Petrol (NG) | Page 4 | Vital Football

Petrol (NG)

shotshy said:
I’m wary about the claims of Eu drivers leaving the U.K. in droves.
Sure, there would have been some but nowhere near the current alleged shortage.
In my opinion it’s much more down to the tax change, older drivers giving up and the simple fact that it’s not an attractive job.
We had hotelier on local tv recently claiming Brexit for lack of staff and the interviewer asked how many foreign staff he usually employed and he admitted none, but he was short staffed because his usual staff had gone elsewhere for more money because other places who usually employed Europeans hadn’t because of Brexit. ????
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We had 8 foreign drivers working for our company pre brexit/covid but now only have two.

It's a combination of things that have made them all "go home". The Ir35 is one, brexit, drivers having to decide early on in covid whether they wanted to be here working or back home with their families, the financial benefits of them working here as opposed to back home are not as great as they were.

Being an HGV driver normally means long days, days and in the foreign drivers cases weeks and sometimes months away from familynights in your truck, struggling to find somewhere to park up safely and legally for the night and find toilets/shower facilities that aren't cesspit. A real glamorous attractive job.

As for the current driver shortage there is no easy quick fix if people don't want to do the job. It's not just HGV drivers, the whlle transport sector are struggling to recruit drivers at all levels.

The licence and training required all add to the length of time and cost to get someone able to drive an HGV. At our place we've currently got 4 drivers going through the training process but none are expected to be on the road on their own until the early part of next year and they started their training in July.
 
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Trashbat said:
Seems the government is finally acknowledging that there is a supply chain problem and will ask those horrible foreigners to come and help us out.
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Hooray!

Does beg the question though, what do the 4.7 million EU nationals that have pre-settled status (out of 3.4'million that were here) actually do? Seems like the lorry drivers went home?

Shame the boat people are all doctors and engineers, could do with some HGV drivers!
 
I found this interesting .. Jim Titheridge, an ex-trucker, writes on FB :

« ….....There isn’t actually a shortage of drivers, what we have, is a shortage of people who can drive, that are not willing to drive any more. You might wonder why that is. I can’t answer for all drivers, but I can give you the reason I no longer drive. Driving was something I always yearned to do as a young boy........... I had that vision of being a knight of the roads, bringing the goods to everyone, providing a service everyone needed. What I didn’t take into account was the absolute abuse my profession would get over the years...I have seen a massive decline in the respect this trade has ........
Compare France to the UK. I can park in nearly every town or village, they have marked truck parking bays, and somewhere nearby, will be a small routier, where I can get a meal and a shower, the locals respect me, and have no problems with me or my truck being there for the night.
Go out onto the motorway services, and I can park for no cost, go into the service area, and get a shower for a minimal cost, and have freshly cooked food, I even get to jump the queues, because others know that my time is limited, and respect I am there because it is my job. Add to that, I even get a 20% discount of all I purchase.......
(in the UK) Not only have we been rejected from our towns and cities, but we have also suffered massive pay cuts, because of the influx of foreign drivers willing to work for a wage that is high (compared to) where they come from, companies eagerly recruited from the eastern bloc, who can blame them, why pay good money when you can get cheap labour, and a never ending supply of it as well. Never mind that their own countries would suffer from a shortage themselves, that was never our problem, they could always get people from further afield if they needed drivers.....
We were once seen as knights of the road, now we are seen as the lepers of society. Why would anyone want to go back to that?.................. »
 
We could transform the working lives of truckers and entice the leavers back if we were prepared to throw enough resources at the problem. The tens of thousands of returnees would then leave gaps in other trades, perhaps building. The shortage of care workers is also acute but that doesn't touch us as much, yet. Lots of people have had lots of time to review their lives and consider what is and isn't worth doing.
 
seems a very male dominated industry too. Is enough being done to entice females into becoming HGV drivers?
 
We managed to keep our business operational all throughout COVID but as I won’t have any diesel available come Monday or Tuesday I will have to stand everyone down.

going to kill me
 
Trashbat said:
Seems the government is finally acknowledging that there is a supply chain problem and will ask those horrible foreigners to come and help us out.
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Would allowing EU-based HGV drivers to work in the UK add to pressure on housing ?
Presumably not so much.
So it's worth a try.
 
Sturdy Gill said:
We managed to keep our business operational all throughout COVID but as I won’t have any diesel available come Monday or Tuesday I will have to stand everyone down.

going to kill me
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Sturdy Gill said:
We managed to keep our business operational all throughout COVID but as I won’t have any diesel available come Monday or Tuesday I will have to stand everyone down.

going to kill me
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That must drive you nuts. Good luck.
 
This whole panic buying petrol shit was started by a BP spokesperson telling the BBC that they were having some supply issues to " a few of its 1200 sites".

What the Bristish public don't seem to be able to comprehend is that there is no more of a shortage of tanker drivers this week than there was last week or will be for the next few weeks, yet there was no fuel crisis last week and panic buying then.

Seems there are alot of people in this country who really need saving from their own stupidity.
 
Captainreblue said:
This whole panic buying petrol shit was started by a BP spokesperson telling the BBC that they were having some supply issues to " a few of its 1200 sites".

What the Bristish public don't seem to be able to comprehend is that there is no more of a shortage of tanker drivers this week than there was last week or will be for the next few weeks, yet there was no fuel crisis last week and panic buying then.

Seems there are alot of people in this country who really need saving from their own stupidity.
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"Seems there are alot of people in this country who really need saving from their own stupidity."

Or selfishness.......or greed etc etc
 
Arthurly said:




Gavin Esler

@gavinesler
·
21h

Just checked with friends in Germany - they have no fuel shortages, no acute HGV driver shortages, no empty supermarket shelves, no gas crisis, no panic buying. “But we also have no Brexit,” as one of them pointed out.
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Yeah right !
Trans Info says that there is a 65,000 HGV shortage in Germany and 124,000 shortage in Poland.
The middle class were always against leaving the Eu and will grasp at any passing straw.
😂
 
Captainreblue said:
This whole panic buying petrol shit was started by a BP spokesperson telling the BBC that they were having some supply issues to " a few of its 1200 sites".

What the Bristish public don't seem to be able to comprehend is that there is no more of a shortage of tanker drivers this week than there was last week or will be for the next few weeks, yet there was no fuel crisis last week and panic buying then.

Seems there are alot of people in this country who really need saving from their own stupidity.
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I wonder the BP spokesperson then spent the rest of the day contacting BP garages to tell them to increase the price at the pumps
 
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