DESPITE being one of the largest sectors in the county, logistics faces some significant challenges in the coming year – albeit with a positive slant – according to the managing director of one of the area’s most successful haulage firms.
Andrew Howard, from PC Howard, which has offices in Kings Cliffe, Northampton and Corby, believes that a shortfall in numbers of skilled drivers, and a shortage of capacity is a hangover of the recession, will potentially leave the logistics industry struggling at times during 2015.
“The outlook is certainly positive but, for a number of reasons, we
DESPITE being one of the largest sectors in the county, logistics faces some significant challenges in the coming year – albeit with a positive slant – according to the managing director of one of the area’s most successful haulage firms.
Andrew Howard, from PC Howard, which has offices in Kings Cliffe, Northampton and Corby, believes that a shortfall in numbers of skilled drivers, and a shortage of capacity is a hangover of the recession, will potentially leave the logistics industry struggling at times during 2015.
“The outlook is certainly positive but, for a number of reasons, we have challenges we need to face and overcome if the logistics sector is going to continue to grow,” he said. “To begin with, we are seeing a shortage of drivers because although the opportunities may be there, it is not seen as an attractive prospect by young people entering the world of work. We need to engage more with young people, through the education system to show that it’s interesting, skilled work that offers a decent wage.”
All PC Howard’s drivers now meet the CPC accreditation standards that came into effect in September, and the firm is always looking for new drivers to cope with an increasing client base and workload.
Growth, in the economy however, is often dependent on the availability of new vehicles and trailers to increase capacity but that is proving another challenge for the industry.
Andrew Howard said: “When we hit the downturn, manufacturers became very cautious and naturally didn’t want to build vehicles that wouldn’t sell, so now that we are seeing an upturn, the order times for new trucks and trailers is much longer than we would like.
“At the same the expectations of our customers continues to change, naturally becoming more challenging at a time when the level of congestion on our roads becomes intolerable. The planned investment of £5bn in our road network, whilst welcome is too late, and must be delivered.
“We will be continuing our investment in new IT systems to further enhance both the information and the speed at which it is available to our customers.”
For more details about PC Howard and the services offered, visit the website at www.pchoward.com