A driver shortage in the haulage industry is leading to a “tipping point”, as companies are struggling to get enough drivers to keep their trucks rolling in the lead-up to Christmas, hauliers have warned.
The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) said the lack of drivers qualified to operate heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) could also lead to higher grocery prices, and delayed deliveries, at the busiest time of the year for the sector.
“We are rapidly reaching a tipping point in our industry. We cannot get the drivers to keep the trucks rolling,” the IRHA president, Ger Hyland, said.
“One Cork haulier is short 40 drivers and has lorries parked up. Every haulage company in Ireland needs at least two extra drivers, such is the extent of the problem.”
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Mr Hyland wrote to the Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke and Minister of State Alan Dillon on behalf of “an increasingly frustrated IRHA membership” raising concerns that the driver shortage could affect the industry’s ability to meet the demands on the sector.
“You will both be aware of the enormous challenges that our sector is facing because of labour shortages,” Mr Hyland said in the letter in May.
He said the shortages are a “direct consequence of different arms of the State imposing different obligations and requirements on licensed hauliers seeking to engage drivers and mechanics from outside Ireland”, which he described as an “incoherent and discordant set of rules”.
[ Hauliers accuse RSA of moving driving testers off commercial vehiclesOpens in new window ]
“Bringing in drivers from abroad can take over a year,” Mr Hyland said on Monday, noting the group’s preference to hire Irish drivers, “but at this stage, we will take any qualified drivers we can get.”
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The IRHA chief has called upon the Ministers to reduce regulatory hurdles in bringing in overseas drivers to alleviate the pressure on the industry in the short term, but also to reduce the time and cost barriers preventing young people from entering the sector.
“It can take two years or more and over €1,000 to get a HGV license for a young man or woman leaving school,” Mr Hyland said, labelling these requirements as “unacceptable”.
“It puts prospective drivers off entering our industry,” he said, noting that other countries have “quicker routes to becoming a HGV driver”.
The IRHA has previously called for the driver testing system to be removed from the remit of the RSA.
