News updates from October 19: Credit Suisse settles Mozambique scandal with US regulators, UK targets £90bn in private funding to meet net-zero goal, China considers intervening in coal market – as they happened

Falling numbers of middle-aged and EU truck drivers contributed to greater than 50,000 individuals leaving the job over the previous 4 years within the UK, creating essentially the most acute scarcity on file and disrupting companies.

HGV drivers within the UK peaked within the 12 months ending June 2017, at an estimated 321,000. Since then, the full has declined by 53,000, the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics mentioned on Tuesday, a 16 per cent decline.

The variety of drivers aged 46 to 54 years previous has since dropped 39 per cent, or 34,000, the most important decline of any age group. Over the identical interval, EU truck driver numbers fell 30 per cent, or by 12,000 individuals.

The drop is prone to persist as few new drivers are coming into the occupation. Within the 12 months ending June 2021, 16,022 HGV driving assessments had been handed, a drop from a median of 41,731 a 12 months in the course of the earlier five-year interval.

The autumn in driver numbers has come as demand for items has elevated, and because the economic system has reopened and ecommerce has taken off, leading to hovering numbers of job vacancies.

There have been 52,000 vacancies in transport and storage in the course of the three-month interval July to September, the best on file. HGV drivers account for a few tenth of these employed on this business.

The ONS reported that a couple of in 5 UK companies mentioned that lack of hauliers or logistics tools was a problem. Practically a 3rd of customers had been discovering it troublesome to get groceries, medicine or different necessities.