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Brexit slowly becoming a Farce.


John Lambies Doos

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37 minutes ago, The Skelpit Lug said:

UK: I know we told all you foreign chaps to f**k off, but we're in a spot of bother. Would some of the HGV drivers and food processing chaps like to come over and help us out of this tiny problem? Just for a temporary period. Then you can all f**k off again.

Not that I have anything against the ballet but, it is demonstrative that there's a visa exception for Europeans who la-di-da about in tights for a living but no such dispensation for folk who can deliver our food and fuel. 

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This is creating great opportunities.
I already know of people who have applied to take their HGV.
Once Covid fades away all the people doing useless security jobs, test and trace and whatever will gravitate towards the productive economy.
Short-term problem but the market will solve it.
Time for Remoaners to get over it!!
Interesting, when did they start their training exactly ? Given current backlogs they must have some foresight to have started retraining long before this crisis hit. What did these people do before their career change just out of interest ?
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50 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:
16 hours ago, Dawson Park Boy said:
This is creating great opportunities.
I already know of people who have applied to take their HGV.
Once Covid fades away all the people doing useless security jobs, test and trace and whatever will gravitate towards the productive economy.
Short-term problem but the market will solve it.
Time for Remoaners to get over it!!

Interesting, when did they start their training exactly ? Given current backlogs they must have some foresight to have started retraining long before this crisis hit. What did these people do before their career change just out of interest ?

I know a local farmer whose 2 boys have the basic HGV for rigids. They have started the ball running to upgrade to allow them to drive the biggest lorries - CatC and E, I think. The plan is to boost up their earnings from the farm by doing contract driving during the quiet times.

Dont know the details regarding training, etc.

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If you want a pretty good summary of why there's a problem, you'll find it in here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58673567

Bottom line - more people leave the profession than join it each week. This is the issue that needs to be addressed above all. 

Of the main reasons there's a shortage, only 1 of them is realistically within the industry's control and that's pay. Retiring drivers, Brexit and Coronavirus, all of which are main contributors, are not. Drivers leaving the industry is potentially a pay issue, but there's also the issue that a lot of people just don't want to do it. I can't say I blame them either, as it's a very unsocial occupation. 

People not wanting to do it is summed up exactly by Andrew Brigden's ill-conceived defence. He says there isn't a shortage as there are 600k people qualified to drive HGVs in the UK. Half of them are currently not in the industry for one reason or another. That's a conscious choice that's been made - they don't want that career, for one reason or another. 

Shapps probably has a point somewhere in amongst his nonsense that wages in some parts of sector have not been particularly attractive, but even chucking money at the problem is not working in the short term. I've also seen more than enough adverts for drivers to know there is good money in it if you look in the right place. Petrol tanker drivers for example are very well paid. OK, it's danger money, but it does pay an attractive salary. 

And at any rate, I would say that wages being suppressed by cheaper labour from Eastern Europe is not the issue; it's that Brits have decided that this job isn't for them (for whatever reason) and the jobs rely on immigration instead. As I said, some of it may not be well paid, but when we have a shortage of petrol tanker drivers, who are well paid, the game's a bogey. Simply put, there is no domestic labour supply being undercut - we don't have enough drivers for them to be undercut. We might have people qualified for it, but they don't want to do it. 

Short term visas are barely going to scratch the surface either. There is a shortage across Europe (albeit the UK is more severely impacted) and so we are struggling there to start with. Additionally, very few people are going to uproot themselves for temporary work. It's desperation, frankly, although companies impacted do need to at least attempt something. 

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I know a local farmer whose 2 boys have the basic HGV for rigids. They have started the ball running to upgrade to allow them to drive the biggest lorries - CatC and E, I think. The plan is to boost up their earnings from the farm by doing contract driving during the quiet times.
Dont know the details regarding training, etc.
I take it Brezit has added another 10 hours to the day, they'll need it.
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20 minutes ago, jakedee said:
1 hour ago, Dawson Park Boy said:
I know a local farmer whose 2 boys have the basic HGV for rigids. They have started the ball running to upgrade to allow them to drive the biggest lorries - CatC and E, I think. The plan is to boost up their earnings from the farm by doing contract driving during the quiet times.
Dont know the details regarding training, etc.

I take it Brezit has added another 10 hours to the day, they'll need it.

Nah, they'll be fine, because,

Spoiler

Like the rest of DPB's fantasy life, they don't exist.

 

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1 hour ago, Michael W said:

If you want a pretty good summary of why there's a problem, you'll find it in here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58673567

Bottom line - more people leave the profession than join it each week. This is the issue that needs to be addressed above all. 

Of the main reasons there's a shortage, only 1 of them is realistically within the industry's control and that's pay. Retiring drivers, Brexit and Coronavirus, all of which are main contributors, are not. Drivers leaving the industry is potentially a pay issue, but there's also the issue that a lot of people just don't want to do it. I can't say I blame them either, as it's a very unsocial occupation. 

People not wanting to do it is summed up exactly by Andrew Brigden's ill-conceived defence. He says there isn't a shortage as there are 600k people qualified to drive HGVs in the UK. Half of them are currently not in the industry for one reason or another. That's a conscious choice that's been made - they don't want that career, for one reason or another. 

Shapps probably has a point somewhere in amongst his nonsense that wages in some parts of sector have not been particularly attractive, but even chucking money at the problem is not working in the short term. I've also seen more than enough adverts for drivers to know there is good money in it if you look in the right place. Petrol tanker drivers for example are very well paid. OK, it's danger money, but it does pay an attractive salary. 

And at any rate, I would say that wages being suppressed by cheaper labour from Eastern Europe is not the issue; it's that Brits have decided that this job isn't for them (for whatever reason) and the jobs rely on immigration instead. As I said, some of it may not be well paid, but when we have a shortage of petrol tanker drivers, who are well paid, the game's a bogey. Simply put, there is no domestic labour supply being undercut - we don't have enough drivers for them to be undercut. We might have people qualified for it, but they don't want to do it. 

Short term visas are barely going to scratch the surface either. There is a shortage across Europe (albeit the UK is more severely impacted) and so we are struggling there to start with. Additionally, very few people are going to uproot themselves for temporary work. It's desperation, frankly, although companies impacted do need to at least attempt something. 

So, to sum up, the endemic British economic and social problems of the last 40 years - shortsightedeness, short-termism, lack of foresight and planning, lack of preparedness, lack of cohesive thinking, a hellishly imbalanced economy, rampant corruption and greed, and of course the lunacy of Brexit - are now fully in play.  Whether it be Covid-19, energy, fuel and food crises, the Afghan withdrawal, soaring taxation and depressed household incomes, tax evasion on an industrial scale, international isolation, escalating poverty and suicide rates and whatever else you may care to add, Westminster is now truly reaping what is has sown. 

And before the swivel-eyed loons of the Kilt Right leap in, Holyrood too must take some blame but nothing remotely comparable with London.

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8 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

So, to sum up, the endemic British economic and social problems of the last 40 years - shortsightedeness, short-termism, lack of foresight and planning, lack of preparedness, lack of cohesive thinking, a hellishly imbalanced economy, rampant corruption and greed, and of course the lunacy of Brexit - are now fully in play.  Whether it be Covid-19, energy, fuel and food crises, the Afghan withdrawal, soaring taxation and depressed household incomes, tax evasion on an industrial scale, international isolation, escalating poverty and suicide rates and whatever else you may care to add, Westminster is now truly reaping what is has sown. 

And before the swivel-eyed loons of the Kilt Right leap in, Holyrood too must take some blame but nothing remotely comparable with London.

I think you should maybe be thinking of emigration.

BTW, it would be interesting if folks could report their experiences of shortages.

To date, I have experienced none.

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I know a local farmer whose 2 boys have the basic HGV for rigids. They have started the ball running to upgrade to allow them to drive the biggest lorries - CatC and E, I think. The plan is to boost up their earnings from the farm by doing contract driving during the quiet times.
Dont know the details regarding training, etc.
That's pretty standard for any farm workers I know. Not exactly your security guard retraining ! Anyway probably too late as there will now be a fuel crisis going by the massive queues forming at filling stations as the great British public are once again so easily spooked into panic buying.
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I think you should maybe be thinking of emigration.
BTW, it would be interesting if folks could report their experiences of shortages.
To date, I have experienced none.
So not a single gap on your local supermarket shelves ? I've been waiting over 4 months now for work to start on a new kitchen. Was meant to be June then August now put back to October all due to building supply shortages. It's rife everywhere, to say you haven't noticed a single shortage is utter bullshit, a blatant lie.
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10 minutes ago, Dawson Park Boy said:

I think you should maybe be thinking of emigration.

BTW, it would be interesting if folks could report their experiences of shortages.

To date, I have experienced none.

Go into any builders merchant, their yards are bare and what they do have has rocketed in price.

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24 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:
31 minutes ago, Dawson Park Boy said:
I think you should maybe be thinking of emigration.
BTW, it would be interesting if folks could report their experiences of shortages.
To date, I have experienced none.

So not a single gap on your local supermarket shelves ? I've been waiting over 4 months now for work to start on a new kitchen. Was meant to be June then August now put back to October all due to building supply shortages. It's rife everywhere, to say you haven't noticed a single shortage is utter bullshit, a blatant lie.

Yes, you’re correct about building materials. Absolutely.

I was really referring specifically to the petrol situation.

Mrs DPB isn’t reporting any supermarket problems so far.

Still experiencing fabulous meals.

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43 minutes ago, BFTD said:

The worst part of leaving the EU may well be that @Melanius Mullarkey will have to stop accusing truck drivers of murdering prostitutes.

I'm not sure that's a world in which I want to live.

Hang on a minute. What if the shortage of truck drivers is because the prozzies are fighting back?

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27 minutes ago, Dawson Park Boy said:

Yes, you’re correct about building materials. Absolutely.

I was really referring specifically to the petrol situation.

Mrs DPB isn’t reporting any supermarket problems so far.

Still experiencing fabulous meals.

Presumably she's never been racially abused either. 

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5 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Hang on a minute. What if the shortage of truck drivers is because the prozzies are fighting back?

The solution appears to be paying for prostitutes to get HGV licences.

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