John Maguire

Not many talented people are pursuing a logistics career in the UK and, if this continues, the sector's future development is in jeopardy, warns John Maguire.

The national chairman of the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) issued the warning in his address to association members at the annual general meeting held prior to Awards 2013 at the Dorchester Hotel in London last week.

"Any industry can only be as good as the talent that it manages to attract, develop and retain, but the logistics industry's skills base is increasingly viewed an issue for the industry," Maguire said.

He explained that the sector has to hire 900,000 people before 2020, but about a fifth of vacancies in the transport and storage sector are classified as 'hard to fill' because there weren't enough skilled applicants.

"In addition to 'soft skills' such as customer handling and communication, it is job-specific skills that are most commonly lacking. Such skills are increasingly important in a sector facing change driven by technology and globalisation.

"As businesses prepare for the economic upturn, they will need skilled people in order to respond to demand but, if it is not addressed, the current and ongoing skills gap will result in increased operating costs and reduced competitiveness across the sector."

Maguire said the logistics industry needs to agree on a course of action that will lead to a "more focused and unified approach to the fundamental issue of training and developing [the] workforce in a consistent and progressive way".

He lamented that the sector currently lacked cohesion to achieve that. "Our larger companies have difficulty putting aside their competitive caps when addressing key industry issues. There are also historical, cultural and commercial barriers between some of our larger trade associations, which prevent a unified approach on these issues. But the industry must do better than it is."

Maguire is the sales director of articulated forklift manufacturer Flexi Narrow Aisle Ltd. He was appointed chairman of UKWA in 2011 - the first representative from a company whose core business is not third-party logistics to take up the position.

Founded in 1944, UKWA has over 600 members providing storage and third-party logistics services, and represents the industry to both commerce and government.