Food Shortages

[xenon]

Would newly qualified drivers get a gig delivering petrol? Seems like something you'd only want drivers with a bit of experience taking on.

 

[xenon]

I still remember when my mate got an agency job years ago, delivering bog rolls or something. Not an HGV but next class down. He was shitting it, never drove anything so big. Had to ask for directions. Got to the yard and didn't know what a Tac was when asked for it. No bog rolls were harmed in the exercise IIRC.

 

[TopCat]

Yeah they may be overqualified but still moving into more attractive jobs.

I agree but it’s a tiny pool to recruit (tanker drivers) from to replace the ones who leave.
Easier in the past to recruit and exploit EU workers rather than realise people are your biggest asset.

 

[TopCat]

Would newly qualified drivers get a gig delivering petrol? Seems like something you'd only want drivers with a bit of experience taking on.

No. It’s a higher grade of licence.

 

[TopCat]

I still remember when my mate got an agency job years ago, delivering bog rolls or something. Not an HGV but next class down. He was shitting it, never drove anything so big. Had to ask for directions. Got to the yard and didn't know what a Tac was when asked for it. No bog rolls were harmed in the exercise IIRC.

7.5 tonner? I can drive one on my licence. Grandad rights.

 

[xenon]

7.5 tonner? I can drive one on my licence. Grandad rights.

Something like that I think. Though pretty sure he only has a regular license. He didn't get a driving job again with that agency....

 

[bimble]

Would newly qualified drivers get a gig delivering petrol? Seems like something you'd only want drivers with a bit of experience taking on.

government have said they’ll do whatever is necessary, so I reckon yeah things like having to rack up whatever hours of experience will get chopped.
Couple of months ago they already changed the law so hgv drivers can do 11 instead of hours in a day, which is a brexit freedom.

Government move on HGV driver hours unpopular with the haulage sector

A temporary extension to the number of hours HGV drivers can work has come in for criticism.

www.driving.co.uk

 

[Serge Forward]

7.5 tonner? I can drive one on my licence. Grandad rights.

Can new licences holders not drive 7.5 ton then?

 

[TopCat]

government have said they’ll do whatever is necessary, so I reckon yeah things like having to rack up whatever hours of experience will get chopped.
Couple of months ago they already changed the law so hgv drivers can do 11 instead of hours in a day, which is a brexit freedom.

Government move on HGV driver hours unpopular with the haulage sector

A temporary extension to the number of hours HGV drivers can work has come in for criticism.

www.driving.co.uk

They won’t relax the rules on who can drive fuel tankers. Plus enough drivers are still not exceeding driver hours even though allowed as their companies know it’s madness.

 

[ddraig]

Can new licences holders not drive 7.5 ton then?

Nope, 3.5 max

 

[TopCat]

Can new licences holders not drive 7.5 ton then?

No thank fuck. I spent years teaching people (mainly teachers) on B licences to safely drive mini buses below 3.5 tonne and it was hard work and often terrifying.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Can new licences holders not drive 7.5 ton then?

no. has been the case since (i think) some time round the mid 90s.

Maximum on a car licence is now 3.5 ton (or possibly metric tons)

likewise driving minibuses (9 to 16 seats)

if you passed your car test before X date (i can't remember off hand what that date was but it was after I did my car test in about 1991) then you got what's now C1 (goods vehicle up to 7.5 tons) and D1 (up to 16 seater mini bus but not for hire and reward) as part of the package.

Also possibly some categories involving trailers and / or mopeds but I've never really had to give them a lot of thought.

You also lose these entitlements when you turn 70 unless you do the enhanced medical.

 

[TopCat]

You can go to 4.25 tonne on a B licence if the minibus is wheelchair accessible.

 

[Serge Forward]

Did a lot of 7.5 ton jobs when younger. Why would I want to drive 7.5 ton when I'm 70?

 

[TopCat]

I has all this lot.

 

[elbows]

I'm seeing empty shelves in the US too, so its not entirely due to Brexit.

There's also a shortage of truck drivers:

Truckers are getting big pay hikes, but there's still a shortage of drivers

America's truck driver shortage is driving pay higher. But it's not solving the scarcity of truckers.

www.cnn.com

Yes the media here are just getting round to starting to explore the reasons for the shortage, given that its apparently being seen in many countries.

BBC live updates page 13:39 entry: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-58674934

A shortage of HGV drivers in the UK is not a Brexit issue, says a member of the transport committee.

Conservative MP Greg Smith told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: "This isn't a Brexit issue. If it was a Brexit issue then everyone in the European Union would be just fine and have as many HGV drivers as they need and we know that's not true. We know Germany, we know Poland have as bigger problem as the UK does if not slightly bigger."

He says: "It's perfectly natural thing to look at to say there's a shortage of HGV drivers as there clearly is and we can't fill that gap from the domestic market then we should look at increasing the number of points you get for holding an HGV licence for being able to come here and work in that sector either on a permanent footing or a temporary measure."

BBC live updates page 13:27:

We've been reporting on a lorry driver shortage in the UK which has been exacerbated by coronavirus.

John Buckland gave up teaching to become an HGV driver in 2015 and says although he finds it "a fun job", he's now having second thoughts

"Long distance means I have to have nights out," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One.

"So at the moment I'm spending four to five nights out a week and I just want to be home. The wages are also really pretty poor as well."

He says offering higher salaries will not be enough to get people into the job.

"They're going to say alright you're going to get £50,000 but you're never going to see home, you're going to be out at weekends, sleeping in the cab you're going to have to park in lay-bys. I don't think that's going to be very attractive to very many people at all," he says.

Kieran Smith from specialist HGV training agency, Driver Require, says: "We estimate 230,000 licence holders are not driving at the moment," he says. "Of those, 50,000 left in the last six months, so some of those should be able to be attracted back and that's probably the most easy short-term fix."

So likely combination of factors, including a broader consequence of the pandemic where people rethink their jobs and which sacrifices they are willing to make. In some surveys the number of people thinking of switching job has reached eyewatering proportions in the pandemic.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

You can go to 4.25 tonne on a B licence if the minibus is wheelchair accessible.

I am slightly out of touch with it, but thought the minibus bit was more related to the number of seats, not the weight?

 

[elbows]

And the FT have had articles like this one in recent months:

Subscribe to read

www.ft.com

A record 4m Americans quit their jobs in April, the most since the US Bureau of Labor Statistics began publishing such data in December 2000. More than 40 per cent of the global workforce is ready to resign at some point this year, Microsoft research has shown. Just under 40 per cent of UK and Irish workers say they’ll do the same this year, or once the economy is stronger.

Will they really? Who knows? Likewise, it is hard to know precisely what is causing what some are calling the Great Resignation.

 

[MickiQ]

It’s just panic. Most drive about with a tenners worth of fuel in the tank. Now they are filling up and have seventy quid in the tank thus emptying the garage tanks.

7.5 tonner? I can drive one on my licence. Grandad rights.

It's all metric these days it's 8.25 tonnes if you passed before 1 Jan 1997 (LONG before in my case) and a mere 3.5 tonnes if you're a whippernapper who passed after that

 

[weltweit]

Still plenty of Beetroot in my corner shop

 

[pesh]

Plenty of petrol in the 4th garage we went to

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

So likely combination of factors, including a broader consequence of the pandemic where people rethink their jobs and which sacrifices they are willing to make. In some surveys the number of people thinking of switching job has reached eyewatering proportions in the pandemic.

In the US people are rethinking a lot of things during the pandemic. They're rethinking having two career/job families, rethinking their relationship to money, rethnking their relationship with work in general, and many are choosing to move to smaller cities.

The other factor that I don't ever see mentioned is that the US has lost 680,000 people. The real number is probably much higher. That in itself accounts for some of the worker shortage, but no one wants to admit that.

 

[Badgers]

The petrol (not food shortage ) panic buying is getting a bit mental round here. The police are moving cars on due to the roads getting blocked.

As a result my staff are calling their family/friends telling them to fill up their cars. No doubt said friends/family are also calling others

 

[MickiQ]

The petrol (not food shortage ) panic buying is getting a bit mental round here. The police are moving cars on due to the roads getting blocked.

As a result my staff are calling their family/friends telling them to fill up their cars. No doubt said friends/family are also calling others

and thus it begins

 

[Elpenor]

Herd mentality. Half the people in the queue won’t even need Petrol for any specific purpose.

 

[Elpenor]

In the US people are rethinking a lot of things during the pandemic. They're rethinking having two career/job families, rethinking their relationship to money, rethnking their relationship with work in general, and many are choosing to move to smaller cities.

A lot of people in the UK have taken stock in a similar way I think.

 

[MickiQ]

During the big tanker drivers strike when they were blockading the refineries which was about 2000, I went to a customer site with a couple of colleagues. We weren't totally sure where we were going so I (was driving) pulled into a petrol station which was closed due to lack of the aforementioned petrol so we could take a look at the map without blocking the flow of traffic. Within a minute tops there were half a dozen other cars had joined us there. Someone had seen us so they must have thought we'd spotted some, someone had seen them and someone going past must have noticed several cars on the forecourt. They all sat there for a moment in their cars looking sheepish before they drove off again.

 

[Elpenor]

It was late September 2000. My mum was panicking she wouldn’t have had enough Petrol to drop me off to Uni. Fortunately she was able to get rid of me!

 

[brogdale]

Interesting.
Kind of opposite results here:

Have you personally noticed or experienced any food shortages in your local shop or supermarket in the last few weeks? | Daily Question

Have you personally noticed or experienced any food shortages in your local shop or supermarket in the last few weeks?

yougov.co.uk

Yeah, but different fieldwork dates; the YG says 02/09/21.

 

[marty21]

My Tesco delivery person, (who delivered everything/no subs), told me that the big issue, as far as he could see, was cat litter.

Mrs21 is always buying the special cat litter for the Princess just in case of shortages.