After Brexit #2

After Brexit #2

Postby Grafenwalder » Sat Jul 03, 2021 4:28 pm

UK Truck drivers to get 25% pay increase

A Brexit "benefit" or a bit of spin? Read on!

Freight companies are reporting a "massive" shortage of lorry drivers, which is pushing up wages, and will increase prices of goods in the shops.

It is partly because of the pandemic, which delayed 30,000 tests for new drivers. Companies also blame Brexit, pointing out that 15,000 European truck drivers left the UK in the last year.

Big supermarket chains, desperate to ensure their food gets to their stores, are offering drivers nearly double the going rate.

Small firms have had to compete to stay on the road.

Mr Cook a director at Wrings trucking told me they have just given their drivers a 25% pay rise.

He said: "That's a lot of money, and we are retaining our drivers and bringing new employees into the company. But we have had to pass that cost onto our customers."

Other firms have decided they can't do that, because their customers will not pay more for haulage.

In Shepton Mallet, Somerset, I met Dan Gray, commercial director of Willmotts Transport.

They run trucks across Europe, but now have up to 10% of their lorries parked up idle every day.

Like many transport firms, Willmotts had a steady supply of drivers from eastern Europe over the last two decades. But last year, that all changed.

When the pandemic struck and European trade slowed down, drivers were furloughed.

Many went back to their home countries, to be with family.

"Since the effects of Brexit, they haven't wanted to come back," explained Mr Gray.

"They can earn just as much in Germany, France or Poland, so there's no real need to be in the UK."


But they couldn't come back now even if they wanted to.

Since 1 January, EU citizens are covered by a new immigration system, which gives priority to high-skilled roles.

HGV drivers are not among the list of eligible skilled occupations, which means they are excluded from a skilled work visa.

So although it was Covid that made European drivers leave the UK, the new post-Brexit rules have stopped them coming back. :roll:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-57656327
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Stooo » Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:09 pm



:shake head:
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Stooo » Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:04 pm



:pmsl: :mrgreen:
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Stooo » Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:16 pm

Warburtons is struggling to keep up with local deliveries amid the national shortage of drivers.

A spokesman for Warburtons confirmed the driver shortage was putting a strain on its local distribution network, after convenience store retailer Samantha Coldbeck complained about a missing delivery on social media.

“Very poor communication today. No bread delivery, phoned up and told by a very harassed lady in telesales that we won’t be getting one due to driver shortages,” she Tweeted last week.

Coldbeck told The Grocer she had recieved the delivery the following day, but availability was “crucial” to community retailers and communication was ”key to minimising disruption in the chain.”


https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/bakery/warb ... 8.facebook

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Told you so...
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Grafenwalder » Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:17 pm

Stooo wrote:

:pmsl: :mrgreen:

Looking forward to see how Brexiters will spin this. :laughing:
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Grafenwalder » Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:34 pm

Lidl hit by boycott over HGV driver row after shoppers complain of food shortages

The supermarket has suffered empty shelves in recent weeks with fresh foods among products running short - and now one haulier firm has said it is swerving the supermarket.

It comes amid a shortage of HGV drivers in the UK, which is being blamed on a mixture of the coronavirus crisis, Brexit, and disruption to the qualification process to become a driver.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/lidl-fac ... e-24565695
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Stooo » Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:44 pm

Grafenwalder wrote:Lidl hit by boycott over HGV driver row after shoppers complain of food shortages

The supermarket has suffered empty shelves in recent weeks with fresh foods among products running short - and now one haulier firm has said it is swerving the supermarket.

It comes amid a shortage of HGV drivers in the UK, which is being blamed on a mixture of the coronavirus crisis, Brexit, and disruption to the qualification process to become a driver.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/lidl-fac ... e-24565695


From recent memory it ranks as:

1. brexit

2. Covid

3.Driving tests.

Only no.2 is being reported widely and it really is a poor second in terms of numbers. I used to deliver to an RDC in Bridgy that was staffed heavily by EU workers on minimum wage/agency, they've gone now and a driver called into LBC earlier in the week saying that he was on his third hour of waiting for a delivery bay with perishable goods on board (expect dry and canned foods to decline on the shelves soon as fresh and frozen become a priority) simply because of the lack of staff to unload his truck.

This bullshit can only go on for so long.
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Snookerballs » Sat Jul 24, 2021 5:03 pm

Bread and Bread Products are in short supply here .

One of the joys of Brexit . :kinell:

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Re: After Brexit

Postby Grafenwalder » Sun Jul 25, 2021 5:07 pm

After an embarrassing U-turn yesterday by Johnson ordering all UK council buildings to fly the EU flag he told to only three months ago to remove, he took to his zipwire express over London today to show respect.

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Re: After Brexit

Postby Grafenwalder » Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:32 pm

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Re: After Brexit

Postby Cannydc » Tue Aug 10, 2021 5:02 pm

What a shame Bungle has gone into hiding. He abused me and others for properly reporting Operation Brock for what it was, and saying it would be used for sure..

Now:

Emergency powers to handle post-Brexit queues of lorries heading for France are being made permanent, signalling the government expects further cross-Channel disruption.

Operation Brock, a traffic management system designed to cope with queues of up to 13,000 lorries heading for mainland Europe across Kent, was meant to end by October 2021, after being extended once when the Brexit transition period ended in December 2020.

But ministers are planning to make the provisions indefinite by removing “sunset clauses” from the legislation that set out when the powers would expire, the Guardian has learned.

It means the emergency protocol can be activated at any time to govern the flow of lorries around the Port of Dover and Channel Tunnel at Folkestone with contraflow systems.


It's getting ready for October when the 'customs truce' between UK and EU ends.

And that's when the real shortages will loom.
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Stooo » Tue Aug 10, 2021 5:30 pm

Cannydc wrote:What a shame Bungle has gone into hiding. He abused me and others for properly reporting Operation Brock for what it was, and saying it would be used for sure..

Now:

Emergency powers to handle post-Brexit queues of lorries heading for France are being made permanent, signalling the government expects further cross-Channel disruption.

Operation Brock, a traffic management system designed to cope with queues of up to 13,000 lorries heading for mainland Europe across Kent, was meant to end by October 2021, after being extended once when the Brexit transition period ended in December 2020.

But ministers are planning to make the provisions indefinite by removing “sunset clauses” from the legislation that set out when the powers would expire, the Guardian has learned.

It means the emergency protocol can be activated at any time to govern the flow of lorries around the Port of Dover and Channel Tunnel at Folkestone with contraflow systems.


It's getting ready for October when the 'customs truce' between UK and EU ends.

And that's when the real shortages will loom.


Black Swan.
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Cannydc » Tue Aug 10, 2021 5:33 pm

Apologies, link for that

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -permanent

And yes, Stooo, there will be a flock of black swans come October. Time to top up the emergency Brexit store cupboard.
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Stooo » Tue Aug 10, 2021 5:41 pm

Cannydc wrote:Apologies, link for that

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -permanent

And yes, Stooo, there will be a flock of black swans come October. Time to top up the emergency Brexit store cupboard.


I'll be Ok I think, I just need a trilby and a coat with lots of deep pockets :pmsl:

We have no idea if we're going to be hit with extreme weather or when and we're still going on with starving the country, bloke at work still disputes shortages and doesn't do the shopping anyway. I really don't know what it's going to take :dunno:
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Re: After Brexit

Postby Cannydc » Tue Aug 10, 2021 6:04 pm

Stooo wrote:
Cannydc wrote:Apologies, link for that

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -permanent

And yes, Stooo, there will be a flock of black swans come October. Time to top up the emergency Brexit store cupboard.


I'll be Ok I think, I just need a trilby and a coat with lots of deep pockets :pmsl:

We have no idea if we're going to be hit with extreme weather or when and we're still going on with starving the country, bloke at work still disputes shortages and doesn't do the shopping anyway. I really don't know what it's going to take :dunno:


The simple answer to that is ration books. And while that's unlikely, it's not as fanciful as some might imagine.
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