A SHORTAGE of hauliers and associated issues with logistics have led to some businesses reporting difficulties importing and exporting and may be leading to some consumers reporting not being able to find certain items in shops. 

There has been a general decline in the number of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers, officially known as large goods vehicle (LGV) drivers, working in the UK for the past four years. Most of that decline has been in the previous two years, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. 

An estimated 268,000 people were employed as HGV drivers between July 2020 and June 2021. This is 39,000 fewer than the year ending June 2019 and 53,000 fewer than the peak for HGV driver employment, during the year ending June 2017 (321,000). 

There has been a fall in the number of UK nationals employed as HGV drivers since the year ending June 2017. The number of EU nationals employed as HGV drivers increased between 2017 and 2020, but then decreased during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The number of HGV drivers has generally declined since July 2016 to June 2017. The largest decline over the four years was among those aged 46 to 55 years. 

There were 52,000 vacancies for posts in transport and storage in the three months ending September 2021, which is the highest since records began in 2001. HGV drivers make up around 10% of the transport and storage industry, which also includes rail and sea transport as well as road transport occupations such as taxi drivers and bus drivers.

For more information, go to

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/fallinhgvdriverslargestamongmiddleagedworkers/2021-10-19