HGV crisis: Unprecedented demand for training as drivers load up on pay rises

Published

3 years ago

August 31, 2021

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Rising wages and huge demand for HGV drivers has led to unprecedented numbers of people seeking training for licences, according to Britain’s largest private driver training company.

Hughes Driver Training, based in Leicestershire, told Sky News it’s sending around 100 for HGV Class I and II testing per week, including many sent directly by haulage firms seeking to fast-track applicants.

Demand for drivers has seen major employers including Tesco, Amazon and John Lewis, offering four-figure ‘joining bonuses’ to drivers, fuelling rapid wage inflation.

“I think it’s going through the roof,” said managing director Carl Hughes.

“There are drivers I know that are working for companies and have been there for years, they’ve had two or three pay rises this year without even asking for it, because it’s had to adjust to supply and demand.

“There are people, newly-qualified drivers who are on over £35,000 a year now at some companies and they’re getting a signing-on bonus as well. It’s really good for them.”

Major high street chains McDonald’s, KFC and Nando’s have been forced to cut menu items or close restaurants in recent weeks because of supply problems, and manufacturers and non-food retailers have also warned that the logistics crisis could deepen in the run-up to Christmas.

A shortage of an estimated 100,000 HGV drivers is at the heart of a growing supply chain crisis that business leaders and economists warn may be slowing the UK’s post-pandemic recovery.

Almost half of those have left the industry in the last two years, a trend blamed on long hours, low esteem and wages that had been falling relative to other low-skilled jobs, accelerated by a combination of Brexit and the pandemic.

Some of the many European Union drivers crucial to the UK haulage industry returned home during lockdowns and have been unable to work here under new immigration rules since 1 January.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 31,000 UK-based drivers have left the road since 2019, almost double the 14,000 European truckers who have departed, though the latter represent a larger proportion of the total EU workforce.

Despite repeated pleas from employers and business groups, the government has ruled out temporarily reinstating visas for European drivers to ease the current challenges.

They argue that employers should seek homegrown workers to fill the gap, making the haulage crisis a live exercise in one of the central arguments of Brexit; that cutting the number of low-skilled European workers would increase opportunities and wages for British employees.

Others argue that far from reducing opportunity, overseas workers help grow the economy through their own spending and activity.

And while as workers we all want the best pay and conditions, as consumers we may privately admit to enjoying the low prices and convenience delivered by a large, low-skilled, often insecure pool of workers.

By helping to create a supply crisis in haulage, the combination of Brexit and COVID has at least temporarily driven up driver rewards, particularly through bonus schemes that may not persist.

Whether it can reverse the long-term trend of declining interest in what remains hard and often anti-social graft remains to be seen.

And even if the government is right, the short-term pain of waiting for local workers to fill the void may be significant for the consumer economy.

As manufacturers and retailers prepare for the busiest period of the year, the build up to Christmas and the return of schools, they insist their warnings of disruption and price rises are genuine.

Even those benefiting from the clamour for drivers like Carl Hughes say filling the gap will take time, and the government should act.

“We can train our way out of this crisis, there are really good opportunities for people who want to develop a career, but it will take time and we still need the temporary visas to get the drivers hauliers need now,” he said.

Business

Chelsea co-owner Boehly goes into bat with Lords cricket bid

Published

4 hours ago

November 2, 2024

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Chelsea co-owner Boehly goes into bat with Lords cricket bid

The joint owner of Chelsea Football Club has joined forces with one of his fellow board members to bid for the most valuable team in English cricket’s Hundred competition.

Sky News has learnt that Todd Boehly is backing a bid spearheaded by Jonathan Goldstein, a British property entrepreneur, in an offer for a large stake in London Spirit, the Lords-based franchise.

The bid represents the latest move by Mr Boehly, a billionaire financier, to gatecrash the British sporting elite, following his takeover of Chelsea in 2022 alongside Behdad Eghabli, the founder of Clearlake Capital.

Recent reports suggest the pair have fallen out and are looking at ways to buy each other out of the club.

Mr Boehly’s interest in the London Spirit franchise puts him and Mr Goldstein on a shortlist of a handful of bidders for – at least – a 49% stake in it.

Sources said this weekend that the other contenders to buy the interest as part of a process run by the England and Wales Cricket Board were Sanjiv Goenka, an Indian billionaire who owns the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Lucknow Super Giants; the owners of the IPL’s Chennai Super Kings; India’s ultra-wealthy Ambani family; and possibly members of the Glazer family, which retains the largest stake in Manchester United Football Club.

The London Spirit franchise is expected to command the highest price of the eight teams being auctioned, with one of Chelsea’s lenders, Ares Management, plotting the purchase of a stake in the Oval Invincibles, Sky News revealed on Friday.

CVC Capital Partners, one of the most prolific backers of global sport with stakes in the men’s professional tennis tour and rugby union’s Six Nations Championship, is also bidding for the Oval Invincibles.

Insiders said CVC had also submitted offers for two other Hundred franchises.

In total, roughly 35 bids are said to have been shortlisted for the eight teams, with the respective host counties able to decide whether they offload part of their 51% stake in order to give new investors control of the franchise.

Those 35 proposals are, in turn, said to have come from 15 separate investor groups.

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The teams are in aggregate understood to have been valued at more than £600m in the first round of the auction, with the proceeds distributed across the recreational game, the 18 first-class counties and the MCC, which owns Lords.

The eight host venues play home to teams including the Northern Superchargers, Manchester Originals and Southern Brave.

A bigger-than-expected windfall from the process could offer a financial lifeline to a number of cash-strapped counties, with part of the proceeds likely to be used to pay down debt.

Concerns have been raised, however, that windfalls from the Hundred auction will not deliver a meaningful improvement in counties’ long-term financial sustainability.

The outcome of the auction, which will become clear in the coming months, is also likely to intensify other searching questions about the future of cricket, as the Test format of the game struggles for international commercial relevance against shorter-length competition.

The Hundred auction is being handled by Raine Group, which also oversaw the sale of Chelsea to Mr Boehly and Mr Eghbali two years ago after Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the government.

Mr Goldstein, CVC and the ECB declined to comment on the process.

Business

Investment giant KKR wades into Thames Water survival battle

Published

7 hours ago

November 2, 2024

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One of the world’s largest investment firms has waded into the fight over the future of Thames Water, the water utility which is racing to stay afloat.

Sky News has learnt that KKR is in talks with Thames Water and its advisers about participating in a £3bn share sale which forms part of a wider recapitalisation plan.

City sources said this weekend that KKR, which has more than $550bn of assets under management, was among a handful of parties which had accessed a data room for potential investors.

Rothschild, the investment bank, is running a process to raise around £3bn from the sale of an equity stake in Thames Water, which is grappling with a debt mountain of as much as £19bn.

Other investors which have expressed interest in acquiring newly issued shares in the water company include Carlyle and Castle Water, the latter of which is controlled by Graham Edwards, the Conservative Party treasurer.

Global Infrastructure Partners, which is owned by BlackRock, Brookfield and Isquared are also reported to have lodged an interest, although sources said that the latter two were unlikely to play any further role in the process.

The crisis at Thames Water is presenting Sir Keir Starmer’s administration with a challenge as the debt-laden company attempts to avert temporary nationalisation.

Insiders said that KKR was “a serious player” in the equity process being run by Thames Water, although its outcome hinges on a final determination by Ofwat, the industry regulator, which is due by January at the latest.

Thames Water – and other suppliers across Britain – wants to hike bills and is demanding leniency from Ofwat on fines for past transgressions.

One obstacle to KKR buying a big stake in Thames Water, which has more than 15m customers, may be its 25% holding in Northumbrian Water.

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Under Ofwat’s mergers regime, the Competition and Markets Authority would need to review the deal, although there would not be an automatic prohibition.

The share sale process is being run in parallel to an attempt to raise up to £3bn in debt financing from hedge funds and other investors.

A battle has broken out between the holders of Thames Water’s class A bonds, which account for the bulk of its borrowings, and its riskier class B debt.

Both sets of bondholders have submitted proposals to the company, with the class A’s arguing that theirs is more certain and the class B’s arguing that theirs will save the company £380m or more in fees and interest over a 12-month period.

Thames Water has already endorsed the class A group’s offer, with an initial £1.5bn of funding to be delivered immediately.

The class A bondholders are now trying to secure backing for their proposal within the next fortnight.

Their group, which includes the American hedge funds Elliott Advisers and Silverpoint, would earn in the region of £650m during the first year of the financing.

One area of controversy is likely to be any incentive plan for Thames Water bosses, led by chief executive Chris Weston, as part of a deal to give the company a stay of execution.

Last month, the environment secretary, Steve Reed, established an independent review of the industry that will look at far-reaching reforms.

It was unclear this weekend which of KKR’s funds was participating in the Thames Water equity-raise.

The firm owns John Laing, an infrastructure investor, which it took private in 2021.

It has also owned South Staffordshire, another water company, selling its 75% interest in 2018.

KKR declined to comment.

Business

Reynolds to hold talks with bosses amid business budget backlash

Published

1 day ago

November 1, 2024

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Reynolds to hold talks with bosses amid business budget backlash

The business secretary will next week hold talks with dozens of private sector bosses as the government contends with a significant corporate backlash to Labour’s first fiscal event in nearly 15 years.

Sky News has learnt that executives have been invited to join a conference call on Monday with Jonathan Reynolds, in what will represent his first meaningful engagement with employers since Wednesday’s budget statement.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, unsettled financial markets with plans for billions of pounds in extra borrowing, and unnerved business leaders by saying she would raise an additional £25bn annually by hiking their national insurance contributions.

An increase in employer NICs had been trailed by officials in advance of the budget, but the lowering of the threshold to just £5,000 has triggered forecasts of a wave of redundancies and even insolvencies across labour-intensive industries.

Sectors such as retail and hospitality, which employ substantial numbers of part-time workers, have been particularly vocal in their condemnation of the move.

On Friday, the Financial Times published comments made by the chief executive of Barclays in which he defended Ms Reeves.

“I think they’ve done an admirable job of balancing spending, borrowing and taxation in order to drive the fundamental objective of growth,” CS Venkatakrishnan said.

His was a rare voice among prominent business figures in backing the chancellor, however, with many questioning whether the government had a meaningful plan to grow the economy.

Mr Reynolds held a similar call with business leaders within days of general election victory, and over 100 bosses are understood to have been invited to Monday’s discussion.