Just How Important Are HGV Drivers?
HGV drivers often get a bit of stick from other road users but with the average HGV driver in the UK travelling around 125,000 miles a year they’re certainly on the road a lot. Especially when you consider that there are over 285,000 HGV drivers you start to see that they have a really important part to play in the UKs economy. They’re not just on the road for a Sunday drive.
Before you car drivers all go ahead and decide that all of us HGV drivers are a nuisance, let’s take a look at some surprising facts.
The Importance of HGV Drivers
HGVs pay for most of the UKs spending on road maintenance. The spending on road maintenance by central and devolved UK governments was £4.7bn in 2015/16. The taxes raised from HGVs (vehicle excise duty, road user levy and fuel to name a few components) raised more than £4.4bn in the same period.
85% of everything that we eat, drink or buy has been transported (at some point in it’s journey to the shop) by a UK registered HGV.
With a shortage of HGV drivers looming in the UK (with around 60,000 skilled job vacancies right now) and the wider industry employing over 2.54 million people in the UK alone, you can start to see that it is a vital industry to the UK’s economy. Check out our post on the driver shortage in the UK here. If you’re already an HGV driver we have some great packages that can improve your take home pay and save you the hassle of admin starting from £10 a week. For more information give us a quick call here.
