If the crisis goes on for a quarter, say, this may leave a big hole in terms of new passes entering the transport industry. If there are plus 40,000 passes a year, then it seems to suggest 10,000 passes that won’t be there. Retirements may well go ahead as planned and with the best will in the world, capacity for training might not even be at the same level as pre-crisis (training providers going under etc). Candidates may also not be in a financial position to fund their training as they may have done without the crisis.
Food is essential, but how do you reconcile other businesses going under due to lack of drivers? The backbone of the country (transport) is largely funded by businesses and individuals with the government not even covering the cost of tests for licences that are only used for keeping goods flowing. Let’s not forget the non-government funded CPC, required in order to move the food on every government minister’s plate. Meanwhile the farmers bleat about losing pennies for a litre of milk and the government’s ears prick up.
I see an all powerful State that will dictate exactly how it is going to be, this will occur because of solvency and control issues regarding the current and ongoing situation.
Life as we knew it will never come back, I hate to be cynical, but I see manipulation by the media and state in all corners of the globe and more worryingly the people of the UK are calling the police on their neighbours for the most minor of things…George Orwell, if he were smug would be telling us all he told us so, but I believe he was a good man.
Training companies go under - good, it’ll hopefully be the decent ones with good reputations who emerge at the end and the cowboys with their 15 year old knackered units go to the wall.
Driver shortage - as mentioned by Eagerbeaver and so many before, we’re way way off that. If they stopped people coming in as drivers, there still wouldn’t be a shortage for years.
Plus the old buggers just won’t ruddy retire!
Overall effect - absolutely zip beyond a few less profitable companies going bump, Stobbies having another cash flow crisis / tax scam takeover and generally transport company bosses saying “we can’t pay you any more due to the financial downturn” (while buying their new cars).
Not too sure we’re really any more a backbone of the chain than anyone else from the growers / manufacturers, warehouses, shops etc. They are all privately owned, privately financed and equally important.
Farmers didn’t get gov help, they got the public to give a crap about their milk prices and supermarket’s got worried and increased the amount they pay by a few pence. Most helpful to the massive farm owners so they could buy their new Mercs.
Strange how people crumble so easily, here we are with a blip in our normal lives, and most of you have already given up the ghost and claiming doom and gloom.
I always thought that us in the Transport industry were a bit more robust, than the mainstream turkeys who cry at the drop of a Hat. Well WTF has happened to that spirit, that put us apart from the rest. FFS get a life and put this all in perspective the last time we had this sort of disruption was in WW2.
And then during the Blitz thousands of women & children would be killed EVERY DAY. Did that stop the country from carrying on. NO Life went on as normal and people got on with it. Yes this is a Blip and people will die. But remember over six thousand people commit suicide every year, does that stop the country from living NO. Yes People have died, and many more will, but take on board actually how many Older People die from influenza every year as terrible as that is, we do not crumble because of it.
So get a grip and man up, things will get back to normal, they always do and this will be just another form of Flu to combat every winter… And we will combat it as we do with every other form of the Flu Virus.
