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Freight sector will run out of skilled staff'

The UK Freight Transport Association (FTA) fears the sector could suffer from a massive skills shortage once the country begins to climb out of recession due to redundancies.

A recent survey found that more than half of FTA members could foresee a "dearth of workers" following economic recovery.

Nic Allen, general manager of training, said: “With widespread redundancies and job losses across the entire sector, we are deeply concerned that we will lose the skills base.

“We need to invest in the next generation of logistics workers. Once demand for goods and services returns to normal levels, we may be facing weak links in our supply chains.”

The FTA said it was “concerned” that the removal of government funding for courses such as NVQs (National Qualifications), which can include partial training for the soon-to-be-introduced Freight Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (Driver CPC), may halt efforts to improve the situation