The idiocy (and selfishness) of panic buying

[kaz7]

I've known a few drivers lead other lives behind there wives/girlfriends backs whilst out tramping for weeks on end.

Suppose having that freedom is a perk to some. Takes all kinds I suppose. Joking aside him being that way would suggest he's a bit of a twat and it couldn't have been nice finding out.

Cheating with my friend/neighbour for a year did for us, if he could do that on our doorstep god knows what happened on the road !

 

[Scottyboi]

On the day I started there were 8 of us I was the only English one and the only tradesman quick tour of the factory and on with the job one of the Polish lads 20 mins later was using the rip saw (unsafely) no training he didn't speak English so I couldn't help.

Same as me mate I was the only joiner, 1 week later I was fitting air brake systems on the chassis.

 

[Tuearts right boot]

The second mr k was a lorry driver , he loved it , in truth though he was a bit of a loner, always packed his food and brought him one of those early portable telly things , he liked sleeping out in the lorry , if he did as he turned out to be a cheat , didnt murder anyone that i know of though

We have fucked ourself with brexit and other things , the gov has been told for months this would happen but did nowt and now have to react to another crisis instead of getting ahead of it , as usual

What has your ex husband playing away from home got to do with Brexit...;)

 

[kaz7]

What has your ex husband playing away from home got to do with Brexit...;)

Everything in life is his fault lol

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Exactly. It's a forgotten industry that's been allowed to rot. Everyone wants what they want and they want it now at the cheapest possible price so that has contributed to low wages and long hours.

I fell into HGV work and liked it but I can see why many wouldn't consider it. Your average HGV job even with better pay won't attract youngsters because your average HGV job has you working long , ,unsociable hours and asks you to be 'flexible' which means sleep in your truck if required.

You also have to be very comfortable in your own company, not much work bantz, work get together and certainly no nice looking girls to chase on a work night out.

I have heard from someone in the health game that it is really bad for your heart too. Sitting in the same position all day.

 

[wayne71]

The second mr k was a lorry driver , he loved it , in truth though he was a bit of a loner, always packed his food and brought him one of those early portable telly things , he liked sleeping out in the lorry , if he did as he turned out to be a cheat , didnt murder anyone that i know of

Poor bastard forced to live in a lorry too scared to come home.

 

[RACHACE]

I have heard from someone in the health game that it is really bad for your heart too. Sitting in the same position all day.

A lot of container drivers don't look the healthiest to be honest. Again though, other sectors within the industry will require you to do a bit of graft other than driving the vehicle so there are a lot of HGV drivers that are healthy, maybe even trim lol.

I've noticed a few truckstops putting gym equipment in for HGV drivers that are away from home to use. Never seen one get used mind.

 

[RACHACE]

Cheating with my friend/neighbour for a year did for us, if he could do that on our doorstep god knows what happened on the road !

Sorry to hear that Kaz. People can be twats

 

[Protein Junkie]

There was a HGV shortage long before Covid or Brexit.
I understand it costs a lot of money to undertake training and it’s not conducive to a happy family life.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

TI's data is 2020 before the full effect of the HGV going home has taken place. Like I said old figures show me the new ones

Did you even bother to read my entire post?

That TSI data was one part of a number of figures and sources I posted. One even broke down the figures by each quarter this year (2021).

And even just on that one bit of data, do you think the 45,000 shortage Germany had in 2020, with them projecting it will get worse by 28,000 a year, is now sorted? Do you think the growing problem of shortages in Poland that’s been an issue since the late 00s has all of a sudden gone when they had a 124,000 shortage just last year?

Blaming the loss of 15,000 drivers due to Brexit for the driver shortage in the UK, is like blaming one Mars bar for feeling sick when you’ve eaten 20 cream cakes.

Yes, it bad we’ve lost 15,00 EU drivers due to Brexit, but that’s only 6.4% of our driver pool in this country. 20,000 UK drivers have retired in the last two years, overall we’ve lost 60,000 UK drivers in the same period we’ve lost 15,000 EU drivers, and we’ve got 230,000 UK HGV licence holders under the age of 45 not doing HGV driving jobs at the moment.

And the driver shortage issue, Europe-wide, has been a growing problem for the last 15 years. It’s not just all-of-a-sudden popped up on us. Nobody had ever heard of the word Brexit when this entire continent issue started.

 

[meltonblue]

Did you even bother to read my entire post?

That TSI data was one part of a number of figures and sources I posted. And even just on that one bit of data, do you think the 45,000 shortage Germany had in 2020, with them projecting it will get worse by 28,000 a year, is now sorted?!

Blaming the loss of 15,000 drivers due to Brexit for the driver shortage in the UK, is like blaming one Mars bar for feeling sick when you’ve eaten 20 cream cakes.

Yes, it bad we’ve lost 15,00 drivers due to Brexit, but 20,000 UK drivers have retired in the last two years, overall we’ve lost 60,000 UK drivers in the same period we’ve lost 15,000 EU drivers, and we’ve got 230,000 UK HGV drivers under the age of 45 not doing HGV driving jobs at the moment.

And the driver shortage issue, Europe-wide, has been a growing problem for the last 15 years. It’s not just all-of-a-sudden popped up on us.

Agree with a lot of that. Does need to be said that brexit has also caused some of the impacts felt by the driver shortage to be larger here than on the continent too though, in terms of both trying to fill that void and efficiency in the supply chain.

 

[Blue Mist]

Agree with a lot of that. Does need to be said that brexit has also caused some of the impacts felt by the driver shortage to be larger here than on the continent too though, in terms of both trying to fill that void and efficiency in the supply chain.

How did Brexit cause 5 BP petrol stations to close, 5 out of 8,380 ?

Just askin'

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Agree with a lot of that. Does need to be said that brexit has also caused some of the impacts felt by the driver shortage to be larger here than on the continent too though, in terms of both trying to fill that void and efficiency in the supply chain.

We’ve got to get to the root cause of this issue to be able to fix it… and that’s working conditions, pay, hours, quality of life on the road, holidays, treatment of staff by employers etc. to stop this rot in this industry that been turning people away from this profession in their hundreds of thousands over the last 15 years.

 

[meltonblue]

How did Brexit cause 5 BP petrol stations to close, 5 out of 8,380 ?

Just askin'

Didn’t say it did, I was responding to a comment about the driver shortage and pointing out there’s additional factors why the consequences of it aren’t similar everywhere.

You’re going to get people making the link though when one of the immediate measures the government do to react is introducing temporary visas. For this particular government to do that I still find odd, especially as I don’t think it’ll make any difference to either the current challenges or the bigger problem of the driver shortage at all.

 

[meltonblue]

We’ve got to get to the root cause of this issue to be able to fix it… and that’s working conditions, pay, hours, quality of life on the road, holidays, treatment of staff by employers etc. to stop this rot in this industry that been turning people away from this profession in their hundreds of thousands over the last 15 years.

Completely agree.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

A lot of container drivers don't look the healthiest to be honest. Again though, other sectors within the industry will require you to do a bit of graft other than driving the vehicle so there are a lot of HGV drivers that are healthy, maybe even trim lol.

I've noticed a few truckstops putting gym equipment in for HGV drivers that are away from home to use. Never seen one get used mind.

The temptation of a junk food extravaganza must be too much for some. To be honest I would have problems with that. I’d take a nice healthy packed lunch and end up having a Whopper, fries and Coke the minute I stopped off :-)

 

[Corky]

We’ve got to get to the root cause of this issue to be able to fix it… and that’s working conditions, pay, hours, quality of life on the road, holidays, treatment of staff by employers etc. to stop this rot in this industry that been turning people away from this profession in their hundreds of thousands over the last 15 years.

Drivers used to like longer hours as it meant more money. A class 2 driver doubled manned could work 88 hours a week before the WTD, imagine going from that to 48 hrs and the drop in pay.

 

[RACHACE]

Drivers used to like longer hours as it meant more money. A class 2 driver doubled manned could work 88 hours a week before the WTD, imagine going from that to 48 hrs and the drop in pay.

I don't know a single driver that liked to work 88 hours a week mate.

A 12 hour shift is enough for anyone but the trouble is that the reality in some sectors of the industry is that your planner will have you planned for a 15 hour shift at least 3 times a week. If you get to a job that takes 3 hours or longer to unload and you've had your tacho set to break, you can do a 15 hour shift 5 times a week and still work a Saturday if needed. Some employers expect you to be willing to work those hours and some do it although they moan about 'having' to do it.

The recent temporary extension to driving time in some sectors of the industry was laughable and clearly thought up by clowns that don't do the job or seemingly give a toss about the safety of the driver or the public. Tiredness can kill you see plastered on boards when approaching service stations on the motorways. I'd take a punt that some of the most tired drivers on our motorways are the ones driving 44 tonne trucks after 14-15 hours work yet this current predicament we're in has the bright sparks who make the decisions thinking it's a great idea to have drivers working more hours.

Reform is needed and has been needed for a very long time. Nothing will change though.

 

[Corky]

I don't know a single driver that liked to work 88 hours a week mate.

A 12 hour shift is enough for anyone but the trouble is that the reality in some sectors of the industry is that your planner will have you planned for a 15 hour shift at least 3 times a week. If you get to a job that takes 3 hours or longer to unload and you've had your tacho set to break, you can do a 15 hour shift 5 times a week and still work a Saturday if needed. Some employers expect you to be willing to work those hours and some do it although they moan about 'having' to do it.

The recent temporary extension to driving time in some sectors of the industry was laughable and clearly thought up by clowns that don't do the job or seemingly give a toss about the safety of the driver or the public. Tiredness can kill you see plastered on boards when approaching service stations on the motorways. I'd take a punt that some of the most tired drivers on our motorways are the ones driving 44 tonne trucks after 14-15 hours work yet this current predicament we're in has the bright sparks who make the decisions thinking it's a great idea to have drivers working more hours.

Reform is needed and has been needed for a very long time. Nothing will change though.

They all quit when the hours were reduced due to the WTD. These were 7.5 tonne with 2 in the cab and they could sleep a lot of time. Most were keen to work close to maximum hours, and set off at 3am to Thurso so they could get the overnight allowance. Maybe some wanted as many hours as they could get, and others who didn't wouldn't work there.

 

[Coatigan]

How did Brexit cause 5 BP petrol stations to close, 5 out of 8,380 ?

Just askin'

Whatever the actual number of petrol stations without fuel, and the actual shortage, which is clearly extensive, Brexit has caused the current problem. By rapidly speeding up an issue, of shortage of labour and in particular drivers, to a point it has become unmanageable. Which was warned of consistently. Labour, as well as goods and materials, in many other sectors as well.

I actually agree with your repeated and ongoing point, on this thread getting heavily focused on brexit arguements. As much as I'm all for leavers seeing these I told you sos and maybe even considering the outcomes, ultimately I'm on this thread for videos of muppets trying to fill extra pertol into condoms and what not.

What I don't agree with, is arguing that Brexit has nothing to do with it. Particularly when other contributing reasons get discussed and that doesn't seem to be at odds with the topic of the thread.

Saying Brexit hasn't caused this, and the other big issues we have seen all year in all sectors, is like saying shooting yourself in the foot hasn't caused your limp because that urinary infection you had some time ago was already making you walk a little sideyways.