New Approach Needed To Secure Future Cold Chain Workforce

A new approach is needed to secure cold chain skills for the future and attract more young people into the industry, Cold Chain Federation President Tim Moran said at the Federation’s AGM on 23 June 2021. His message came as businesses across the UK’s cold chain experienced a labour crunch which, the trade body says, threatens to jeopardise the industry’s efforts to revive temperature-controlled supply chains just as restrictions ease on the hospitality and food service sectors.

At the federation’s virtual AGM, key issues discussed included red diesel changes coming into force in 2022, the roadmap towards a net-zero UK cold chain and impacts of the post-Brexit processes for UK-EU and UK-NI trade, as well as labour availability.

Mr Moran, Regional Vice President of Lineage Logistics UK, was elected for the third time and will continue to serve as President of the Federation for the next two years. Andrew Baldwin, MD of Reed Boardall’s cold storage division, was elected as Cold Chain Federation Vice President for a two-year term. Mr Moran said: “As restrictions ease for our customers we need to ramp up dormant supply chains and reconfigure networks, but this is being hindered by a labour shortage. Lots of people’s lives have changed in the past 18 months and employees coming off furlough are deciding to retire or take time off, at the same time that many non-UK nationals are unable or reluctant to work away from home under current restrictions. These issues are exacerbated by the IR35 tax changes limiting our ability to draw on agency and sub-contract capacity. To ease current workforce pressures the Cold Chain Federation will work for continued common sense extensions to CPC renewals, speeding up driver testing and extending medicals, but the current situation also shows why we need to take action on longer-term cold chain skill shortage issues. It is time for us … to attract more young people into our industry and to identify how best to invest in the cold chain skills which are already in short supply and will need to evolve for a net-zero future.”

The federation represents more than 270 companies which store and move chilled and frozen food in temperature-controlled storage facilities and refrigerated vehicles, covering more than 500 facilities, 30,000 vehicles and c100,000 employees.

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