The immediate post-pandemic emergency has eased. Government figures show that in the final quarter of 2024, 24% of HGV businesses reported driver vacancies, down from 28% in the previous quarter. Among those with vacancies, one in five said they had missed deliveries in the previous week because drivers were unavailable, the highest proportion recorded that year. The most common reasons were better pay elsewhere, drivers leaving the industry and retirements.
This is not a full-blown return to the 2021 crisis. But it may prove harder to solve, because it reflects a more structural erosion of the workforce, driven by an ageing driver pool, poor retention and a weakening training pipeline.
Poor facilities are making retention harder
Transport Focus, the passenger and road user watchdog, surveyed more than 13,000 HGV drivers over two years and found a striking pattern. Nine in ten drivers who rated vehicle security as good said they were able to rest properly, compared with fewer than four in ten where security was seen as poor. Nearly two-thirds said they were dissatisfied with the number and quality of lorry parks available across the UK.
The connection matters. Drivers who cannot rest safely are more likely to leave. Drivers who feel unsafe are harder to recruit. The UK’s HGV problem in 2026 is not just a numbers question. It is also a question of whether the job is worth doing at all.
Training funding has become fragmented
Skills Bootcamps were introduced to help adults retrain in shortage sectors, including HGV driving. But from the 2025-26 financial year, the funding model changed, with responsibility moving from central government to mayoral strategic authorities and other local areas. Training providers and recruiters have warned that provision may now vary more sharply by region, with some areas better resourced than others.
The risk is not that public support has vanished everywhere. It is that the pipeline of newly qualified drivers may become inconsistent, with some parts of the country better served and others left short.
