Froggy55:
mushroomman:
0I’m sure very few Brits thought the Brexit would lead to such situations. I’m just wondering, I still have my truck driving licence; but, yes of course, I’m French!
Well you might be able to get a job in Belgium, or maybe not. 
gerbil sb152:
I see the stupid government have done it again. Rushi Sunak front page headline food shortage could last for months. Start of more panic bying today then.
Where is that please?
Front page of today’s Daily Mail. 
Just as an aside how about the drongos following the powder tanker for 20/30 miles then pulling onto a building site asking where is the petrol then to cap it all one driver said you should have stopped and told us it’s not petrol ,you couldn’t make it up I was involved at shell E/P in 2000 I took a load into Wales when it had been broken up I pulled onto forecourt there were five roads leading onto site and what made me laugh was a lady in a car got the grand sum of 57pence into her tank.
The fuel distribution job was good when it was in house but from what I see no longer as Hoyer says you are only as good as your last load I had 24yrs with a mini major then through buy outs etc I was pushed out at 53 then went on contracts with a few company’s but got out at 63 had enough would not go back for a gold clock I got the gold watch by the way with the first company
gerbil sb152:
Front page of today’s Daily Mail.
Thanks…doesn`t appear in the online version, or not so far as I can see though? Weird.
Ed to add. found it
dailymail.co.uk/news/articl … onday.html
mushroomman:
Froggy55:
mushroomman:
0I’m sure very few Brits thought the Brexit would lead to such situations. I’m just wondering, I still have my truck driving licence; but, yes of course, I’m French!
Well you might be able to get a job in Belgium, or maybe not.
I must confess I feel very happy being out of the world of work, especially as a driver. I couldn’t stand the idea of being spied on by my boss, mile after mile, and have to give a good reason why I was half a mile away from the planned route. The profession is anything but attractive today; we (in France) aren’t impacted by the Brexit, but finding drivers is more and more difficult and, seriously, we could quite soon feel the effects of shortage too. Moreover I think that, due to the Covid, training courses are suspended here too.
mushroomman:
Froggy55:
mushroomman:
0I’m sure very few Brits thought the Brexit would lead to such situations. I’m just wondering, I still have my truck driving licence; but, yes of course, I’m French!
Well you might be able to get a job in Belgium, or maybe not.
So the same image of empty shelves appears here in the Express
express.co.uk/news/politics … rexit-news
With this
" James Holland, an expert on European Politics, tweeted an image of an empty shelf in the heart of Brussels.
He captioned the image: “Empty shelves in heart of Brussels this morning, with signs saying it is due to logistical problems.”
Well, yes. Because in the original piece we have
“In the meantime, Carrefour shops across Belgium are still experiencing issues following a strike at the Logistics Nivelles distribution centre at the start of the week. While the employees decided to resume work on Thursday and transport company Supertransport also agreed to end the strike, it could take a few days before all Carrefour stores are fully resupplied.”
The Express isn`t exactly lying, but are they giving the whole story?
Just something has sprung to my mind and that fact has not to my knowledge been mentioned on this thread and that is if we are 100,000 lorry drivers short in this country are there 100,000 trucks parked up doing absolutely didley swat, surely if this is the case why are we not hearing stories of companies going bust as in the power industries. Trucks are an expensive commodity to buy and to run so as we all know the wheels must be kept turning else you are done for, Buzzer.
Not sure whether many of you saw Boris’s interview on the news tonight but give him his due he hit the “proverbial” right on the head when he said for far too long some hauliers have depended on the supply of cheaper EE Drivers to keep wages and conditions depressed and it was time for matters to change for the better. Well done Boris I say but lets see it happens although the big operators and the likes of the RHA will kick up a ■■■■ storm but it would appear that they have overplayed their hand by leaking the details of a confidential meeting that has caused the fuel crisis so I reckon the RHA will be excluded from future meetings so their perceived usefulness of having “access” to government departments will be fairly diminished and not before time. Decent smaller operators have never had much difficulty in attracting and keeping hold of Drivers but it is the big players that have had a “kick in the goolies” and Boy are they most unhappy ! Well said Boris so we will hold you to what you said ! Cheers Bewick.
Interesting piece on BBC Breakfast this morning about all this and for once they did not put the blame on Brexit. The whole world is short of staff in general. In particular the USA is short of dock staff and drivers and there are numerous ships full of containers etc waiting off shore to unload in LA.
The Suez incident earlier this year is still having an effect and the lack of semi conductor production in Asia was causing huge problems in the worldwide motor industry in particular.
The Just in Time method methods employed by both manufacturers and retailers was also criticised ie no slack in the system to cope with any sort of delay.
The current UK fuel situation, in my opinion, has been caused by motorists acting like sheep. Personally I have not seen any queues for fuel in the North East but the Sainsbury filling station local to me was closed on Thursday “ awaiting delivery of fuel”
The UK driver problem has been simmering for sometime now, just have to read some of the posts on the driver forums on Trucknet, the lack of roadside facilities, attitude of delivery points and the motoring public to HGV’s and VOSA to name but a few, who would want to be a driver these days.
In my opinion the big retailers and fuel companies who are currently feeling the brunt only have themselves to blame, taking too much notice of the accountants and getting rid of their in house transport operations and then losing control of one of the vital components of their business.
Tyneside
tyneside:
Interesting piece on BBC Breakfast this morning about all this and for once they did not put the blame on Brexit. The whole world is short of staff in general. In particular the USA is short of dock staff and drivers and there are numerous ships full of containers etc waiting off shore to unload in LA.
The Suez incident earlier this year is still having an effect and the lack of semi conductor production in Asia was causing huge problems in the worldwide motor industry in particular.
The Just in Time method methods employed by both manufacturers and retailers was also criticised ie no slack in the system to cope with any sort of delay.
The current UK fuel situation, in my opinion, has been caused by motorists acting like sheep. Personally I have not seen any queues for fuel in the North East but the Sainsbury filling station local to me was closed on Thursday “ awaiting delivery of fuel”The UK driver problem has been simmering for sometime now, just have to read some of the posts on the driver forums on Trucknet, the lack of roadside facilities, attitude of delivery points and the motoring public to HGV’s and VOSA to name but a few, who would want to be a driver these days.
In my opinion the big retailers and fuel companies who are currently feeling the brunt only have themselves to blame, taking too much notice of the accountants and getting rid of their in house transport operations and then losing control of one of the vital components of their business.
Tyneside
Something you said there made me wonder the same thing the other day, are people in power looking at sites like this as the people in power seem to be coming round to what’s being said on here and getting away from the easy ‘it’s brexits fault’ rhetoric.
tyneside:
In my opinion the big retailers and fuel companies who are currently feeling the brunt only have themselves to blame, taking too much notice of the accountants and getting rid of their in house transport operations and then losing control of one of the vital components of their business.Tyneside
Much in what you say there, i still work for an in house operation with proper terms and conditions who treat their staff very well.
No shortage of well motivated appreciated staff, and full control of the operation from start to finish.
Where those who outsourced got things wrong was by failing to realise that a distribution system isn’t a transport or haulage operation, its part and parcel and the front line of customer service, and service still sells.
Hi all, Sir Ian Duncan Smith has just been interviewed on Sky news and said he got hauliers and transport representatives together in 2013 and said what are you going to do about the HGV driver shortage they said they could not get driver’s to take the test, He said the government as a test bought a block of 100 courses so got them cheap they filled all the courses and all passed so when he asked the hauler representative’s why they did not do it they said it was easier and cheaper to get foreign drivers. So on that who’s fault is it.
Forgot to say he was an HGV driver before going into politics.
gerbil sb152:
Forgot to say he was an HGV driver before going into politics.
Is that completely true? I know he took his HGV whilst in the army but haven’t heard anything about actually driving for a living, would be interested to know if he did?
Kempston:
gerbil sb152:
Forgot to say he was an HGV driver before going into politics.Is that completely true? I know he took his HGV whilst in the army but haven’t heard anything about actually driving for a living, would be interested to know if he did?
I heard him being interviewed by JHB on Talk Radio a few days ago and he mentioned he had done a civilian HGV course a few years ago and had a
licence but did not mention which class. He was also doing or had done a motorcycle course to obtain a licence.
Think he is the type of bloke to do things just to say he has done it but at least he is trying to understand how some people have to work.
Checked his profile on Wiki and he was military until the early eighties and he then had several management posts until he got into politics, no mention of HGV driving for a living.
Tyneside
I would have left the Army not long before Ian Duncan Smith and although I had my Class Three many years before this the Army at the time had no facilities, or to be precise anyone qualified as testers, to run Class One courses. With a group of other likeminded soon to be ex squaddies we were sent to a civvie company in Liverpool for our Class One course. Smith may well have done a similar thing I knew of other leaving Officers that done the same they didn’t all have cushy jobs lined up. We were always being told a Class One licence was worth having even if you didn’t intend driving HGV’s immediately on leaving the forces. Of course what they didn’t tell us or know about was the transport industry was going through a bad time so the jobs or decent ones anyway were not always available. A lot different to today’s scene! Franky.
Whoa just read that Iceland has stated that there is panic buying of frozen turkey’s for Christmas already with sales up 410% on the same time as last year and we are only in the beginning of October, what other commodities are the public panic buying for. Good luck to them as I dont give a stuff for turkey far rather have Beef, what a crazy world we are in Buzzer.
Buzzer:
Whoa just read that Iceland has stated that there is panic buying of frozen turkey’s for Christmas already with sales up 410% on the same time as last year and we are only in the beginning of October, what other commodities are the public panic buying for. Good luck to them as I dont give a stuff for turkey far rather have Beef, what a crazy world we are in Buzzer.
It is crazy. Pigs being killed because of a lack of butchers…
Buzzer:
Whoa just read that Iceland has stated that there is panic buying of frozen turkey’s for Christmas already with sales up 410% on the same time as last year and we are only in the beginning of October, what other commodities are the p1ublic panic buying for. Good luck to them as I dont give a stuff for turkey far rather have Beef, what a crazy world we are in Buzzer.
Yep me too Buzzer , i don’t like Turkey it’s fowl.
