The well-publicised driver shortage has been further compounded by media speculation about a fuel shortage and the last few weeks have seen many fuel stations running out - you have to ask would this of happened if the media and government hadn’t broadcast such news.!!! 

Thankfully Freight Movement and their drivers have again shown that the can weather the storm and have continued to operate with very few problems.

The driver market has seen the big boys UP there recruitment campaigns with adverts in the press, all over LinkedIn and Facebook with wages which the industry has not seen before. Sometimes you have to ask yourself how they cover this - but as we are all aware this will be put on the cost of daily items purchased.

The question I continually ask myself is - can be keep hold of our own drivers with such wages on offer? - we have done this quite successfully to date - with only 4 drivers leaving because of better wages, but we have had to increase the wages being paid twice in the last 3 months. And unfortunately we will be adding a further 2% in early October due to wage demands and to counter the big boys latest run of recruitment marketing. 

If the advised increase is successful and we have the correct number of drivers the next few months we see us continue to offer the high level of service presently being achieved - I'm aware of the volumes may well increase in the run up to Christmas and I am equally aware of the times when we don’t have the resource or any options with vehicles and apologies we aren’t able to just add staff and vehicles to fleet to cover everything, but at the moment we are operating better than most of the hauliers I speak to regularly.

Moving into October I can see that the whole of the transport industry having further pressure put on its staffing – so can I ask that all customers advise as soon as possible on any movements - this will allow for all planners to programme the fleet accordingly, we will endeavour to operate at a level and allow for a productive period but may have to offer alternative service if volumes are high and resource isn’t available.

KEY MOVING FORWARD IS COMMUNICATION

We appreciate your continued custom and will continue to work with you to plot our way through these challenging times,