Demand for drivers remains high

Demand for professional drivers in the UK shows no sign of abating any time soon.

Underlining this, the driving division of Encore Personnel, which specialises in blue collar workers, has been recognised as a successful high growth area for the business. The driving division in Coventry, which sources specialist freight and delivery drivers for its logistics clients, has reported a £2.7 million turnover figure, an increase of 37%.

Despite tough market conditions, in the last 12 months, the specialist team at Encore has sourced and placed over 330 drivers for 116 individual clients – an achievement that was recognised and rewarded at Encore’s recent annual internal awards, where the Coventry driving team bagged the Outstanding Team Contribution Award.

Andrew Fletcher is area manager for the Logistics Sector at Encore Personnel. He said, ‘The Driving Division has been unbelievably proactive in finding and retaining the best drivers available in the market place to fulfil client contracts. They have gone above and beyond to fulfil requirements, often delivering a high volume of talented workers in a small time-frame to meet demand.

‘We know that the industry is experiencing a chronic shortage of qualified drivers so for those that are available, we are facing a super competitive market.’

Mark Knight is the divisional manager for the Coventry team. He added, ‘As a business we have had to create a model that attracts and keeps the best candidates – our Approved Drivers Scheme – at the same time as making significant investment in a comprehensive training and incentive programme for our drivers that included free CPC training. All this whilst we doubled the size of our client service delivery team.’