UK broker and lender Ultimate Finance has provided an invoice finance facility of £750,000 (1,019,000) to Scottish driver recruitment firm NAS Recruitment Services.
According to the recruiter, which provides temporary heavy goods vehicle drivers to major retailers and haulage companies, the facility will help combat "driver shortage".
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The finance facility has freed up capital to enable the company to launch its own on-site training to help new recruits pass their Class Two or Category C entitlement, which qualifies them to drive rigid vehicles over 7.5 tons and up to 32 tons. The company said that it intends to add a Class One vehicle later in the year, to enable drivers to move up to a full Class One licence.
Managing director of NAS Scotland, Richard Colwell, said: "Driving HGVs is becoming more difficult as more regulations are heaped on the industry. A European Union directive some years ago has made it compulsory for all drivers to have a Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) certification.
"By providing Driver CPC training free of charge in-house to drivers working for us, and by offering additional training and instruction at a much-reduced rate, we can attract new drivers by helping them to develop and sustain a worthwhile career as a HGV driver.
"We were previously with a high street lender which provided a weekly draw down facility and payroll services. However they were inflexible and communication was poor: we always felt that we were not treated as a customer and that we were expected to fit around their procedures, rather than them adapting their procedures to the needs of our business."
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