Young people won’t drive trucks even with a £35k salary

The UK is facing a shortage of 76,000 thousand drivers, despite the wages being higher than the UK average and jobs being waiting.

Jodie Lawson, 18, becomes youngest female HGV driver in the UK

Mark Hall from Divert.co.uk a rubbish removal company “ Young kids don’t think the professional driving industry is sexy enough and instead they are all spending £30,000 on a university degree with a dubious title such as media studies only to eventually get a job in an oversaturated industry where they will be paid £18,000, makes no sense.”

“At divert.co.uk despite having amazing looking purple vans, we are struggling to recruit drivers, there is a load of demand around right now for HGV drivers and they have the pick of the bunch, couple this with no one new entering into the profession and the wages will keep getting higher and higher”

What are the issues?

Brexit isn’t helping, the papers and news shows are showing daily photos of drivers stuck in their trucks.

Trucker Mark Taylor from Addingham “I’ve been an HGV driver for 20 years, it’s a great job and I’ve been all over the UK and some of Europe”

“I found the first lockdown the hardest, and like others, due to the toilets been closed on the motorways I got caught short and had to improvise”

Divert.co.uk “It’s well known within the industry that the UK has a major shortage of HGV drivers and that younger people simply aren’t being attracted to the haulage industry and the government is not helping.

”It’s not all doom and gloom, we have heard of some new people wanting to enter the industry, but due to COVID they simply can’t get the training or they are still waiting to complete their examination”

“The government needs to do more to attract younger people into the industry, they need to incentivize the insurance companies to support 18-21 year professional drivers and immediately increase capacity at the testing centers. The very backbone of our country is at risk”

Young man driving lorry

Change of career

Due to COVID, many have been forced into facing finding new work “No matter what your age or background, you should seriously consider retraining and joining the industry, there are jobs for life available and demand has never been so high” says Hall.

2 Comments

  1. The two Marks are spot on. The queues of vehicles approaching Dover just before Christmas does not help the image of the Industry or help in attracting young people into a career as an LGV Driver.
    We as industry leaders have a responsibility to communicate a positive message about the roles available. Not all drivers spend nights away sleeping in their cabs and they should no longer have to work excessive overtime to make a reasonable living.
    However, the Government does need to support the Sector in tackling the Skills Shortage. The long drawn out bureaucracy in gaining approval for an Apprenticeship LGV Driver and the arguments over increasing the funding available for this key role by just £1,000, yet it can now offer £3,000 for any new Apprenticeship whether it is critical to serving the people of the UK and the economy or not.

  2. If was to do over i would not drive truck In Ontario Canada the homeless shelters are full of injured truck drivers and vets. Do not take a job unless it pays at least $22.00 us per hour or $27.50 cd or 15 lbs per hour on payroll as a truck driver off the E -log.