It was difficult to get away from Brexit as Kate entered the Houses of Parliament on Monday night for the Road Haulage Association Reception. Grant Shapps – Secretary of State for Transport opened the RHA reception at Westminster on 21st of Oct 2019 with thanks for the RHA and its members help in preparing for a no deal – and said that the sooner we get this deal done the better we can move on to address the challenges of the industry and return Britain to prosperity.
Thanks go to Sir Mike Pennings MP – chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Haulage and Logistics – whose support for the issues the industry face regarding particularly driver recruitment enabled a joint representation to 10 Downing Street earlier in the day – a party including Richard Burnett Chair of the RHA and our very own Kate Lester. The driver shortage now sits at 60000 – and only look set to rise.
Kate says, ‘Diversity is a key issue here – with just 1% of drivers female, and limited representation of BAME community, the industry has to act now not just due to political correctness but due to the commercial reality. This is what will drive real change.’
Sir Mike spoke about diversity in recruitment and looked at more equal opportunity employees such as the army where the statistics are starkly different with 20% of drivers in the army female.
The speeches were closed with Chair of the RHA Richard Burnett. More details can be found here.
If you would like to know more about how Brexit has affected the delivery sector, why not read our blog on how Brexit has affected international deliveries.
For any more information, get in touch with the team at Diamond Logistics who are always happy to help.
