You would think that the last 30 years, which have seen the biggest employment sectors move abroad, would have put the brakes on our haulage industry.
The coal mining, metal bashing and car building of the 1970s, as well as some of the lighter manufacturing, may have been exported to Eastern Europe or Asia, but such developments have proved to be anything but the death knell for businesses which move goods from one part of the country to another.
In fact, it’s been all hands to the steering wheel as the nation’s demand for cheaper consumer goods, such as DVDs, clothes and cameras, rocketed.
Getting them from their arrival point, the ports, to depot and on to shops has seen the haulage business hold its own in the changing UK economy.
That’s not to gloss over the challenges it’s encountered upon the way, the most recent of course being economic global recession.
Today’s operators now have to take into account rocketing petrol prices and rising fuel duty - accounting for about 25% of their running costs - the need to keep abreast of a highly regulated industry and the threat of new road tolls and charges across the country.
Clearly it’s not a truckbed of roses but, even in the face of continuing competition from Eastern Europe, the UK road haulage industry is carrying more than 80% of all domestic freight, says the Road Haulage Association (RHA).
Roughly two-thirds of this is carried by 'hire or reward' operators - 'third party' businesses which transport other companies' products around the country - the rest are corporates big enough to run their own logistics and freight divisions.
The haulage industry comprises about 52,000 businesses, operating around 425,000 vehicles with more than 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight. There are approximately 104,000 holders of operating licences.
There are a few sector ‘giants’, but haulage tends to be a sector for the smaller operator with 87% of businesses having only five or fewer vehicles, according to the RHA.
Motoring through three decades of economic transformation has also meant change on a technological scale probably unimagined by many.
Today’s haulage firm can follow its vehicles’progress on a computer screen, knowing its exact location in any part of the world, thanks to GPS devices.
Other technology can give insights into how a vehicle’s driven, which can lead to cost savings on fuel and insurance premiums while mapping software and sat nav can help the drivers reach destinations often via the fastest route.
Even cameras are being applied to dashboards to help reduce insurance costs and protect drivers from fraudulent claims. Some companies have found their slow-moving vehicles to be deliberately targeted by other drivers crashing into the back.
But there’s one further development to be documented from the last 30 years. Remember that advert with the hunky lorry driver manfully stretching for the chunky chap-sized chocolate?
Today, it’s more likely a woman who’s reaching from behind the wheel for that bruising bar.
Of the transport and logistics sector’s 2.2 million workforce, 25% are women, while the number holding senior positions has grown to a substantial figure. There’s also an increasing amount of female managers, drivers, engineers, transport office and staff in all disciplines.
The image of truck operation as a man’s world is long gone and the drive is on to attract even more women to the industry.
Chairman of the Freight Logistics Industry Image Group Geoff Dossetter says: “The list of political and public appointments relating to transport and logistics and held by women, together with the growing numbers of senior operating managers, should help to dispel the long out-of-date concept of our industry as a ‘men-only’world.”
Group member Kate Gibbs from the RHA adds: “The achievement of so many women should act as an encouragement to all. Logistics is an equal-opportunity sector and the sky is the limit for talented and enthusiastic women.”
Women’s successes within the industry are celebrated still further with the Freight Transport Association’s (FTA) Everywoman Transport and Logistics Awards 2014. Held on May 13, they are now in their seventh year.
FTA Chief Executive, Theo de Pencier says: “The key for the freight and transport industry is to access a wider talent pool so it can meet its need for good quality staff in whichever role it needs to fill.
“We have to reach out to all parts of the community and, in particular, to women, to recruit and retain the best and to enable all of our organisations and businesses to flourish.”