The president of the Cold Chain Federation has stressed that action must be taken to secure cold chain skills for the future and attract more young people into the industry.
Tim Moran, regional vice president of Lineage Logistics UK, was elected as president for the third time at the Federation’s AGM this week. At the virtual meeting, the future of the cold chain workforce was discussed along with other topics such as red diesel charges coming into force in 2022, the roadmap towards a net zero UK cold chain and impacts of the post-Brexit processes for UK-EU and UK-NI trade.
Tim Moran (pictured below) said: “We should be truly proud of what our industry and our people have achieved during this global pandemic, but the cold chain now faces another urgent challenge. As restrictions ease for our customers we need to ramp up dormant supply chains and reconfigure networks, but this is being hindered by a labour shortage.
“Lots of people’s lives have changed in the past 18 months and employees coming off furlough are deciding to retire or take time off, at the same time that many non-UK nationals are unable or reluctant to work away from home under current restrictions. These issues are exacerbated by the IR35 tax changes limiting our ability to draw on agency and sub-contract capacity.
“To ease current workforce pressures the Cold Chain Federation will work for continued common sense extensions to CPC renewals, speeding up driver testing and extending medicals, but the current situation also shows why we need to take action on longer-term cold chain skill shortage issues.”
Moran added that it was time for the industry and Government to work together to attract more young people into the industry, and invest in the skills needed for a net zero future.
He continued: “I have no doubt that an important part of the jigsaw will be greater recognition of driving as a skilled and valued career which should be reflected by Government in the provision of training opportunities and by cold chain customers in the provision of good driver facilities on site. Over the coming months the Cold Chain Federation will bring our industry together with Government to discuss the path forward for a secure, flexible and resilient cold chain workforce over the coming years and beyond.”
