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... 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.
 
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'.
 
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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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 suspect this is the case elsewhere as well. The effects of advertisement and social media 'influencers' reinforces a sense of entitlement that jobs should be easy and well paid and not require hard work studying to get there, etc. And not just today's youth, I see the same in some of my fellow 50s age-range mates :(
 
Perfect storm of COVID, Brexit & shipping issues. Business is business and in it to make a profit. It will pay as little as it can get away with. Lack of labour will just lead to shortages. This will be followed by increase in wages and higher prices which will cancel out any benefit of wage increases. It will be interesting to see if an increase in wages will alleviate the shortage of workers. I suspect immigration will be relaxed as per post war, as the current Tory pay masters will still want to make their billions with cheaper labour or any labour at all for that matter. Yet to see any benefit of Brexit though!
 
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.
You can't continually blame Brexit which happened over 20 months ago as the prime cause. The upturn after the pandemic shut down is responsible for a lot problem where drivers have moved into other jobs and industries when a lot of shops and suppliers were closed during the lockdowns
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.
Your comment shows how little you know about the transport industry, there are a lot of things that money can't and won't fix and I suspect the UK driver shortage is one of them
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!
There are a lot of self employed drivers out there funding their own training but not making the rates to recover the outlay , then there is also the agency drivers and dig into it a bit deeper and some of them only choose to work occasional shifts alongside their normal job but since the introduction of the driver CPC and the drop in pay rates a lot have been lost

It would be interesting to know how many non active HGV drivers there actually are in the UK and ask them why they no longer drive to earn their living
 
It’s weird how we are allegedly desperate for EU workers to fill the job vacancies we currently have, yet we have 900k people on furlough paid for by the taxpayer…

And to be honest we have plenty of people who could do this sort of work, but who are quite happy to sit on their backsides and claim benefits.
 
And to be honest we have plenty of people who could do this sort of work, but who are quite happy to sit on their backsides and claim benefits.
I think that’s when things will get interesting. Will those 900k fill the gap when they come off furlough? I suspect not. Can’t see them filling all the HGV places, production line spaces, harvesting spaces, service industry spaces. Trades and building will also be interesting. Previous governments push to get all and sundry qualified in meaningless degrees rather than providing decent apprenticeships has left a big gap in home grown trades skills.
 
Most of my friends do jobs that I have no idea if they are actually necessary. It seems difficult to explain and quantify what they actually do and how productive that is. I guess it must be otherwise they would soon be gone, but I find it hard to get my around!

It's sometimes difficult to grasp things like this when you are looking from the outside I think.
 
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.

This is what I've long appreciated about Lidl - they sell a standard version and a more upmarket version, which is plenty of choice for anyone. Who needs 23 different types of beans?

Recently I noticed that two versions of Bahco utility knife were marketed as 'good' and 'better', which made me smile.

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.

My sister and her husband own a bakery and have been on their knees this years as they can not get staff - this problem runs from unskilled right through to bakers. People have crazy ideas about how much they should earn as sitting at home already pays a very decent 'wage'.

It’s weird how we are allegedly desperate for EU workers to fill the job vacancies we currently have, yet we have 900k people on furlough paid for by the taxpayer…

Hopefully this will shake up a few people, but a significant number of furloughed staff could have worked another job while still retaining their furlough pay.

Until such times as people have a real incentive to work, a lot will prefer to not bother.
 

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