EU Drivers won’t solve the UK Driver Shortage

EU Drivers won’t solve the UK Driver Shortage – so what is to be done?

Recent research by Transport Intelligence reported in Global Cold Chain News has shown that there is a European wide shortage of Drivers of around 400,000 excluding the 76,000-100,000 needed in the UK.

Poland, the UK and Germany are particularly affected, with Poland having a shortage worse than the UK and needing an additional 124,000 drivers.

But other countries are also reporting shortages, such as France, Spain, Italy Denmark, Sweden and Norway, even Belarus in the Ukraine has a driver shortage.

This shows that UK Companies will not be able to rely on the UK Government relaxing immigration rules for EU drivers to come to the UK and solve our driver shortage. Companies will need to look for alternative solutions, such as investing in new drivers and better use of their existing fleet and drivers.

Investing in delivery scheduling and route optimisation, will help increase delivery density and productivity by up to 35%, is even more important for companies trying to mitigate the effects of the UK Driver Shortage.

While ensuring that deliveries are made correctly, on time, and when the customer expects them, will avoid missed deliveries and repeat journeys to deliver the goods a second time. A digital proof of delivery system that alerts the customer to their deliveries and sends them notification of their delivery has been made to reduce the workload on the back office in answering queries and  providing evidence of deliveries. 

Read our Customer Sucess Story for Carpet & Flooring about eProof of Delivery

Contact us to discover how Descartes can help you deliver more for less.