Can the industry solve its skills crisis?
TIP group mechanic development leader, Paul Bell shares his thoughts on the ongoing skills crisis and what the launch of its training academy is doing to tackle this.
The transport industry is short of skilled workers. It’s an ongoing challenge for the entire industry across both trucks and trailers. With stricter legislation on the horizon, and environmental commitments such as trailer refurbishment becoming more of a consideration, there is a risk this skill shortage could create an unprecedented backlog.
“Yes, it’s absolutely true”, explains Paul Bell, group mechanic development leader at TIP Group, when asked whether there is a shortage of trained HGV and semi-trailer mechanics. “We are seeing that those who have been in the industry for years are looking to move on or retire, and now there is a demand for trained mechanics that there simply isn’t the supply to meet. Recruiting new people into the industry – across all regions, not just the UK – has been a challenge for several years now.
“We [TIP Group] had great relationships with various technical colleges who were onboarding mechanics into their technical truck NVQ apprenticeships. Unfortunately, they were seeing such a small uptake that some schools stopped offering these courses altogether.”
And herein lies the problem. Skilled, trained, and experienced mechanics are leaving the industry, while the dwindling queue of new talent is facing more obstructions than opportunities.
Financial implications
Another looming issue is the financial implications of a shortage of trained mechanics in the industry. As the pool of talent decreases, wages need to increase to retain those who remain – which is not helped by inflation, and the cost-of-living crisis. Unfortunately, there’s nowhere else for these costs to go, other than being passed onto the customer.
“We have a ‘duty of care’ to our customers to offer high quality and cost-effective maintenance packages and solutions. We can’t achieve that when a tapering workforce becomes more expensive to retain,” says Bell.
“As an additional layer, new legislations and other safety advancements leave us in a position where qualified mechanics need additional training. It’s nonsensical, from a business perspective, to offer a product and not match the level of service when it comes to maintaining it – be that on a regional or international scale.”
Academy launch TIP Group launched its Mechanics Academy in 2023, which delivers an intensive apprenticeship-style training course to young talent in the industry, both in the form of classroom lessons and practical workshop experience.
“In launching the academy, we worked very closely with Innovam – a specialist automotive training company based in the Netherlands – to create a syllabus that would prepare students specifically to work on modern semi-trailers. Before the academy launched, there wasn’t a dedicated course for semi-trailers available anywhere in Europe.
“When TIP students finish their apprenticeship training, they leave as a Level 3 TIP certified mechanic, which is backed by Innovam, as well as being put forward for an independent IRTEC accreditation. From day one, any participants who join the Academy become contracted employees of TIP Group, are given a fair market salary to match, and tools valuing £1,000, which definitely helps attract new talent to the industry.”
At present, the TIP Mechanics Academy is run in five European countries and is in the process of being rolled out further across the European network.
