Transport and logistics companies are putting the brakes on recruitment, due to declining volumes in goods being moved, an abundant supply of candidates, ever tighter margins and its exposure to other sectors, particularly retail.

“On the driving side there is no shortage of candidates,” Jeremy Northern, joint managing director at 24-7, told Recruiter.

“In December, we had Class 1 drivers of articulated lorries registering. They are usually in such high demand in the run up to Christmas. We had two Class 1 drivers doing general labouring work just because there was no driving work available,” Northern adds.

Online job openings in the transport, post and logistics sector declined by 8% in March, according to Monster’s Employment Index, while the
Confederation of British Industry (CBI) figures show that firms found no difficulties recruiting warehouse staff, while just less than 5% were unable to find transport managers and HGV drivers.

And as candidates have come on to the marketplace, vacancies have continued to decline. Richard Blake, director at jobs board UK Driving Jobs, has noted a downward trend in the number of vacancies on the driving recruitment job board since its launch a year ago.

“At launch, you have to offer free postings and people were taking these up readily but some of the agencies now are not even prepared to look at a free offer because they just haven’t got the work,” he explained.

As the downturn takes its toll, clients are consequently ever conscious of margins, according to Jo Tanner, director at the Freight Transport Association (FTA). “For certain companies the margins are incredibly tight. It can be 1% or less. They are just not in the market to recruit at all
at the moment. In terms of agencies, the fees are beyond their reach.”

For Steve Wyeth, director at shipping recruiter SDW Recruitment, the pressures on margins are very heavy. “Freight rates are at an all-time low. They push us to the limit. There are so many candidates out there. With an import entry level, we would have been lucky to have put two
candidates forward. We can now put 12 candidates up due to the number of redundancies.”

But agencies are not necessarily following suit. Andy Kaye, managing director at supply chain and logistics recruiter BiS Henderson, says: “There are agencies that are reducing their margins. We are trying to maintain our margins because what we are doing is providing a quality shortlist of candidates and not always going to active candidates. We are also headhunting for senior and management levels.”

And, according to Chris Chidley, chief executive of UK driving recruitment firm Driver Hire, as clients become more focused on costs, opportunities abound for recruiters that can save their customers money through providing a national service.

“Customers are looking to rationalise their supplier base and looking to work with partners that can provide a national or regional solution. The ideal is a one-stop-shop basis. We are certainly seeing a marked increase in firms forging national and regional agreements with us. They are leveraging their purchasing scale and reducing their back office administration.”

And whether the sector is on the road to success or the road to hell rests with how other interrelated sectors perform, according to Tanner, as transport is particularly susceptible to the fortunes of other sectors including retail, construction and manufacturing — any sector that requires the transportation of goods.

“Our sector only does as well as other sectors. People don’t move goods for the sake of it; there has to be a purpose. We are a pretty good barometer in terms of how things are going. If you go to any motorway and see the number of trucks compared to a year ago, there is a steep decline.”

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