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Journalists resemble the great white shark to some extent – they should continue to move in order to stay. But this means that some stories, after a short moment of intense general scrutiny, are left behind. Nobody hears how they finished – or, in fact, if they are at all.

Therefore, it was with the UK truck driver’s shortage in 2021, which led to empty supermarkets, employment rewards and sudden retaining drivers, and talking about formulation in the army. The rest saw chaos as evidence that Britain’s exit from the European Union was a mistake. Brexiters saw the wheel of payment to drivers as a justification for the idea that migrants had stopped wages. But what happened next?

The abbreviated answer is that the disorders related to the epidemic declined, and the drivers got more money, and the sharp deficiency went. Between 2020 and 2023, the average of the “large good -time vehicle drivers” increased full -time by 27 percent to 14.99 pounds sterling, according to Official statisticsCompared to an increase of 16 percent in the intermediate wage per hour for all employees for full -time to 17.60 pounds. The percentage of HGV’s HGV and HGV vacancies Decline From 43 percent at the end of 2021 to 18 percent at the end of 2023.

But the vacancies were crawling again, leading us to the longest answer: many basic problems were solved behind.

The first is payment. Whether truck drivers feel that they climb the wage ladder depending on whether they look up, in the low gap with medium profit, or in the dawn gap between their profession and the minimum wage. Both conservative governments and work to the highest wage land over the past decade, reduced the teams with more skilled roles. In 2011, the average watch of HGV drivers was 62 percent higher than the minimum wage. This installment decreased to only 35 percent by 2020. It recovered to nearly 50 percent during the following two years, but it fluctuated to 38 percent by 2024.

This drivers mention this a lot, says Adrian Jones of the Union. He said: “There is a differentiation and reward for skills, knowledge and experience, and this is what is eroded.” “We have 13 pounds of £ 14, 14 pounds per hour, and they are looking at the minimum wage. [which will rise to £12.21 for over-21s in April] And he said, “Why disturbed myself?”

Outside the wage, there was no improvement in long and unexpected hours. Take the current HGV driver Advertisement From OCADO, which states: “You will be asked to work in a flexible transformation pattern consisting of nights and late and early shifts including weekends.” The minimum contract hours are 32 or 40, but “roads up to 12.5 hours a day are set, as such, are expected to regularly implement additional hours.”

These work patterns, which are difficult to balance with family life, or even with friends and hobbies, are pushing many drivers to leave in the twenties and thirties of age. Tell me that just training more drivers is meaningless when the real issue is one of Churn.

There are also new challenges. The employers are installed, perhaps with the best intentions Cameras operating in algorithm To monitor drivers ’eyelids and head parking for signs of drowsiness or distraction. But Jones says that many drivers hate feeling all time.

What does all this tell us about Britain’s exit from the European Union? A decrease in drivers from the European Union, which coincided with other epidemic disturbances, may have made a stumbling block to truck drivers. But Britain’s exit from the European Union did not solve all their problems. In fact, most of them are not unique in the UK: IRU Industry Reports Elderly workforce and driver shortage in many regions of the world.

For UNITE, the answer is new standards that are understood to industry on wages and conditions, to prevent companies from competing by pressing employment costs. “We need to stay away from this broken system from using external sources and contracting, where you can get high segmentation stores in the streets using 10 different companies, all of which pay different prices, reduce each other to get a job,” Jones said.

Action government in favor Sectoral compromiseBut she promised a nervous business community, will go slowly, starting with social care. Certainly there will be differentials: the best quality functions and a more flexible supply chain will become at a price of high transportation costs. The truck driver’s shortage briefly shed this choice in 2021, but Britain chose to zag until the next crisis, when the invisible became visible again.

Sarah.oconnor@ft.com