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

[nicebutdim]

... when our income is falling becuase we've lost virtually half our export market, costs of importing from US/Asia will increase too due to a weaker currency. I'm afraid its inescapable the impact Brexit will have

I suspect others may have misinterpreted your comment to mean the pound has weakened, when you mean exports are down due to weaker currencies in the US & Asia?

Apart from the fact that we were told that the pound would fall through the floor after brexit (another prediction that failed to materialise), I'm not sure that anyone could have predicted the impact Covid has had on markets worldwide.

Another issue affecting the $ is the current US administration. While Trump was disliked by many, sometimes with good reason and sometimes not, his policies certainly strengthed the US economy (covid notwithstanding). In recent times the opposite has been happening and cost of living is spiraling out of control in many states - when people have to spend twice as much on essential products, purchases of luxuries and imported goods tend to fall.

 

[nicebutdim]

Don't forget the 400+ other ships that were stuck waiting for the Suez Canal to reopen and subsequently missed their port slots, one of my customers who works in shipping reckons it will take many months before it returns to something like normal

I believe they had a number of containers on the ship in question, but it was the knock on effect I was referring to with the term 'as a result of'.

 

[chrisdungan]

We're getting supply shortages down here in New Zealand. Covid has really screwed our shipping supply chains

 

[pc1966]

How about all the UK drivers leaving the industry I know around 10 ex HGV drivers who even with some of the £20+/hr rates being offered have no interest in going back to driving HGV's

That is the underlying problem, a lack of UK drivers, so the immediate impact of Brexit has been to expose this as we (the UK) had been getting by with their services.

It will take a lot of changes to make HGV driving attractive as a career. The increase in pay is one thing, but it is a lot more than that as they have limited services like parking and access to toilets/showers/etc (and less now than 10-20 years ago) hence the "tramping life" you mention. That too can be fixed with more money, and probably it will be, so we just have to get used to higher costs and many years to fix it.

I find it unlikely that "5 days of training required over 5 years to keep the Driver CP" is a real issue, no more than spraks having to update for each new edition of the regs. If an employer can't find the time & money to deal with 0.5% time spent training, they certainly won't fix the other issues HGV drivers face!

 

[Deleted account]

On a more serious note.
the news just showed a daffodil farmer saying the daffodil industry will be no more in this country if he can’t get foreign cheap labour.

cheap foreign labour. That says it all.

obviously we all will be devastated at the lack of daffodils in the future,

however I came up with a brilliant idea. Put wages up to a more realistic level (above minimum wage for starters) and employ British out of work people.

charge more for your daffodils to pay for the wage increase. If the daffodils don’t sell at the higher price your business is not viable, and never has been without paying under the minimum wage to foreign workers.

 

[telectrix]

The cordless lawnmower I was trying to purchase from Screwfix is out of stock due to Brexit.

 

[pc1966]

charge more for your daffodils to pay for the wage increase. If the daffodils don’t sell at the higher price your business is not viable, and never has been without paying under the minimum wage to foreign workers.

Ah, but we (as in the nation) want cheap sh*t and at the same time we somehow want well-paid jobs.

 

[snowhead]

Ah, but we (as in the nation) want cheap sh*t and at the same time we somehow want well-paid jobs.

And the same WE apparently want 300 different types of Olive Oil always available on supermarket shelves as well as 50000 trim / model variations of any model of car and vans and lorries it appears as well.

Wait till the loony anti meat brigade get their way, they'll be wanting 100000 different types of lettuce and nuts.

 

[James]

On a more serious note.
the news just showed a daffodil farmer saying the daffodil industry will be no more in this country if he can’t get foreign cheap labour.

cheap foreign labour. That says it all.

obviously we all will be devastated at the lack of daffodils in the future,

however I came up with a brilliant idea. Put wages up to a more realistic level (above minimum wage for starters) and employ British out of work people.

charge more for your daffodils to pay for the wage increase. If the daffodils don’t sell at the higher price your business is not viable, and never has been without paying under the minimum wage to foreign workers.

I know several factories that are trying to recruit semi skilled people for above minimum wage jobs.
most of them are saying, they can’t get people and the locals just don’t want to work.

 

[Dan]

I know several factories that are trying to recruit semi skilled people for above minimum wage jobs.
most of them are saying, they can’t get people and the locals just don’t want to work.

I hear that a bit. Not much talent local too when it comes to minimum wage people. Usually got overseas workers because they want to work.