After the trials and tribulations of the past 18 months, what might Transport Managers expect for 2002 and what measures can they take to help ensure it is successful?
#1 Stability will be even further diminished – develop an agile behaviour mindset
Flexibility is the cornerstone of success in 2022. Normal forward planning is a thing of the past. Covid, Brexit, supply chain shortages, driver shortages… all of those have made a mess of what we took for granted.
SNAFU is actually a more appropriate description for the operations landscape heading into 2022, and nothing whatsoever indicates that it will improve anytime soon. In fact, it does appear that the Omicron variant will cause widespread havoc.
By agile behaviour we mean actively raising one’s awareness about what is happening and keeping abreast of news, risks, and developments in many areas.
For example, Australian haulage firms are finding it difficult to source urea AdBlue to maintain compliance with diesel vehicle emissions legislation. That’s because supplies from China, the main supply source, are drying up.
Savvy transport managers will be aware of this from frequently reading up on international industry trends, and will already have taken steps to secure supplies in advance of shortages hitting the UK.
A good way to ensure being plugged into breaking news is to subscribe to news from disciplines such as procurement and news aggregation services such as News Now. Scanning the headlines takes just a few seconds each day and interesting or relevant items can be bookmarked for later study.
Always keep AVAIL’s service in mind. A pool of over 15,000 HGV Drivers all IR35 compliant and ready to work. All accessible through the AVAIL Platform, where you can book the driver for your jobs.
#2 Skills retention is the coming “thing” – Prioritise retaining key roles and skills
Successful Transport Managers depend on skilled and experienced staff across the board to supply them with the wide expanse of information they need for decision making and simply doing the job they were hired to perform. It follows that helping to keep this skill base in place pays off.
Be aware of trends such as the one described in this explainer: “Talent Sustainability” Is The Next Great Workforce Strategy.
A Transport Manager’s role touches on many areas of a company’s operations and savvy senior managers welcome (and perhaps even rely on) proactive suggestions that strengthen the enterprise. Staff attrition costs money, effort, lost opportunities, stress, and frustration. Far better to implement measures to minimise it from the outset.
#3 Safety Issues need careful monitoring
Transport Managers must surely have had mixed feelings about the change to permitted driver hours. That facile attempt to ease problems caused by driver shortages may have backfired on them – caught between management expectations for an increase in productivity on one hand and driver antipathy (to say the least) on the other.
Road safety comes under pressure when creative dispatchers assign shift patterns that mean long hours away from home, difficult early/late starts coupled with inevitable hold-ups waiting to unload deliveries, and collections not ready.
Tiredness is a killer. This driver had a very lucky escape, as did other road users in the incident. Apparently, she was trying to reach a service station that offered decent facilities for women drivers before stopping off but it did not come soon enough.
Safety breaches come in all forms, including this bridge collision with a tall truck loader. How the risk escaped any sensible inspection may be an issue for the relevant traffic commissioner. In fact, that BBC website page is continually updated with new incidents that are worth noting and taking into consideration for your own operator(s).
Major RTAs are a nightmare on many levels, and working to prevent them from occurring should be a transport manager’s priority. One significant action could be ensuring that the overhaul of the Highway Code is properly understood by an operator’s drivers. That will require more than just a reminder email we suspect.
And don’t forget to prepare for the new rules for international road haulage in Feb & May 2022!
About AVAIL – your driver solution
At AVAIL, we’re working on resolving the driver shortage problem. We’re not a traditional agency, but a driver solution that matches HGV drivers with Operators for a set low fee of £7.50 per driver per day all through the AVAIL platform. Our online platform uses specially designed software that can be used anywhere at any time, the platform has just over 12,000 drivers active on the platform and are all IR35 compliant.
If you would like to see the platform in action, then book in for a demo with our New Business team, or if you aren’t ready for that. Email our New Business Manager, David Roberts with a question david.roberts@availtechnologies.co.uk
