A lack of HGV drivers is now affecting the fresh produce industry to such an extent that ‘perfectly good, graded and packed fresh produce being dumped or left rotting in cold stores’ according to Tim O’Malley, Managing Director of Nationwide Produce.
A combination of Brexit (which has seen foreign drivers return to the EU and which places immigration burdens on new drivers from overseas), Covid (which has prevented some 20,000 potential drivers taking their HGV tests and prevented any driver training for 12 months, and changes to tax legislation around self-employed and agency drivers have all created perfect storm in terms of driver availability. As the driver shortage increases, transport companies are forced to pay higher wages and incur increased costs.
“In all my years in fresh produce I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Mr O’Malley. “For example, we supply one of the largest restaurant chains in the UK. It goes without saying how much they’ve suffered throughout the pandemic. However, business is booming for them at the moment. On Sunday, our guy who handles their account received a call from our haulier at 1pm to say that due to a shortage of lorry drivers, they cannot deliver anything to any of the depots for our restaurant customer that evening.
“We reminded them that all the goods were graded and packed and ready to go. They said they simply could not deliver due to a lack of drivers. After hours of begging and pleading we managed to get them to deliver to one of the eight depots. And we were one of a number of suppliers to the restaurant chain that the haulier was breaking the same bad news to. The restaurant chain went drastically short of fresh produce this weekend.”
Photo Caption: A shortage of lorry drivers is preventing fresh produce from being delivered