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There is a current shortage of lorry drivers across the country, as many drivers have returned to Europe after Brexit. There was already a low number of female lorry drivers (only 1% of the workforce), and the current situation has only exaggerated these figures.

Brexit meant that we lost a large sum of lorry drivers as many of the European drivers returned to their home countries. The Covid-19 pandemic has also meant that the UK has suffered a huge loss of lorry drivers. There were many HGV driving tests that were cancelled, and the industry is still struggling to keep up with the backlog of tests, including car tests as well as HGV.

There has to be many considerations when shipping dangerous or hazardous goods. You also have to make sure that the goods are packaged properly as many hazardous materials when in contact with water or exposure to sunlight can be extremely hazardous.

Concern has been growing over the loss of the lorry park near the UKs biggest port, Felixstowe. Many lorry drivers will no longer have anywhere to go after driving from the Felixstowe port.

There are many ways to transport your goods, whether that be using sea freight, rail freight, air freight, or road freight. It is essential to do your research while weighing up your options.

With the shortage of lorry drivers, it could be beneficial to move some road freight to rail freight. This move could mean that cities and roads will become less congested and can help to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Just one freight train can take 76 HGV’s off the road, meaning that the lorries that are sat in depots will no longer be needed, saving road freight businesses money in the long run.

Currently, there are reports of there being a massive lorry driver shortage, which could have knock-on effects for the average consumer. Prices in shops are expected to rise, as the wages of lorry drivers also rise.

Like many other industries, modern technology has infiltrated logistics, freight and transport resulting in Freighttech, short for Freight Technology which is an offshoot of similar industrial technologies. Technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), cloud computing, machine learning, real time data systems and advanced GPS have been tailored to logistics.

Freight transportation has been an essential, cost-effective shipping method all over the world. The trucking industry is particularly prominent in the United States with a long history dating back to World War I. Improvements in technology have always paved the way for improvements in the industry. It’s come a long way from the early days of the interstate highway system when the majority of the roads were unpaved.

According to a new whitepaper from Transport Intelligence (TI), airfreight rates are expected to remain at an elevated level for the foreseeable future while freighters are expected to gain a market share. Transport Intelligence predicts that structural change in the airfreight market will be highly likely and will be as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to an industry panel, vaccinations against COVID-19 will eventually be transported by sea freight when the sector is able to demonstrate reliability and availability of appropriate technology.