Logistics has adapted well post pandemic but skills shortages persist, says Logistics UK President

In one of his first major speeches since he took over the presidency of the business group in April, Roe addressed hundreds of industry professionals at the Logistics Awards gala dinner at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London last week (8 December 2022).

“The industry has continued to adapt to new economic conditions,” Roe told delegates, “It has ridden out the end of the pandemic in creating new opportunities to deliver more efficiently for our customers.”

While the sector had received scant attention from the public before the pandemic, the last two years had shone a light on the industry like never before, he argued.

“It’s given us attention and recognition in a way that perhaps we could only have hoped for five years ago,” Roe said.

The industry still had its share of issues to contend with, however, chief among them an acute shortage of staff. Roe argued that a scarcity of available candidates across the whole UK economy had exacerbated the skills shortages that the logistics sector has had to grapple with for many years.

“In the past, we’ve been all too comfortable working hard in the background, rather than stepping into the limelight and shouting about our achievement,” he said, “With sectors right across the industry finding it difficult to recruit new talent, this year I think has marked a significant turning point for logistics.”

In partnership with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Logistics UK has been at the vanguard of that change. Over the past year, there has been a significant amount of work to influence government and industry to tackle the skills shortage head on, including the introduction of new apprenticeship standards and the creation of driver skills bootcamps. But the biggest gamechanger, Roe argued, was the creation of the Generation Logistics programme, which has gone from a concept to a reality in fewer than six months.

“For the first time businesses and trade associations from right across our sector, from all areas of logistics, have come together, to co-sponsor an awareness campaign for the sector targeting hard-to-reach people, young people, those looking for a return to work, those looking for new careers and people coming back from parental leave,” he said.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to personally thank all of the businesses, all of the trade associations, all that are directly involved in this campaign. In the last three months, we have already reached 50 million people, people who would not have thought of our sector as a potential career option before.”

*www.generationlogistics.org

Published On: 15/12/2022 16:00:07

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