Surrey refugees could be trained to help with HGV driver shortage
Refugees could be hired to help plug a shortage of HGV drivers in Surrey.
In the face of a nationwide shortage of HGV drivers, a contractor looking after rubbish collection in four Surrey districts is working with four organisations to recruit and train refugees for the roles.
An external scrutiny committee meeting of Mole Valley District Council on Tuesday night (14 December) heard a presentation from Joint Waste Solutions and Amey.
Joint Waste Solutions manages rubbish collection and street cleaning on behalf of Mole Valley, Elmbridge, Surrey Heath and Woking councils with Amey working as the contractor.
Garden waste collections have been suspended indefinitely in these areas, with one-off collections being organised to empty existing waste throughout the autumn.
Lara White, accounts manager at Amey, said in the meeting the company was working with four refugee organisations across Surrey to bring people in.
She said potential recruits need to go through three stages of theory tests before they can start driving training, and that many would have to start from scratch.
She said: “Some refugees have experience driving in their country of origin. However, we have to comply with the UK legislation and that starts with a UK car driving licence and then moving to the HGV courses.”
Amey was also working on opportunities for ethical recruitment, including working with ex-offenders and homeless people through an ethical recruitment company it has previously worked with on delivering hampers.
She added that the company had also been focusing on developing internal candidates, training up eight current loaders to driver roles, who should start their driver training in the new year. There had also been external applicants for training.
From early next year job adverts will be put on side of bin lorries to help with recruitment.