Plan for foreign driver visas too little, too late
I cannot believe how naively Transport Secretary Grant
Shapps portrayed himself last week. We are advised that we are in the region of 90,000 HGV drivers short of requirements, so Shapps in his wisdom is going to grant 5,000 short-term visas to overseas drivers to cure the situation, along with faster testing for new drivers.
Does he not realise that employers are going to be reluctant to trust a new recruit? They’ll be looking for experienced drivers instead.
B. Boraster, Buckhurst Hill, Essex
What this driver crisis shows is that EU immigration into the UK kept wages artificially low. That pleased big business but was a catastrophe for the working classes, who saw their living standards depressed for years.
T. Oliver, Gloucestershire
This shortage of drivers was only reported in the past few weeks, so why the sudden problem? Just over a week ago, petrol was freely available. How did normality become a crisis almost overnight?
Jon Cole, Portsmouth
Driving an HGV is not like driving a car or a van. It is a very skilled job and not everyone can do it. Plus I doubt that many people would want to do it, to be honest.
Gary Townsend, London
I’ve been ready to drive since March – I’ve already paid for my medicals and the 35 hours’ Driver CPC training but have been waiting more than six months for the DVLA to reinstate my Class 1 entitlement. It’s unbelievable.
K. Thomas, Coventry
It’s only at times of rapidly growing desperation like these that we take on board just who the most important workers in society are.
The pay of lorry drivers has in effect been dropping for many years now, while the pressures of the job increase.
Time, perhaps, for a clap for the HGV drivers before they start to quit in dismay in ever greater numbers?
Terry Hickman, Southampton
I am a Class 1 HGV driver.
Please can Grant Shapps tell me the name of the company paying £70,000 a year – I would love to know what you have to do to earn that wage.
Even if you halved that, it still wouldn’t be close to my earnings.
K. Clark, North Yorkshire
The average age of HGV drivers is 55, so this problem is not going to go away.
Britain, like other countries, does not have enough younger workers to do the necessary jobs, and pay tax, to support the older population.
Facing reality, and not acting like ostriches, is what a responsible Government should be doing right now.
Pete Milory, Trowbridge