Teignbridge bin disruption 'likely to continue'

Unless HGV driver vacancies are filled

Disruption to bin collections in Teignbridge is ‘likely to continue' unless vacancies for HGV drivers are filled.

The councillor in charge of collections has admitted that the shortage has led to some residents not getting their bins emptied. The district council normally operates with around 50 drivers for its in-house service, but 10 of those jobs are currently vacant. Staff are working weekends to try to catch up.

Councillor Alistair Dewhirst (Lib Dem, Ipplepen), who is also deputy leader of the council, said the authority was “working really hard to make sure that those impacts are minimised and almost everybody gets their bins collected within 48 hours of when they should be.”

Teignbridge is one of a number of organisations and companies being impacted by a UK-wide shortage of HGV drivers. McDonald’s, KFC and Nando’s have all had to cut items or close restaurants recently because of supply problems. There is also concern that the issue could get worse in the run-up to Christmas.

In June, the Road Haulage Association estimated a shortage of around 100,000 drivers in the UK. Writing to the prime minister for help, it listed covid, Brexit and drivers retiring as some of the reasons and asked for a temporary loosening of immigration rules to ease the problem. This was rejected by the government, which wants companies to hire UK workers instead.

Despite this, Cllr Dewhirst said getting new drivers in Teignbridge is impacted by hold-ups at the DVLA. Five trainee drivers have come through the council’s training academy and are all ready to go, according to the councillor, but they are waiting for licences.

“That’s a real problem and in my book that is firmly something the government should be dealing with as soon as possible because we’ve got five drivers who are not drivers purely because they don’t have their licence – it’s not been processed by the DVLA,” he said.

A DVLA spokesperson said: “We are prioritising HGV provisional licence applications which are being issued in around two weeks. More complex transactions, for example, if medical investigations are needed as part of a driving licence application, may face longer delays.

“There are delays in processing paper applications due to ongoing industrial action and social distancing requirements, which means that we have fewer staff than usual on-site.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Teignbridge District Council added: “We currently have 10 HGV (Category C) driver vacancies and we would welcome applications from any interested people with HGV licenses…..Unless we can fill our HGV vacancies, disruption is likely to continue.”

Cllr Dewhirst praised the work of the council’s staff and felt services would “mostly get back on track this month” as further pressure from staff taking holiday begins to ease. However, he warned driver shortages will continue.

“We will continue to liaise with the public so that everybody knows what’s happening, and we will continue to work at weekends to just keep the service running.”

Residents are being asked to keep an eye on social media for service updates from the council.