
DAF Trucks has announced proposals to cut 250 jobs from its Leyland, Lancs factory, a fifth of the site’s workforce, blaming a dramatic slowdown in the demand for new trucks.
This follows an announcement at the end of October that it was to cut the night shift at the plant, although it said that most of the lay-offs would be amongst temporary workers.
The truck maker has now started a 90-day consultation with unions over the lay-offs, which would take effect from February 2009.
DAF spokesman Tony Pain says: “Ironically it’s on the back of a couple of the best months for registrations that we’ve had for a long, long time.
“But this is a response to where we all fear the market will be next year. All our forecast are looking pretty gloomy.
“It will be a drastic reduction from where we have been of late – a lot of people are just not buying trucks.”
The Leyland plant assembles the entire DAF range for the UK market, plus some XFs for export.
Job losses at LDV
Birmingham-based van manufacturer LDV is also to cut 90 production jobs. A spokesman attributes the decision to falling demand for the Maxus, especially in Russia and Eastern Europe.