Drivers are being brought in from as far afield as Newcastle-upon-Tyne to help ease a worrying shortage of lorry drivers for Somerset waste collections.

The Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) has been hit hard by a national shortage of HGV drivers, with up to ten per cent of its drivers leaving in the aftermath of Brexit.

These shortages have led to recycling and refuse collections being missed or delayed across Somerset over the last few weeks.

Suez, its chosen contractor, has now put forward a list of measures it is taking to combat the shortages, including bringing drivers out of retirement, hiring from the military and offering significant bonuses for referrals.

Suez regional manager Matthew Canning addressed the issue at a joint scrutiny panel meeting on Wednesday afternoon (June 23), describing Somerset as "a particularly challenging local market" on top of Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic.

He said: "Drivers have retired and we have not had new drivers being trained, as this has not been readily available throughout the pandemic. Now we have a huge backlog of HGV test availability.

"Recent availability issues happened very quickly – mainly in Taunton and Bridgwater, where there is more alternative work due to the size of the towns, and some in Evercreech, which is traditionally a more difficult place to employ.

"In 19 years of providing front-line services, I have never experienced resource shortages in this level of the industry."

Suez requires 189 drivers in total in order to deliver the complete collection service (both recycling and refuse) across Somerset each week.

As of June 7 (the most recent figures available), Suez had 26 driver vacancies and 52 loader vacancies – with only 13 agency drivers and 36 agency loaders being made available, which resulted in multiple collections being missed.

To address the problem, Suez has put a number of measures in place to attract and keep new staff – including the following:

• Closer relationships with trade unions to offer jobs to those threatened with redundancy – including those affected by the closure of Oscar Mayer in Chard and the Argos distribution centre in Bridgwater
• An employee referral scheme, offering a one-off bonus of £500 to the referrer once the new application has completed their probationary period
• Temporary overtime bonus payments for Saturday shifts
• Extending mileage payments for those travelling to and from the temporary transfer station in Taunton for a further six months
• Employee of the week/month/year and crew of the week/month/year awards to boost existing staff morale

Councillor Andy Kendall – who represents the Yeovil Central division on Somerset County Council – praised Suez for giving ex-military personnel a new vocation by paying for their certificate of professional competence (CPC).

He said: "There are lots of young lads in the armed forces who don't get a lot of time – they're flown back into the UK and then thrown out into the wide world.

"Many of these have lorry licences but not the CPC – there are herds of people leaving every day. You funding this for any driver that comes now is brilliant."

Councillor Tessa Munt – who represents the Wells division – argued said the current pay offer didn't go far enough to entice drivers away from Hinkley Point C and other competitors.

She said: "I don't think £12.23 per year is good enough – Hinkley Point drivers are on £35,000 a year. I wouldn't want to be doing your recruitment."

The SWP said that Suez's use of agency staff would not result in taxpayers having to shell out more money for their services.

A spokesman said: "There will be more disruption but we don't know how long it will last. We're doing what we can but there's no quick fix and we appreciate everyone's patience.

"Suez is working towards having fully employed staff carrying out collections (and are successfully converting some agency staff into full-time staff), and only when there's a shortfall do they make use of agency. We have a contract with Suez, so there are no extra costs to taxpayers."

By Daniel Mumby, Local Democracy Reporter

Photo: Somerset Waste Partnership