Safety in Logistics| Staff Shortages, Driver Welfare and Non-Regulated Haulage

According to a survey conducted by Logistics UK, labour shortages in the logistics sector now extend beyond HGV drivers, with warehouse staff and van drivers also increasingly scarce. Some businesses are relying heavily on drivers’ hours rules being relaxed to continue to meet demand, while others are turning to non-regulated haulage. In either case, overworked staff or new operations implemented without proper safety measures in place leave your business wide open to potential risks.

In this free 45-minute webinar, we’ll be taking a deep dive into the driver welfare arrangements businesses should have in place, tips on transforming your health and safety culture to prevent compliance processes being an afterthought, and the potential risks posed by non-regulated haulage.

24 February at 14:00

The coronavirus pandemic combined with an ongoing recruitment crisis has resulted in staff shortages continuing to cripple logistics operations. Unfortunately, small to medium-sized businesses have been hit the worst, often due to a lack of sufficient back-up plans in addition to the threat of larger organisations more ruthlessly poaching staff to plug their own workforce shortages.

As a result, loyal workers continue to face unprecedented amounts of pressure, and with a ‘temporary extension’ of drivers’ hours rules coinciding with some companies leaning more heavily on non-regulated haulage to meet demand, some companies have been left with severe gaps in their compliance practices.

If not managed correctly, this combination of factors can create real health and safety issues for employers. On one hand, overworking your team can have a serious impact on workers’ health, and will likely cause more employees to leave, thereby further exacerbating workforce shortages.

On the other hand, ongoing operational stress increases the likelihood of an accident occurring on the road or in the warehouse if safety procedures slip through the net in a bid to ‘get the job done’. Indeed, given the potential damage to worker morale, your finances and indeed your reputation, a poor health and safety culture may be enough to shut down operations completely. It’s therefore vital that you act now to ensure you’re following best practice and not exposing your business and people to undue risk.

In this free 45-minute webinar, WorkNest’s Director of Health & Safety Services Nick Wilson, will be discussing:

The impact of COVID on the logistics sector, including driver welfare arrangements
The common issues hampering health and safety culture in logistics businesses – and how to fix them
The impact of Brexit on the “just in time” logistics sector, and the greater health and safety demands that tighter deadlines and longer hours create
The impact of driver shortages and increased risk for road users from non-regulated haulage (light goods vehicles filling the gap)

At the end of the session, our expert host will be taking your questions in a live Q&A. In recognition of the limited time available, we recommend submitting these in advance so we can answer as many as possible during the session.

Register below

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