV driver.

Moving to smaller vehicles will simply increase the problem – more pressure on drivers, more lorries on the road, less freight being moved.

The shortage of drivers is already having a knock-on effect, petrol stations are shutting, supermarkets are having problems filling shelves, pubs are running short of certain beers, popular takeaways are reducing menus.

The crucial sinews which hold the British economic network together have been seriously damaged.

Finding 100,000 new HGV drivers will not be easy.

Flooding busy roads with inexperienced drivers will be potentially dangerous.

The average age of HGV drivers is 55, so the problem is not going to go away.

Britain, along with other countries such as Japan and China, has an ageing population. It does not have enough younger workers to do the necessary jobs, and pay tax, to support the older population.

Immigrant workers are a necessity.

China has relaxed its one child policy, and even Japan is beginning to let in migrant workers.

The dogmatic government is increasingly locking us into an unsustainable situation.

Trying to blame the pandemic for the problems caused by cutting us off from a large, flexible workforce after 40 years of being reliant on that workforce.

Declarations by Grant Shapps that we must “stand on our own two feet” are not helpful when we are short of at least 100,000 HGV drivers.

Facing reality, and not acting like ostriches, is what a responsible government should be doing. Even when many of the problems are of their own making.

Granting temporary visas for 5,000 foreign drivers won’t solve the problem Johnson has caused, either.

What about the other 95 per cent of the drivers shortage?

Pete Milory, Trowbridge