https://www.facebook.com/bbcthree/videos/1466712466771250
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What is Brexit?
There are 11 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 2,250 times. The latest Post () was by Rice.
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That is so funny -- and so true!
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BTW - it is now 365 days until Brexit, after 46 years in the European Union.
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This is what the disaster that is Brexit gets you and it can only get worse.
Lorry driver shortage: Government working on temporary visa schemeA shortage of drivers disrupts supply chains and fuel deliveries, as vehicles queue for petrol.www.bbc.com -
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This seems like a problem the hell-for-leather Brexiteers never foresaw. The article makes a Covid reference but doesn’t explain its immediate effect on long-haul drivers: Did a lot of them die of Covid?
I like the idea of training Afghan refugees with experience driving large vehicles. They are already in the country and will welcome permanent jobs. Relying on temporary labor from the EU can get the UK past this immediate problem but invites it to reoccur when the temporary visas expire.
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This is Brexit
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Now THAT’S an entrepreneur.
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Just spotted this on Facebook from a truck driver (ex)
QuoteDisplay More“So, you are running out of food on the shelves, fuel in the garages, you can’t buy things you need, because the shops can’t get their supplies.
Why is that?
A shortage of goods? No
A shortage of money? No
A shortage of drivers to deliver the goods? Well, sort of.
There isn’t actually a shortage of drivers, what we have, is a shortage of people who can drive, that are 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, and as soon as I could, I managed to get my driving licence, I even joined the army to get my HGV licence faster, I held my licence at the age of 17. It was all I ever wanted to do, drive trucks, 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, first, it was the erosion of truck parking and transport café’s, then it was the massive increase in restricting where I could stop, timed weight limits in just about every city and town, but not all the time, you can get there to do your delivery, but you can’t stay there, nobody wants an empty truck, nobody wants you there once they have what they did want.
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. Compare that to the UK £25-£40 just to park overnight, dirty showers, and expensive, dried (under heat lamps) food that is overpriced, and I have no choice but to park there, because you don’t want me in your towns and cities.
Ask yourself how you would feel, if doing your job actually cost you money at the end of the day, just so you could rest.
But that isn’t the half of it. 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 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?
If you are worried about not getting supplies on your supermarket shelves, ask your local council just how well they cater for trucks in your district.
I know Canterbury has the grand total of zero truck parking facilities, but does have a lot of restrictions, making it difficult for trucks to stop anywhere.
Do you want me to go back to driving trucks? Give me a good reason to do so. Give anyone a good reason to take it up as a profession.
Perhaps once you work out why you can’t, you will understand why your shelves are not as full as they could be.
I tried it for over 30 years, but will never go back, you just couldn't pay me enough.
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This is Brexit
Great red-faced anger photos, SpaceNut ! Now I understand the slang meeting of “gammon.”
Apparently the shortage of drivers is a problem shared by EU countries. Today’s Telegraph says “The total European shortfall of HGV drivers is now more than 400,000. For example, even in Poland it’s 124,000 drivers, in the UK it’s 60,000, and in Germany it’s about the same as the UK but forecast to rise to 185,000 drivers by 2027.”
The Telegraph’s Iain Duncan Smith’s conclusion concerning the UK shortage? “Don’t blame Brexit for driver shortages – our brainless bureaucracy is the real culprit.
“The reality is that, all over Europe, when countries locked down many drivers went home and many more were furloughed, then retired. This was made worse as all testing of new drivers was stopped, something which could have been avoided, particularly if the authorities had used avilable Covid PCR or lateral-flow tests to allow prospective drivers to qualify. To give you a sense of how chronically stupid the bureaucratic thinking was, the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency also stopped motorcycle testing – even though those being tested were all alone on their bikes.
“What we now see are the aftershocks of lockdown decision-making beginning to buffet us. There has clearly been little forward thinking or planning.
“The Confederation of British Industry, which quickly blamed Brexit for the current shortages, instead should recognise that industry leaders themselves must shoulder a significant measure of blame. I recall before Brexit, when as Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions I questioned why hauliers did so little to invest in their industry by training drivers, particularly when the shortages were already becoming known, the hauliers responded that British people wouldn’t do the job. In response, my department bought a number of places on courses to test their theory, and found that they were filled by applicants in days, and well over three-quarters subsequently passed. The hauliers' theory was wrong: there were plenty of people with drivers licences who would have loved to train but couldn’t afford the cost of the course. The reality was that cheaper drivers from overseas led to short-term decisions….”
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First it was toilet rolls...
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