I want to ask something, and would request only serious answers. You see, I am pretty out of touch with what is actually going on over there, and the press put such a spin on things that the truth is seldom there to find.
Just how bad is it getting now? How seriously up the spout is the transport industry in the UK? How about costs in general, as well as the fuel costs? By the look of things, largely random browsing on my part, it has gone very bad very quickly. Far more so than it did in the early nineties, and that was bad enough.
The US have done this massive bailout for the banks, and I hear the UK have done something similar, but not much about it is available online that I can find, or that which is online is unfathomable, and not just about these bailouts, but about the whole of the subject. They are still resisting calling it a recession, but it appears to be that this is no slowdown, this appears to be more like an emergency stop.
Please give serious feedback. I am interested in what you, folk cut from the same cloth as I am, think.
Well the construction industry is on it’s knees, house building is virtually at a standstill and there are many many people in the costruction trades on short weeks or out of work.
Consequently the following areas of transport are affected badly.
There are some construction jobs running but they are schools, hospitals and the Olympics with everything else on a reduced scale.
That’s just construction based transport, it’s my area of work so I can’t comment on other areas.
I’ve just managed to sub myself out to another plant firm to drive their wagon whilst mine is standing. At least this way I’m brining in the money to pay my wages rather than my boss having to pay me to do very little.
There has been a high degree of ‘speculative’ warehouse building over recent years, which are now standing idle. There is a massive site on the Newhouse estate at Chepstow that has remained empty for months. There is also a moderate site at Huntsworth, Bridgewater, remaining totally unoccupied.
To cite just two.
In the meantime, manufacturing has fallen off. Exports have fallen. We have been relying on an economy build on debt. That has now come an end. And it’s going to be a hard landing.
bobthedog:
I want to ask something, and would request only serious answers. You see, I am pretty out of touch with what is actually going on over there, and the press put such a spin on things that the truth is seldom there to find.
Just how bad is it getting now? How seriously up the spout is the transport industry in the UK? How about costs in general, as well as the fuel costs? By the look of things, largely random browsing on my part, it has gone very bad very quickly. Far more so than it did in the early nineties, and that was bad enough.
The US have done this massive bailout for the banks, and I hear the UK have done something similar, but not much about it is available online that I can find, or that which is online is unfathomable, and not just about these bailouts, but about the whole of the subject. They are still resisting calling it a recession, but it appears to be that this is no slowdown, this appears to be more like an emergency stop.
Please give serious feedback. I am interested in what you, folk cut from the same cloth as I am, think.
Thats a lot of questions BOB !! Although the press in general may put a spin on things, the recent reporting of factual stats abut job losses etc…doesn’t require any spin, they’ve either happened or they havn’t . Things have, as you say gone very bad very quickly and i’m not sure why no one wants to call it a recession, with modern times double speak terms like…economic slowdown, unexpected downturn in growth etc. it all amounts to the same thing. But hey, aparently its world wide and not confined to here. Listening to the news tonight Gordon Brown (he’s our Primeminister !!) has used terrorism laws to freeze the assest of Icelandic companies here due to moneys being held by a collapsed Icelandic bank that a lot of UK local authorities had invested their money in. I say nuke Iceland and lets go in and steal all the Puffin meat !!
Anyway, hows the transport doing? Well transport is doing fine, just checkout the stats for Dover, there’s no slowdown in lorries comimg from the EU bringing in produce, clothing etc… There may be a downturn in UK hauliers taking exports abroad just as there has been for a long time. And the companies that take the imported goods from the distribution centres to the retail outlets maybe on short time,but in general everything is still moving !!
The thing is that the joblosses appear to not get reported as they used to. When we got to a recession last time around it was well reported and a clear(ish) picture was available. Funnily enough, many firms seemed to keep running last time, but they were cutting the fleets back instead of shutting down.
I can’t see as figures for Dover can truthfully reflect much for you over there. Whilst things are cheaper to import than to produce, there will never be any way to tell from that alone. I was wondering how you all felt about it personally.
Mr Brown and his predecessor were a major consideration for my leaving in the first place, and I am glad I did if only to get away from them. Is he in the cart now with the public? Over here, they get a little more personal in the attacks against one another so they are even more laughable. In the US it’s even worse!!
The reason I asked was because there are more sigs asking about jobs on here than I ever saw, and the same goes for which firms have collapsed and threads about jobs.
It troubles me. I worry about it and my thoughts are with all who are concerned about what is going on.
bobthedog:
The thing is that the joblosses appear to not get reported as they used to. When we got to a recession last time around it was well reported and a clear(ish) picture was available. Funnily enough, many firms seemed to keep running last time, but they were cutting the fleets back instead of shutting down.
I can’t see as figures for Dover can truthfully reflect much for you over there. Whilst things are cheaper to import than to produce, there will never be any way to tell from that alone. I was wondering how you all felt about it personally.
Mr Brown and his predecessor were a major consideration for my leaving in the first place, and I am glad I did if only to get away from them. Is he in the cart now with the public? Over here, they get a little more personal in the attacks against one another so they are even more laughable. In the US it’s even worse!!
The reason I asked was because there are more sigs asking about jobs on here than I ever saw, and the same goes for which firms have collapsed and threads about jobs.
It troubles me. I worry about it and my thoughts are with all who are concerned about what is going on.
Ok then, Vauxhall in Ellsmere Port are down to a two day week, Jaguar (the old Ford plant in Halewood) is going on to a four day week, our place where asking lads to take a days holiday last Friday as there was nowt on and laid the subbies off for the day. Elda point (container place and portacabins) has stopped all the previously unlimited overtime for their welders etc and they are now on 37 hours a week and most subbies have been laid off. I know another small outfit here has laid four trucks off as there is no work for them. We’re all doomed !!
And just to think, all because fuel prices went up and we had a worldwide disastarous grain harvest which pushed prices up it all affected people renting them properties which where on a buy to let basis, which led to no rent and negative equity and then you realise we havn’t been living the last ten years or so on Gordon Browns ‘prudence’, infact we’ve all been living on money that wasn’t there !!
From what I’ve seen is that people aren’t buying the big purchases, my brother in law runs a garage and says that sales of both new and used cars are down, but service work, MOT’s body shop etc are still ok.
Basically it seems that people aren’t buying major things that they would have borrowed money for like houses, cars etc, but they still need a car to get to work so have to pay for MOT’s, services etc. Still have to eat so still go shopping but maybe buy cheaper stuf than before or use a cut price supermarket. I actually think I’ve seen more UK registared trucks abroad recently, but it could be wishfull thinking or I’m being more observant.
So how are the economic problems affecting Canada?
It hasn’t started really biting Canada yet, although there are fewer large items like cars being sold here at the moment simply because it was thousands of dollars cheaper to buy from the States due to the exchange rate. House prices are at least staying even at the moment, and some areas they are still rising. The stores and dealers are still offering deals on new electronics and cars, and houses are still selling so it is hard to say what the score is.
The banks operate differently here so the suggestion is that a rescue package won’t actually be necessary. But there are more and more people struggling here, too. They borrowed more and more and are finding it difficult to meet the obligations now. One family with 5 children under 10 years old, had $110 left to live on after they had paid their bills last week, so it’s not great here but not exactly at the point of disaster like the US and UK seem to be.
John McCain was saying that the US economy was strong and growing up until a couple of weeks back. All of a sudden, and I mean overnight, he changed his tune and said they were in real trouble. Now the US government appear to own almost every mortgage in the USA, along with several banks. The talk about peoples pensions is that they no longer exist down there.
I just remortgaged to consolidate a short time ago. We needed another car so we did everything at once. It reduced my monthly payment by $400 a month. The way things are going, I am going to be real glad I did.
come on Bob…CNN said we only lost 3 TRILLION on US mortgage funds today… …I sold my last house to a Canadian, we now live in the other house that we used to rent out. Canadians are snapping up property around here left, right, and center. Construction still continues here but not at the breakneck speed that it was. There are plenty of used lorries and trailers for sale, very cheap prices too. People are still lineing up at Starbucks drive thru. Used cars are selling for peanuts, specially the gas guzzlers. I have noticed people are abandoning their houses en masse. I don’t know why because some of them didn’t cost much in the first place. My wife got a credit card bill today…its our “big card” we leave it clear in case we have to fly home in a hurry (death in the family) they had given her an increase…why? we only use it to keep it activated. I’m no expert but i’m sure from this great nation that kicked off this recession I wouldn’t be surprised if we weren’t the first ones out of it…its just an opinion.
Another point, the govt. here are going to crucify any CEO’s of any institutions that they bail out IF they see wrongdoings. They will dictate salary, bonuses et al. It will be interesting to see if the British govt. will have the courage to go after CEO’s in the same position there.
I think the saddest part of this whole crisis is that I have been writing for 20 minutes about the world economy (of which I know nothing) and not waxing lyrical about a Volvo F89!
People have been living beyond their means for years now. Taking holidays,buying cars,doing up houses etc,all on the strength of their property continuing to increase in value and then being able to "release equity " from the property. Which is fine while property goes up… the bubble is well and truly burst now. The trouble is people like myself who don’t have credit cards etc and who take a holiday when they have the cash for it are starting to pay the price too.
the problem in the uk is simple,we got rid of most of our industries so we dont make much for ourselfs or to export,so we rely on house building,but that is only good if folk have jobs that pay ,and because of the 1 up manship attitude of this country folk borrow lots of money to be 1 better,why not save for abit then get what u want? some folk do…then u have the immigrant problem,■■■■■■■ down the wages ,they wont back u up incase they upset the boss,then have to go back to the dumps they came from.we should face it,the eu was very clever un letting east eu countries join the west,they knew they would flood the job markets ,work for what they could get,now we are suffering,not the poloticians.even their transport industry whos trucks are registered in their own countries are allowed to roam free over europe cutting rates because they dont have to pay west eu wages,so what chance do we stand? its about time we said enough is enough,but it wont happen not in the uk anyway because folk only care about their jobs not ours or their kids.hope that helps answer some of your questions?
The biggest problem, has been the unsustainable rise in house prices, and now people are begging and pleading to have that continue, when they’re already over-priced…
allikat:
The biggest problem, has been the unsustainable rise in house prices, and now people are begging and pleading to have that continue, when they’re already over-priced…
Agreed and also Buy to lets made far to easy whereas they should all have been taxed to death.
“Oh, we can’t have our £250,000 house worth what it was five years ago, we’d lose a quarter of a million pounds!!!” yeah… and how many people can afford to buy when even a flat is in six figures■■?
But surely the warning signs were there, Alli and Dave? They have been offering 40 year mortgages for years, and multi generation mortgages speculating on the kids wanting to live with their family until they die so it has to have been unsustainable. At the very least, loans like that would have meant fewer sales.
I am glad things are moving in the US still. The punishments suggested for the CEOs is funny really. They have to get caught first. I can imagine the bad feelings when people were losing all their savings while the big guy at the top got $90million as a bonus for losing it.
And I think it is pertinent for the forums. It is something that is seriously affecting transport as it always does, and that affects the hardest day to day workers in the world- drivers.
bobthedog:
I want to ask something, and would request only serious answers. You see, I am pretty out of touch with what is actually going on over there, and the press put such a spin on things that the truth is seldom there to find.
Just how bad is it getting now? How seriously up the spout is the transport industry in the UK? How about costs in general, as well as the fuel costs? By the look of things, largely random browsing on my part, it has gone very bad very quickly. Far more so than it did in the early nineties, and that was bad enough.
The US have done this massive bailout for the banks, and I hear the UK have done something similar, but not much about it is available online that I can find, or that which is online is unfathomable, and not just about these bailouts, but about the whole of the subject. They are still resisting calling it a recession, but it appears to be that this is no slowdown, this appears to be more like an emergency stop.
Please give serious feedback. I am interested in what you, folk cut from the same cloth as I am, think.
muckles:
From what I’ve seen is that people aren’t buying the big purchases, my brother in law runs a garage and says that sales of both new and used cars are down, but service work, MOT’s body shop etc are still ok.
Strangely as it may seem, is the sale of New Cars etc not down because of the recent Excise Duty Hikes implemented by this Goverment?
Its strange how one minute their hitting the Gas Guzzlers with heavy taxes and excise duty, then wondering why car manufacturing plants are at a standstill.
…I sold my last house to a Canadian, we now live in the other house that we used to rent out. Canadians are snapping up property around here left, right, and center. Construction still continues here but not at the breakneck speed that it was. There are plenty of used lorries and trailers for sale, very cheap prices too. People are still lineing up at Starbucks drive thru. Used cars are selling for peanuts, specially the gas guzzlers. I have noticed people are abandoning their houses en masse. I don’t know why because some of them didn’t cost much in the first place. My wife got a credit card bill today…its our “big card” we leave it clear in case we have to fly home in a hurry (death in the family) they had given her an increase…why? we only use it to keep it activated. I’m no expert but i’m sure from this great nation that kicked off this recession I wouldn’t be surprised if we weren’t the first ones out of it…its just an opinion.
