Are lorry drivers (or lack of) having an effect on any of your regular supplies?

[Baddegg]

I’ve spoken to someone before who reckon if his vehicle wasn’t moving he didn’t get paid, ie 2 hour traffic jam = no pay for 2 hours….so as above this whole situation has been caused by greedy employers who drive down wages and conditions because there was always an Eastern European who would not complain! It’s now bitten em on the arse royally ?

 

[mattg4321]

What do you mean weaker currency? The pound is up against the dollar over the latest 5 year period.

Unless you mean higher costs from years ago??

 

[mattg4321]

I’ve spoken to someone before who reckon if his vehicle wasn’t moving he didn’t get paid, ie 2 hour traffic jam = no pay for 2 hours….so as above this whole situation has been caused by greedy employers who drive down wages and conditions because there was always an Eastern European who would not complain! It’s now bitten em on the arse royally ?

This is 100% the reason.

Big businesses bleating they want the return of cheap easily exploitable Labour. They don’t like having to pay a proper wage.

Funny how we were told by project fear that a leave vote would hit the lower paid hardest. That prediction has gone the same way as the others - such as immediate recession, house price crash etc etc. Bottom line is the big boys want cheap Labour and brexit makes that harder.

We were also told that mass immigration from Eastern Europe post 2004 had no effect on wages in this country. Utter bo@&&£&s as has now been proven.

 

[Leesparkykent]

I’m building 24 houses and have had no end of issues due to shortages. Over the period I’ve had issues with cement, plasterboard, bricks, timber and even PVC tile trim. I’ve managed the whole situation and top of that we’ve seen dramatic price increases on many materials. It hasn’t caused me loads of delays but it’s probably been a 100% rise in the actual time it’s taken to source materials for the right money.

 

[mattg4321]

There’s no doubt there are shortages of all sorts of things currently. Coupled with price rises. This isn’t really due to brexit though.

There are materials and HGV driver shortages along with price rises throughout Europe if not the world. Loads of news articles on this. It’s mostly covid related.

 

[UNG]

/I used to work in Highways and regularly joined police patrols in Kent. 90% of the lorry drivers we pulled over or were in lay-bys were EU ones with EU drivers from EU countries.

So are you saying that the 90% were EU lorries driven by EU drivers from EU countries how odd to find that many in Kent.

It's incredible to say that losing that source of cheap labour is not causing supply issues,

That is what has caused the problem with UK class 1 drivers leaving the industry because of employers pushing down the rates to push up their profits and now it's biting their rear end they are bleating it's all down to Brexit

let alone the paperwork and customs costs.

What has that got to do with domestic lorry drivers

Yes most electrical supplies are made and manufactured in the far east and don't come from Europe, the cost of shipping containers world wide is high and yes Covid sickness and changes in demand has had a big effect but when our income is falling becuase we've lost virtually half our export market, costs of importing from US/Asia will increase too due to a weaker currency. I'm afraid its inescapable the impact Brexit will have

Where have you been and where are you getting your facts the pound since Brexit has traded at least 10 cents up on the USD, we have moved up slightly against the Euro but I have a feeling that the real picture is that the Euro is being propped up by the European central bank to save face and to perpetuate the "Brexit problem"
The increase in import costs is down to shipping costing more due to supply and demand making some routes more profitable and with a lack of empty containers in the far east exacerbating the problem of shipping goods on that route you have major supply issues and this not down to your mythical weaker currency

 

[pc1966]

• The immediate problem in transport is down to Brexit - the loss of EU drivers.
• The short term problem is due to COVID - back logs for training new drivers.
• The long term problem is the one that gov & industry has been avoiding talking about for years - the dependency on cheap EU labour due to poor pay and conditions and the resulting lack of younger folk going in to HGV driving. Apparently the average age for HGV drivers in the UK is about 55, if that is not screaming a warning then WTF is needed?

 

[nicebutdim]

The cordless lawnmower I was trying to purchase from Screwfix is out of stock due to Brexit.

A Kingfisher group employee was telling me a few months back that they had huge supply issues as a result of that container ship wedged in the Suez Canal.

Considering the number of their products that are directly imported from China (I'm thinking own brands like Erbraur and Mac Allister), I'd imagine the significant shortage of containers in China and soaring cost of worldwide freight is having much greater impact on supplies than last leg distribution within the UK.

 

[UNG]

• The immediate problem in transport is down to Brexit - the loss of EU drivers.

How about all the UK drivers leaving the industry I know around 10 ex HGV drivers who even with some of the £20+/hr rates being offered have no interest in going back to driving HGV's

• The short term problem is due to COVID - back logs for training new drivers.

Even without Covid I don't think we would have enough drivers as too many have had enough and are moving away from HGV driving

• The long term problem is the one that gov & industry has been avoiding talking about for years - the dependency on cheap EU labour due to poor pay and conditions and the resulting lack of younger folk going in to HGV driving. Apparently the average age for HGV drivers in the UK is about 55, if that is not screaming a warning then WTF is needed?

Some of the problem is down to an EU directive back in 2007 that introduced the Driver CPC another part of the problem is the 5 days of training required over 5 years to keep the Driver CPC that a lot of the employers won't pay for or the time to do it, if your an agency driver the rates available have been that low that to fund the training to keep your licence and earn a reasonable living is difficult
Immediately prior to the introduction of the driver CPC the average age of a HGV driver was 56 so not a lot of change in 13 - 14 years
Historically a lot of HGV drivers were ex army but the changes to the defence strategy over the last few decades and the massive reductions of boots on the ground that the army has seen means this is no longer the case
The big issue the industry has to address is that a tramping life does not appeal to a lot of the newcomers to the industry in this tech hungary world we now live in

 

[UNG]

A Kingfisher group employee was telling me a few months back that they had huge supply issues as a result of that container ship wedged in the Suez Canal.

Considering the number of their products that are directly imported from China (I'm thinking own brands like Erbraur and Mac Allister), I'd imagine the significant shortage of containers in China and soaring cost of worldwide freight is having much greater impact on supplies than last leg distribution within the UK.

Don't forget the 400+ other ships that were stuck waiting for the Suez Canal to reopen and subsequently missed their port slots, one of my customers who works in shipping reckons it will take many months before it returns to something like normal
Something else to factor in is that the cargo of the Evergiven is subject to General Average which could be £20K - 30K per container