Petrol shortage

[Grant66]

Originally Posted by Seeker

2) This is not caused by Brexit (Grant Shapps)
3) 14,000 EU HGV drivers went home because of pandemic and Brexit (just a minute...)

UK was already short of 76,000 drivers before Brexit or Covid. Undoubtedly those haven't helped the situation but it's not the whole story.
Pay and conditions (responsibility of the employers), lack of investment in training. The only growth in the industry since 2010 has been to increase the number of eastern European drivers.

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/supply-c...659841.article

Perhaps a bit of foresight from the RHA might have avoided the situation.

Sent from an S20 using Tapatalk with that kin cr4p blocked

[Sir Trev]

The one thing you can blame the government for is IR35. Independent owner/drivers have been caught up in something trying to stop white collar workers avoiding NI, despite most of us on day rates working short term contracts (ie no job security), working for multiple clients (clearly not employees in disguise) and paying lots of Corporation Tax and VAT 'cos we didn't fiddle the system. A lot of hauliers and logistics firms are preferring to use agencies instead of o/d as they wrongly believe it covers them better in case they get audited. Muppetts!

I'm supposed to be going to the office on Tuesday and most of my colleagues are coming in on the same day, as we've not seen each other face to face in a year and a half. I do hope this does not scupper things!

[Adam Ef]

Drivers that left because of Brexit left months ago, not in the last few days when the media said there was a crisis due to lack of drivers. What is causing the "crisis", the drivers or the media hype?

[Chris_SVS]

Originally Posted by Adam Ef

Drivers that left because of Brexit left months ago, not in the last few days when the media said there was a crisis due to lack of drivers. What is causing the "crisis", the drivers or the media hype?

Media hype and people not understanding how petrol stations work. ie: you have to be absolutely sure that your tank will take a full compartment worth of delivery, otherwise the trailer can't be disconnected from your forecourt inlet and you have to give fuel away.

But also that deliveries are scheduled for every 3 days (example) and it's not just as easy as phoning up BP and asking for a quick 500L this afternoon, this might be ok for your domestic oil tank but not this.\

+people are thick

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by Seeker

2) This is not caused by Brexit (says Grant Shapps)

Where are the drivers coming from if the EU is already short?

https://inews.co.uk/news/hgv-shortag...-offer-1217320


"the head of the European Road Haulers Association (UETR) has said drivers on the continent are likely to ignore the UK in favour of “higher pay and better working conditions across Europe."

Mr Digioia (head of UETR) added that “it is not surprising” that the UK is suffering driver shortages.
“There are two reasons,” he said. “Number one is Brexit, and number two is Covid.

was that Plan B or C?

[keith_d]

Originally Posted by Adam Ef

Drivers that left because of Brexit left months ago, not in the last few days when the media said there was a crisis due to lack of drivers. What is causing the "crisis", the drivers or the media hype?

This particular 'crisis' has the same cause as the toilet paper fiasco at the beginning of lockdown. People grabbing things in case there's a shortage.

The underlying problem is that pay and conditions for long distance drivers have been destroyed by a decade of companies being able to hire cheap eastern european drivers. Why would young people want to go into an industry where you're away from home for days on end, living in a shoebox, and paid rock bottom wages.

As has already been mentioned, independent drivers have been hit with IR35 which was meant to catch well paid IT professionals, not HGV drivers. So that's more paperwork and extra taxes. I'd bet that's encouraged a few retirements among the older drivers.

The final factor is that there's also a shortage of drivers in Europe, so when Brexit happened many European drivers were able to find jobs closer to home and family for comparable pay.

Put all this together, and it's no surprise that there's a shortage of Class-1 drivers.

[Seeker]

the visas to attract drivers and poultry workers will expire on Christmas Eve (!) Better lay on extra ferries, workers will be falling over themselves to get here.

"businesses dismissed the move as no more than “throwing a thimble of water on a bonfire"".

[gadget]

Originally Posted by Bibio

if there wasn't there will be now. our politicians are a bunch of morons.

Known that for a long time but ... well said anyway!

[Bibio]

we have oil reserves and refineries to make fuel... why is there a shortage?? so the gov can make more money in duty as a stop gap (its the highest duty on anything).. they do it every time we are up shizz street.

why can they just say sorry peeps we effed up so its another 10p on tax, vat etc.etc till things are better. but instead they make our life's a misery bu creating panic.

[Adam Ef]

Plenty of garages had fuel in South Wales today and no one queuing to get it. Filled up the bike at a very quiet garage. They did have a £30 limit in place though, not that I could fit that in the bike.