Improve the Supply Chain to fix the HGV driver shortage

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Much has been written recently about the current HGV driver shortage and the impact on product availability in UK supermarkets. Pointing an accusing finger at a disastrous combination of COVID and Brexit might be an easy explanation but, it might also deflect national attention away from longstanding, underlying structural weaknesses in road haulage.

As far back as July 2016 (just a month after the Brexit referendum result) a government report entitled ‘Skills and workforce planning in the road haulage sector’ concluded that:

 

 

“The road haulage sector, supported by the Government, needs to take

 further steps to:

• meet any shortage and reduce dependence on foreign drivers (about 60,000 drivers);

• meet any predicted growth in demand; and

• deal with the demographic time-bomb (about 75,000 drivers by 2020).”

 

So this time-bomb has actually been ticking for at least four years with little national effort to address declining driver numbers which were evident before Brexit and Covid - the latter causing 40,000 cancelled HGV driving tests in the last year.

 

In a letter to Boris Johnson in June 2021 the Road Haulage Association (RHA) stated that the UK has a shortfall of at least 60,000 drivers with overall numbers down from 321,000 in 2017 to 275,000 by March 2021 (ONS estimates). According to a recent RHA survey the main factors negatively affecting driver numbers include Brexit, COVID, retirement, IR35 and unsatisfactory pay rates. Perhaps more telling still are the 230,000 HGV licence holders who, according to The Grocer magazine, qualified as drivers and have since decided not to pursue a career in road haulage.

 

An article published in the Daily Mail included a day in the life of Wade Fitzpatrick, a GXO driver. He revealed that in the previous week to the article he had worked 76.5 hours of which only 35 hours were spent actually driving, i.e., only 46% of his worked hours. It detailed the hard graft, long days (some up to 15 hours) and frustrating working conditions that he deals with every day.

Why was he not able to be more driving hours?

 

The article stated that for his first delivery he had to wait more than an hour for store staff to allow him to unload. Perhaps it was a one-off for that store in the midst of the 2021 summer ‘pingdemic’. But again, during a later store delivery the same day he had to ‘reverse up a side road, unload and then drag [the pallets] across the road and down a gradient’.

 

It does not make sense for an increasingly scarce and higher paid resource (compared to store labour rates) to be doing these activities alone. Surely the Store Duty Manager should be prioritising in-store resources to assist the HGV driver so that he can be back on the road as quickly as possible.

 

Modern systems and GPS updates could give the store notice of the driver’s ETA so that store staff could be ready at the back door to get the HGV unloaded efficiently. Also, as the delivery is likely to be chilled or frozen goods this would help to maintain the chill chain integrity of the goods whilst they are being off-loaded. But in the case of Wade Fitzpatrick, as his employer GXO is an external contractor, it is unlikely that he or his company can influence how drivers and deliveries are received by store employees.

 

Surely if he had been able to do an extra 10 hours driving in a week this would have meant more store deliveries (HGV drivers must only average 45 hours driving per week across two consecutive weeks). 10 extra hours would have been an extra 30% more driving hours. Making HGV drivers more productive would drastically reduce the current shortfall in numbers required. Putting more HGVs on the UK’s roads will only increase congestion further, one of the key issues that concern HGV drivers.

 

Also, considering that the daily cost of a qualified driver and HGV is between £500-£600 and that they only generate income when they are moving goods from A to B, making the current UK HGV fleet more productive at a time of exceptional wage and fuel inflation is all the more urgent.

 

It is difficult to determine how HGV driver productivity has changed in the last 10 years, as no data seems to exist. But with increasing road congestion affecting driving times and stores suffering staffing cutbacks (Covid trading periods were the exception, rather than the norm), it is very likely that HGV driver productivity will have deteriorated accordingly.

 

The RHA, in its Driver Shortage Actions published in June 2021, recommends that “Businesses at collection and delivery points need to improve access productivity and the treatment of drivers”. Only a concerted and collaborative effort to improve transport processes by all supply chain participants will achieve the desperately needed productivity gains the transport and food supply sectors need. Potential solutions to the issue could include:

 

•    Ensuring the delivery processes at stores are as efficient as possible, e.g:
      - Systems integration of ASNs (load plans) so that paperwork admin is minimised

        throughout the delivery chain.

      - Systematic and careful load planning and execution so that goods are loaded

        in the correct order of milk-round delivery planning.

      - Coordinating labour scheduling of both drivers and store staff to minimise 

        waiting times of driver and goods.

      - More flexibility around delivery times, timed slots, delivery KPIs and the

        removal of fines and sanctions that can be incurred.

•    More education within the supply chain of the importance of HGV drivers and 

      the challenges they face to drive their vehicles safely.

•    Improved HGV driver friendly attitudes and improved working conditions.

•    More widespread access to rest and secure parking facilities to allow drivers to

      take mandatory breaks.

 

How Ellis Kane Consultancy can help

With extensive experience in retail supply chain and store operating processes, Ellis Kane Consultancy can use its five-step approach to investigate the root causes of unproductive driving time and make a series of financially evaluated recommendations.

 

Developed from 20+ years of experience, the five-step approach is a creative-yet-practical approach to finding solutions, utilising data gathering and analysis across the whole supply chain environment. The five steps are:

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1.  Clarification of the scope and nature of the issues to be resolved.

2.  Data gathering, including interviews with key stakeholders and selected individuals.

3.  Analysis and evaluation of all relevant data and information gathered.

4.  Validation and testing of possible solutions with project sponsors.

5.  And finally, clear and concise communication of our recommendations with detail of how they should be implemented.

 

The approach can be applied to short reviews that require only a few days of consultancy support to longer-term projects that require more detailed analysis to ensure your business can resolve current sector labour and productivity challenges quickly and cost effectively.

 

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Contact

Thank you for your interest in Ellis Kane Consulting and our services, all of which can help to ensure that your business can recognise and adapt to future challenges. Send us an email with a brief outline of the challenges your business is facing and we will give you an overview of how we can help.