More female lorry drivers among goals in road haulage plan

Encouraging more women to become lorry drivers and building distribution hubs to reduce truck congestion in cities are among the targets in the Government’s first strategy plan for the road haulage industry.

The 10-year strategy has been developed to improve standards and efficiencies in the highly competitive industry, to move the sector to a greener future and to address lorry driver shortages arising from retirements in an ageing, mostly male workforce.

The plan, Ireland’s Road Haulage Strategy 2022-2021, which is being published on Thursday by Minister of State at the Department of Transport Hildegarde Naughton, sets 39 targets across areas such as crisis management, decarbonisation and road safety enforcement.

It comes after a challenging few years for the industry as it managed the overlapping crises of Brexit, Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine that led to increased border controls, severe delays, higher operational costs and harder working conditions for heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers.

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Ms Naughton said the haulage sector was a “really critical industry”, requiring a 10-year plan.

“There is always an assumption that our supply chain will just keep moving and our goods and medical supplies will land on our shelves,” she said.

[ One in four lorries found to have major defects in inspections ]

[ Irish lorries among worst offenders for defects in British road checks ]

“We need to be modernising the sector, moving to a lower-emission sector but also ensuring that we are making the career to be a HGV driver more attractive for people to take it up.”

Figures published this year show that there were just over 100,000 people employed in transport and storage in Ireland, of which 20 per cent were female.

Just 2 per cent of HGV drivers are female, according to industry figures.

Ms Naughton said improved driving conditions and finding efficiencies for drivers so that they are not stuck in traffic and “wasting their time and their company’s time” will make the industry more attractive to younger entrants, in order to help replace older drivers.

“The aim is to encourage more women and men. If you can make the job more attractive and improve driver conditions, I think that will attract more women into the sector,” she said.

Improved conditions, it is hoped, will come from the creation of distribution hubs or “consolidation centres” – similar to An Post’s distribution centre in Portlaoise – allowing drivers to distribute goods more effectively and take HGVs out of city centres.

The strategy will look at where the centres might be located and how they might be funded, along with how the rail network can be better integrated for freight to reduce haulage by road.

The “last-mile” distribution from these large warehouse hubs would allow better use of smaller, electric commercial vehicles, reducing carbon emissions in the industry.

In addition to signing driving licence exchange agreements with countries such as Argentina and North Macedonia to bring in more drivers, the Government is looking for “home-grown drivers” with apprenticeships and training courses for young people, said Ms Naughton.

The Fine Gael TD for Galway West said she did not know what was planned for her in this weekend’s Cabinet reshuffle, when her party leader Leo Varadkar takes over as Taoiseach from Micheál Martin as the rotation within Government reaches the halfway point in the life of the Coalition.

Currently a “super junior” Minister at Cabinet, Ms Naughton would need to become Government Chief Whip if she is to retain her entitlement to sit at Cabinet, unless a new super junior position was created for her.

“Whatever role – if I am given a role – I will take it on and give it 200 per cent. It is an absolute privilege to serve in Cabinet,” she said.

“The Government is working really well. It is a very stable Government. All of these decisions are well above my pay grade and I will accept anything.”