Get to 'Love the Lorry' in National Lorry Week

This coming October, the Road Haulage Association is making the nation fall in love with the lorry! The Association is launching the first National Lorry Week, to take place 26-31 October, 2015. The Association created the event, which is promoted with the slogan 'Love the Lorry', to raise awareness among the public and politicians about the huge role the haulage industry plays in the economy. The haulage industry is employing over 2 million people through contracting, subcontracting, and through the use of freight exchanges.

The Importance of the Haulage Industry

The Road Haulage Association, or RHA, represents haulage companies that together operate around 100,000 heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) in their own fleets or through a freight exchange. The RHA’s Chief Executive, Richard Burnett, speaking at the Association’s Compliance Conference in early September, said, 'Eighty-five percent of everything we eat, wear, buy and use is moved, at some point, on the back of a UK-registered lorry.' Burnett went on to say that without the industry represented by the RHA, 'Supermarket shelves would be empty, homes would not be built, and manufacturing plants would grind to a halt.' It is the haulage industry that keeps the economy moving.

National Lorry Week, Burnett says, will give the haulage industry the opportunity to reach out to politicians and the public, who sometimes overlook the positive contribution to the British economy. The UK-wide event will give participants the opportunity to get up close to a lorry; meet operators and drivers; hear about careers in driving and the haulage industry; learn about advancements in the road haulage industry (such as the rise of freight exchange platforms); and to hear what the industry is doing to reduce its environmental impact. Hauliers participating in the event will have red 'Love the Lorry' stickers on their vehicles to identify them.

Publicity and Events

The Road Haulage Association will be inviting several high-profile media figures to spend a shift working with a lorry driver. They may even get a chance to get behind the wheel! The RHA will also visit Parliament, where Ministers and MPs can hear how the haulage industry plays a role in their respective constituencies. Brave individuals can test their driving skills in a HGV driving simulator to see if they have what it takes to be a lorry driver.

The week-long event will also feature a documentary about professional racing driver Tom Ingram. Sponsored by the RHA and currently racing in the British Touring Car Championship, Ingram has gone through the training required to become a professional HGV driver. The documentary shows how HGV driving requires a level of skill quite similar to that demanded of racing drivers.

Hitting Close to Home

National Lorry Week comes at a time when the UK haulage industry is experiencing a massive shortage of drivers. By some estimates, the UK needs an extra 150,000 drivers by 2020. Some of that shortage can be remedied by haulage efficiency solutions such as freight exchange platforms, but the industry is facing an aging workforce and a lack of new blood. Burnett explains that the event is partially intended to 'highlight the [haulage] industry as a great career opportunity.' National Lorry Week, Burnett says, will highlight the essential work done by UK hauliers, thus making a job in the haulage industry more meaningful and attractive.

Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for haulage work in the express freight exchange industry. Over 4,000 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.