Food prices could rise due to shortage of lorry drivers

Food prices are predicted to rise as haulage firms increase the pay of its lorry drivers due to a severe shortage of staff, experts have warned. A shortfall of 70,000 HGV drivers in the UK has already seen wages shoot up by 20 per cent and consumers are now being warned that grocery prices could rocket to pay for the drivers’ increased pay.

Food wholesalers claim they are already being hit by cost hikes, with one claiming they had been forced to increase driver wages from £35k to £40k per year. ‘The cost of food will rise, it’s inevitable. The cost of moving goods between networks is surging. Inevitably this is going to drive food price inflation. We must drive further efficiencies. It’s a knife edge’ said one wholesaler.

Richard Burnett, head of the Road Hauliers Association, said ‘Undoubtedly this will hit the consumer. The larger retailers may decide to hold prices but they must accept that costs to goods will have gone up.’

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