Dulson Training on the road to filling UK driver shortage

Dulson Training, which has bases in Shrewsbury, Telford and Wrexham, is one of the country’s leading training providers in the logistics sector – an impressive record that comes with more than 30 years of experience.

The company provides the complete package from initial enquiry to helping learners obtain the relevant licence or qualifications across all vehicle categories, a service which is going to be particularly important in filling the ever-increasing shortage of professional drivers in the UK as lockdown starts to ease.

Steve Dulson, of Dulson Training, said: “Covid has proven that one sector it cannot stop is logistics, from the warehouse to the road. The logistics network must continue to provide a lifeline. It is almost a guarantee that anything you have purchased or consumed in your lifetime has been transported by lorry or been loaded by a forklift through a warehouse.

“There are more vans and trucks on the road and driver levels are not keeping up. The UK driver shortage is growing all the time and Brexit is expected to further impact this situation. Statistics show that in 2019 there was a shortage of 59,000 HGV drivers in the UK, increasing to 76,000 in 2020.

“We have seen an increase over the last five years of new drivers entering the industry, however with a lack of driving tests during Covid and more drivers retiring than joining, the demand continues to grow.

“From March last year to March 2021 driver training and driving tests have been suspended or extremely limited, and a number of our classroom-based courses including First Aid, ADR and Driver CPC were also suspended.

“We were able to adapt and gain authorisation to start delivering some of the courses remotely online using Zoom and, with over 25 staff, we have had to adapt our core activity – HGV, PSV and Car and Trailer licence acquisition driver training – and provide as many courses online as possible with some limited face to face training.

“With some major changes to our facilities and expansion into additional classroom and warehouse space, we have been able to offer these courses where allowed in a safe environment. We have focused on Materials Handling Equipment (MHE) training and built a better foundation and significantly increased the forklift equipment and facilities to allow a much higher volume of training in a Covid safe environment at our training centre or at the customer’s location nationwide.

“Our own road driver training is waiting for a return, hopefully this will be soon, but we have been delighted to see our online, ADR and MHE courses volume increase tenfold.”

Steve said it has been an extremely difficult year with many established training providers unable to adapt to the changes and restrictions.

“We are proud to not only be standing but fighting through the pandemic to build a better portfolio and increase the service provided throughout our organisation,” he added.

“We look forward to returning to driver training at our Shrewsbury, Telford and Wrexham training centres shortly with our fleet of new training vehicles while we continue to increase our online Driver CPC, ADR and First Aid course presence and accredited Forklift truck training courses.

“Dulson Training is proud to operate Shrewsbury and Telford’s only DVSA customer test sites for HGV Cat C and C+E licence acquisition – Shropshire’s only facility of its kind. Both sites operate with a DVSA examiner on-site and offer driving tests to Dulson Training customers at both locations on weekdays and weekends.

“An added unique benefit of these sites is that it allows our customers to prepare and practice at the same site they will be taking their test. Our Wrexham site offers driver training and the tests at the DVSA public test site at Llay. Our Shrewsbury, Telford and Wrexham sites cater for licence acquisition or refresher courses for almost every vehicle category.”