In profile: Richard Holden MP, Roads Minister, Department for Transport

Following short spells as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for International Trade, he accepted his first ministerial appointment in October 2022 as Roads Minister at the Department for Transport.

Speaking exclusively to Logistics Magazine, the new Minister was keen to promote the announcement made last week (24 November 2022), that lorry drivers will benefit from improved and safer rest areas and roadside facilities thanks to an investment of up to £100 million from industry and government.

Asked whether the measures in the announcement would solve the longstanding issue of a shortage of decent hygiene and rest facilities for commercial drivers, he stopped short of claiming they would represent a silver bullet for the issue, but expressed the hope that they would “put a big dent” in the problem.

Making the announcement at the Red Lion Truckstop near Daventry in Northamptonshire, the Minister said: “I must say it looked like one of the best truck stops I’d ever visited,” he said, “What was really nice about it was the level of facilities and the different options that were there. Clean, tidy, lots of showers.”

POSITIONING DRIVING AS AN ATTRACTIVE CAREER OPTION

Ensuring drivers are secure as well as clean, fed and watered when parking overnight is another issue the measures aim to tackle, and Holden readily admits that concerns over security are one of the big issues that hauliers in his Durham constituency have faced over the last few years when they’re out on the road.

On driver recruitment and retention, he acknowledges that pay also has a big role to play: “We’ve got to get that right in order for both retention of existing drivers but also just to get more people into the industry, particularly opening up to younger drivers and women as well,” he said.

MATCHING INDUSTRY FUNDING

Following last week’s announcement, truck stop and road service operators can now bid for a share of the £32.5 million match funding pot from the government.

“What we’re going to do is match up to 25% of big operators, and up to 50% of the smaller truck stops,” Holden said, “So we’re expecting more of the money to go to the big operators but they’ll get a smaller proportion.”

The uneven geographic spread of truck stops across the UK remains a cause for concern.

“In the last few years we recognise that quite a few of the smaller stops have closed down,” he said, “and we want to ensure that we keep that capacity and that spread across the country.”

While every truck stop operator will get something, the government is targeting its funding at the smaller operators, as they often do not have the capital to invest in facilities.

The Minister hopes that once applicants have been through due diligence, cash will start flowing from the match funding scheme over the next few months.

“I’m hoping we’ll be able to make further announcements next year on where the money is going,” he said.

£100 MILLION INVESTMENT

In its announcement, the government used the eye-catching figure of a £100 million investment in roadside facilities from government and industry. How has this figure been arrived at?

“The government’s putting in just under £33m, so it’s going to be around £100m we think, because some of the sites will only get 25% of the funding and some of the smaller sites will get up to 50%,” the Minister said.

The smaller sites are expected to ask for less in terms of upgrading their facilities, but will be eligible to claim up to half the cost.

“It’s going to be a bit horses for courses,” Holden said, “Some of the smaller stops as you know with 20 to 30 spaces will need less money than the bigger ones, where they might have several hundred. So it’s a sort of ball park figure of what we’re expecting to see in terms of investment overall.”

DRIVERS’ ACCESS TO HYGIENE FACILITIES

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Logistics UK members frequently reported that their drivers could not always access their customers’ hygiene facilities after making a delivery. Are there plans to legislate to make it compulsory to allow commercial drivers to access toilet and rest room facilities?

While the Minister conceded there was nothing in the pipeline at the moment, he said: “We do need not to see everything through the prism of the pandemic, but it did throw up, particularly in HGV, some real issues.”

It is for these reasons that DfT is putting forward a broader, 33-point plan, of which the £100 million announcement is just the latest stage.

For example, the Minister said he has been “kicking the tyres” at DVLA over the last few months to secure a quicker turnaround on HGV driving tests.

“You’re now looking at three and a half weeks for the average HGV driver, between booking the test and sitting it,” he said.

TREATING DRIVERS WITH RESPECT

A key phrase in the government’s announcement was that it was necessary to provide both the facilities and respect that HGV drivers deserve. How important does the Minister think that is for recruitment?

“I think it’s absolutely incredibly important,” he said, “Wages obviously play a big part, but there’s a reason people leave at certain ages and some of that is being away from family. One of the big things that we’ve been told, is that actually the facilities provided for drivers make them feel like they’re not treated with the respect that they deserve for the crucial job that they do.”

 *www.logistics.org.uk/campaigns/driver-facilities

Published On: 01/12/2022 16:00:22

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