The Hidden Hiring Costs Transport Operators Don’t Measure
An Insight by Gavin Harris (Simple Recruitment Services) In transport and logistics, margins are tight, compliance is unforgiving, and operational disruption is expensive. Every decision is scrutinised for cost and efficiency -- except, often, the one that underpins everything else: who we hire, and how.
Most UK operators can clearly track spend on fuel, maintenance, insurance and fleet. Far fewer can confidently measure the true cost of a poor hire -- or link that cost back to the hiring process itself. Yet many of the issues leaders face today, from high turnover to safety incidents and compliance breaches, are often downstream effects of recruitment decisions that looked efficient on paper but proved costly in reality.
Hiring costs are usually measured in visible terms: advertising spend, agency fees, time-to-hire, salary and onboarding. What's harder to quantify are the secondary costs that appear after a hire starts. UK research across logistics and safety-critical sectors estimates the cost of a poor hire at 30-50% of annual salary, rising significantly once disruption, rehiring and compliance exposure are included.
These costs are most visible in the first 90 days. Early attrition of 20-30% remains common across UK transport roles, rarely due to technical competence alone. Misaligned expectations around shifts, routes, workload, training and support are more often the cause.
When a hire fails early, the cost extends far beyond replacement -- overtime increases, agency cover returns, service levels suffer and management time is drained. Volume-based hiring has accelerated in recent years, driven by simplified application processes and online platforms. But higher application numbers do not automatically lead to better outcomes.
Research consistently links high-volume channels to lower candidate intent, higher no-show rates and increased early attrition -- shifting inefficiency further down the operation. One of the most underestimated costs is leadership time. Poorly aligned hires require disproportionate management attention, pulling supervisors away from safety, compliance and forward planning.
Over time, this contributes to wider team frustration and additional attrition. Evidence across the sector shows that how people are hired matters as much as how quickly. Clear role communication, realistic job previews and screening for intent consistently deliver stronger early retention and performance -- even when the process appears slower upfront.
As the transport and logistics sector faces another year of tight margins and regulatory pressure, one question is worth asking: If hiring success were measured by retention, safety and performance rather than speed and volume, would we make the same decisions about how we hire? For many operators, the answer may explain why recruitment still feels harder -- and more expensive -- than it should.
About the Author
Gavin Harris is a recruitment specialist at Simple Recruitment Services, working with UK transport and logistics operators to build stable, high-performing teams through outcome-focused hiring.
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