Are lorry drivers (or lack of) having an effect on any of your regular supplies?

Dan · Sep 7, 2021

HGV driver shortage: UK firms embark on the long road to plug the gap

Logistics sector ups its recruitment and training effort but big obstacles lie ahead

www.theguardian.com

Food, beer, toys, medical kit. Why is Britain running out of everything?

Poor pay and conditions for HGV drivers and the loss of many thousands of EU workers are plunging the UKs supply chain into crisis

www.theguardian.com

Minister urges firms to invest in UK-based workers in HGV driver shortage

Business secretary reported as saying foreign labour only offers ‘temporary solution’ as companies face supply chain crisis

www.theguardian.com

I keep reading news, hearing on radio and seeing on telly that the lack of lorry drivers is having more and more of an impact on our daily lives and wont stop any time soon. I was wondering if any of you guys and gals have felt this with suppliers running out of anything you use regularly?

Heard anything through the grapevine?

Started to stock up on basic things you use often to help get around this over Christmas etc?

westward10 · Oct 4, 2021

What has any of this to do with the thread question. There is a politics section on here if you wish to argue the pants off each other.

FatAlan · Oct 4, 2021

True. Only that the current HGV crisis is down to Brexit. ?

loz2754 · Oct 4, 2021

FatAlan said:
True. Only that the current HGV crisis is down to Brexit. ?

Which, again, is nothing to do with the OP question....

telectrix · Oct 4, 2021

FatAlan said:
True. Only that the current HGV crisis is down to Brexit. ?

Rubbish. It's down to pre-Brexit foreign migrant drivers prepared to work for minimum wage drove wages down below survival level for British drivers with families and mortgages, so they left to seek a decent wage. now the foreign drivers have largely gone back home, there's a shortage.

UNG · Oct 5, 2021

FatAlan said:
True. Only that the current HGV crisis is down to Brexit. ?

I think you need to change your information source
The UK has a large number of class 1 HGV licence holders who have licences that have lapsed as they left the industry when the wage rates were driven down to such uneconomic levels that they could earn more elsewhere

littlespark · Oct 5, 2021

It’s ok….the temporary visas have been a success and there’s an army of foreign (or at least non-uk) drivers coming to save Christmas!

An army of….. um…… 137!

That’ll fix things. ?

telectrix · Oct 5, 2021

sod it' i going out to shoot my own xmas dinner. 2 pheasants and a goose should do.

Dan · Oct 5, 2021

Zerax said:
Best not to start a panic buying frenzy... look where the petrol rumours got us !

Even the Government have said here will be food shortages over Christmas mate.

You do you, I'll do me.

Got a family to feed here. I'll be stocking up every week from now till then. Worst case scenario I can't move around a room in my house for a few months in 2022 but barely need to shop for a few months too.

snowhead · Oct 5, 2021

littlespark said:
It’s ok….the temporary visas have been a success and there’s an army of foreign (or at least non-uk) drivers coming to save Christmas!

An army of….. um…… 137!

That’ll fix things. ?

137 have applied, claiming to be tanker drivers, that doesn't mean they've been approved or granted a Visa.
That would be subject to I.D confirmation, background checks, criminal record checks etc.

You could probably wipe out half the applicants.

Once they've got a Visa they've then got to be assessed by a fuel distribution company before being employed.
I'd expect they'd want proof of previous employment as a fuel tanker driver and evidence of driving a Right hand drive lorry in the U.K.

You can now wipe the rest of them out, they'll end up driving skip lorries.

If they were worth employing they wouldn't have to travel nearly 2000 miles through all the countries in the E.U with driver shortages just to get a job.

FatAlan · Oct 5, 2021

telectrix said:
Rubbish. It's down to pre-Brexit foreign migrant drivers prepared to work for minimum wage drove wages down below survival level for British drivers with families and mortgages, so they left to seek a decent wage. now the foreign drivers have largely gone back home, there's a shortage.

So basically you’re saying that they’ve gone home due to Brexit! ?? QED.

mattg4321 · Oct 5, 2021

Mostly they’ve gone back due to covid and conditions and pay improving relative to the U.K. over the past decade or so

Don't blame Brexit for shortages

It was lockdown that drove out foreign workers

unherd.com

FatAlan · Oct 5, 2021

mattg4321 said:
Mostly they’ve gone back due to covid and conditions and pay improving relative to the U.K. over the past decade or so

Yep, COVID acted like a catalyst to the labour effects of Brexit. Eastern Europe has been levelling up over the past few years. Will be interesting to see how the service sector copes now restaurants and bars are opening up. Lots of jobs going for chefs, waiters and bar staff.

mattg4321 · Oct 5, 2021

The consumer will have to pay a little more (have restaurant food prices even gone up in the past 10-15 years?). It’s probably an example of a sector where prices have become unsustainably low due to a reliance on cheap labour.

People who are working full time should not be getting benefits. They should be getting paid a fair wage to live on. The taxpayer shouldn’t be subsidising low wages, just to enable people to eat out artificially cheaply.