The Freight and Transport Association (FTA) has recently launched the 2019 Logistics Report, a work born out of a partnership between Santander Corporate and Commercial, which collects the opinions of more than 500 freight and logistics businesses operating in the UK and internationally, to provide industry insight into the latest political and economic developments.
The Report is particularly significant as the UK finds itself in challenging times, where technology is expanding on different levels in the logistics sector, but on the other hand the shadow of Brexit creates huge uncertainty on the future of businesses within the transport sector.
The report, downloadable at https://fta.co.uk/logisticsreport, is divided into sections covering the different aspects of logistics, from which we reveal some of the insights in this article:
The sector as a whole
According to the FTA report, the logistics industry has added around 200,000 jobs, particularly in storage and warehousing, with the latter registering huge growth. On the other hand, both HGV and LGV registrations fell again for the second year in a row.
Competitiveness
The report reveals the importance of the logistics sector in the UK being ranked the eighth most competitive nation in the world out of 140 countries, falling from sixth place.
International trade
An interesting result from the report, especially in light of Brexit, was that the EU accounts for 54.4% of UK goods imported and 48.8% of UK goods exported in 2018.
Labour and skills
Despite the growth in the global number of people working in the sector, the shortage in key roles continues. The report anticipates 15% of current vacancies for HGV drivers will not be filled; and for a further 36% of current vacancies, they anticipate a long delay to find the right candidate. There is also a global shortage of van drivers, warehouse staff, fitters, technicians and mechanics. And, according to respondents, more than half (52.7%) of vacancies for vehicle mechanics, technicians and fitters will not be filled in the near future.
The report also recorded a significant fall of 37% in the number of new logistics apprenticeships, as young people have been attracted to other industries.
Sustainability
With regards to sustainability, despite the creation of clean air zones and the obligations to respect emission targets, according to the forecasts of the report, 24 out of 28 UK urban areas will exceed legal limits for nitrogen dioxide.
Of the respondents in the 2018/2019 FTA survey, 30% indicated they were considering using alternative fuel sources for their van or HGV fleets in 2019.
Safety and innovation
Together with the continuous accent on IoT (Internet of Things) and autonomous vehicles, the sector has seen a continuation in the downward trend of fatal accidents per vehicle km for both HGVs and vans. The total economic cost of workplace injury and new cases of work-related ill health in transportation and storage was £866m (€ 973m), with injury costing £444m (€498m) and illness accounting for £422m (€474m).
