I see that the media have now moved on from the HGV driver shortage and have been busy this week highlighting the (apparent) 160,000 shortage of taxi drivers and a large shortage of mechanics for electric cars
After a couple of weeks of the press reporting that the country was heading for a national disaster, with the supermarket shelves becoming empty and Christmas being ruined, it now seems all is well. The reporters have left the truck stops and moved on to the next story.
Maybe those few weeks reporting and worrying the nation has filled all of those £100,000 a year driving jobs we heard about and the national crisis has been averted. Or did the government somehow manage to get the East Europeans back?
Is there still a shortage in other parts of the country? as everything seems quite normal in my area.
NorthernApe:
I see that the media have now moved on from the HGV driver shortage and have been busy this week highlighting the (apparent) 160,000 shortage of taxi drivers and a large shortage of mechanics for electric cars
After a couple of weeks of the press reporting that the country was heading for a national disaster, with the supermarket shelves becoming empty and Christmas being ruined, it now seems all is well. The reporters have left the truck stops and moved on to the next story.
Maybe those few weeks reporting and worrying the nation has filled all of those £100,000 a year driving jobs we heard about and the national crisis has been averted. Or did the government somehow manage to get the East Europeans back?
Is there still a shortage in other parts of the country? as everything seems quite normal in my area.
All normal. Actually, no it’s not. I’ve found this year harder to get driving work. Last year waltzed in to it without a problem.
It’s a weird world…
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By normal I mean the hourly rate seems to be dropping back to where it was and what seems like an half decent wage turns out to be only by working evenings with nights out and overtime 
I’m still on about 25% more than I was this time last year and it won’t be dropping.
toonsy:
I’m still on about 25% more than I was this time last year and it won’t be dropping.
I’ve had a 4 grand rise over 6 months…plus 10 and 20% uplifts for unsociable hours worked.
Night shunters have gone from 34k to 45k.
We also saw the back of an abrasive manager, leading to a more pleasant office culture.
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So I gather that there is a shortage in your areas then?
NorthernApe:
So I gather that there is a shortage in your areas then?
Are you an agency driver?
NorthernApe:
By normal I mean the hourly rate seems to be dropping back to where it was and what seems like an half decent wage turns out to be only by working evenings with nights out and overtime
Cabotage due imminently.Slam dunk as our yankee bretheren would say.
manalishi:
NorthernApe:
By normal I mean the hourly rate seems to be dropping back to where it was and what seems like an half decent wage turns out to be only by working evenings with nights out and overtimeCabotage due imminently.Slam dunk as our yankee bretheren would say.
Apart from foreign truck companies making more money on the continent (fuel and parking for one, no channel crossing, possibly better rates too), they too are struggling to get drivers, to work over here. Given a choice of weekending in Europe, or some pizs stained UK parking space, not many choose the UK.
How’s the security work going?
NorthernApe:
So I gather that there is a shortage in your areas then?
Rugby.
I’ve not really noticed one as in a chronic load of trucks parked up in yards. What I have noticed is lots of jobs with better terms and pay on offer so there was movement in workforces.
NorthernApe:
So I gather that there is a shortage in your areas then?
We were losing drivers and not recruiting well.
It helped that the drivers worked together and forced the issue.
We are now recruiting well and drivers aren’t leaving
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the nodding donkey:
manalishi:
NorthernApe:
By normal I mean the hourly rate seems to be dropping back to where it was and what seems like an half decent wage turns out to be only by working evenings with nights out and overtimeCabotage due imminently.Slam dunk as our yankee bretheren would say.
Apart from foreign truck companies making more money on the continent (fuel and parking for one, no channel crossing, possibly better rates too), they too are struggling to get drivers, to work over here. Given a choice of weekending in Europe, or some pizs stained UK parking space, not many choose the UK.
How’s the security work going?
Withering on the vine by the day alas thanks for asking.I don’t see a way forwards with it outside of the mobile stuff,which inconveniently doesn’t exist at this juncture,but i’ll see what pans out.
the nodding donkey:
manalishi:
NorthernApe:
By normal I mean the hourly rate seems to be dropping back to where it was and what seems like an half decent wage turns out to be only by working evenings with nights out and overtimeCabotage due imminently.Slam dunk as our yankee bretheren would say.
Apart from foreign truck companies making more money on the continent (fuel and parking for one, no channel crossing, possibly better rates too), they too are struggling to get drivers, to work over here. Given a choice of weekending in Europe, or some pizs stained UK parking space, not many choose the UK.
How’s the security work going?
Yep that’s a fair assessment so they’ll no doubt be casting the dragnet further afield,maybe tapping into Asia the way Canada seems to be doing increasingly.I remember the idea was mooted to bringing in a couple of million from Hong Kong a while ago,that’s gone a tad low-key.The ptb will have those ducks in a row already l suspect.
no one mentions driver shortage now ,I think it was all blown out of proportion
fuse:
no one mentions driver shortage now ,I think it was all blown out of proportion
Still seeing sizeable produce unavailability at my local supermarkets though.This can’t be unconnected to anything but; shortages of HGV personell ? something strange afoot mithinx. 
There again the lavish feasting on foreign for over a decade seems to be the, arguably hiding in plain site explanation, with this particular conundrum 
Hard to pin it down. 
manalishi:
Still seeing sizeable produce unavailability at my local supermarkets though.This can’t be unconnected to anything but; shortages of HGV personell ? something strange afoot mithinx.
It’s not panic buying unless people are very selective in their ‘panic’.
If it’s a truck driver ‘shortage’ there seems to be no shortage of drivers delivering loads of the lowest quality stuff possible.
No shortage of tough salty lean bacon.
No shortage of processed cheap rubbish meat formed to look like the real thing and so lean that it can’t possibly be natural.
Also no shortage of veggie non meat made to look like the real thing why.
Also propaganda telling us we all need to go vegan to ‘save the planet’ while we export tonnes of beef and pork.
Christmas turkeys to order strangely seems to be a problem with anything larger than 6kg sizes.
If you like fish it’s a constant supply of haddock and hake or at best laughably small rationed portions of Cod.Want some turbot forget it.
Even in the case of a simple packet of crisps plenty of all the usual over salted suspects but if you want some Walkers optional salt and shake no chance.
Obviously ‘wheoever’ is getting all the best meat and fish etc also doesn’t like salted crisps.
Well let’s hope it’s improved from when I did it , pick up load from factory & take to a company dc to be loaded on a box , simple , well no as they had No empty boxes to tip your load onto , you couldn’t just drop your loaded tri ( drop & swap ) & pick up a empty as none had been tipped as they had no empty boxes to put your load in
After 4 hrs told to just deliver it Livingstone
I wasnt the only one , my mate spent 5 hrs at Malcoms crick as they apparently had no-one to tip him
manalishi:
fuse:
no one mentions driver shortage now ,I think it was all blown out of proportionStill seeing sizeable produce unavailability at my local supermarkets though.This can’t be unconnected to anything but; shortages of HGV personell ? something strange afoot mithinx.
The biggest and (to me) most obvious being Walkers Crisps. Apparently their IT system screwed up big time; methinks this is code for serious cockups in the buying department.
Sidevalve:
The biggest and (to me) most obvious being Walkers Crisps. Apparently their IT system screwed up big time; methinks this is code for serious cockups in the buying department.
It’s gonna…
Possibly be a while longer before the ‘grab bag’ returns. They’ve had a fire at Leicester.
yourhavingalarf:
Sidevalve:
The biggest and (to me) most obvious being Walkers Crisps. Apparently their IT system screwed up big time; methinks this is code for serious cockups in the buying department.It’s gonna…
Possibly be a while longer before the ‘grab bag’ returns. They’ve had a fire at Leicester.
Strange that with all the health issues and advice regarding excessive salt intake that they wouldn’t want to prioritise production of the optional salt an shake or even drop production of ready salted thereby rationing salt amounts and providing the option to leave it.
While there’s been a problem with the supply of the salt and shake ones long before this excuse.It’s clear that’s the type in most demand.
The crisp shortages have been blamed on everything from driver shortage to an IT glitch and now a fire.