Car haulage firms find opportunity amid industry challenges

If you think driving a car transporter looks difficult, then spare a thought for the people running the business. Unpredictable demand, driver shortages and rising costs are among the challenges facing a sector still adjusting to Brexit and grappling with the after-effects of the Covid pandemic. 

Amid the turmoil, BCA Automotive, a major operator, took the industry by surprise last summer when it swooped on rival haulier ECM, buying it for an undisclosed sum. The purchase, the latest in a series of sector-wide acquisitions and consolidations, boosted BCA's 1000-strong transporter fleet to around 1500 units, making it the UK's largest. The move rocked a sector desperate for normality to return. 

The business of moving vehicles around the country is an essential part of the automotive economy. The most conspicuous method is the twin-deck, 12-vehicle car transporter but there are others, including single-car trailers and flatbed trucks. Below these are trade-plate drivers delivering single cars. 

New car registrations have started to show signs of life in recent weeks but it's the demand for used cars that is supporting the business, says Nick Deal, secretary of the Car Transporters Group at the Road Haulage Association (RHA). "New car movements are still a part of operators' business but it's demand from dealers and especially auction companies to move and distribute used cars that keeps the sector busy." 

However, it would be busier still were it not for the driver shortages affecting the industry. "Brexit discouraged many foreign drivers from returning after Covid, while those who might have moved over to transporters from general trucking have been put off by the UK's long border queues, truck containment operations and the fall in the pound that has made life more expensive," says Deal.

Driver salaries have increased, he says, but so have those for non-driver jobs elsewhere. "It's true that low wages were causing drivers to leave the industry but now they're catching up. However, employers are competing with other sectors that are now paying at least as much."