Supply chain and HGD shortages

GillT57

Good try lemon, albeit a bit desperate. Still, you have already assured your readers that you would vote again for Brexit, despite the slowly unfolding but predicted disaster, so you obviously know more than the CEOs of most major supermarkets, and the RHA. What a gift.

Your posts to me are increasingly narky Gill ( don’t worry, I can still sleep at night.)
I didn’t realise that I had readers, how wonderful.

www.globalcoldchainnews.com/driver-shortage-is-pan-european/
Latest estimate of German driver shortage I could find. 60,000 shortfall compared with 100,000 in UK, with population 15m bigger - about half or am I dreaming?
lemongrove I posted an article from BBC news on p1 of this thread which breaks down the reasons for the UK driver shortages. Have they got it wrong too?

GrannyGravy13
Yes, I've no idea why it's regional - another poster said her local Waitrose was half empty, it's a bit of a puzzle.
Apparently another part of the problem is that some young people have paid to take their HGV training and found that insurance companies won't cover them if they're under 25, so they still can't drive HGVs.
Using the railways sounds like a great idea, with non-HGV transport used for local distribution.

Other EU countries are having the same problems, we are only shorter of drivers than them because we won’t recruit more ( new)Eastern Europeans who aren’t already resident in the UK..... we could do, if they were considered by the ‘points’ basis, that’s a government decision. ALL countries will have to invest in massive driver training for the future.

What a happy, simple little world you live in Lemongrove

There are dedicated news outlets with regards to the retail industry That is just one but they are worth looking at.

Ocado operates on a different model to designated stores. I use ocado too and there is much more choice if something isn't available and I can make that decision from the comfort of my own armchair.

Why shouldn't the shortages be regional? Are lorry drivers and their employers evenly spread around the UK. I doubt it.

As I quoted above, no one is denying the shortage is general, but the employers have said that Brexit has made a difficult situation worse.

Every European country seems to look east for drivers, we look to Eastern Europe, continental countries look to Turkey and Russian spin off states. It is just that we chose to make life more difficult for ourselves by tightening restrictions on foreign workers coming into Britain, just when we need them most.

GrannyGravy13

cc

I'm puzzled by how regional these shortages are, my Ocado order was missing a lot of items and none of my frozen goods were delivered. I made up an order for my daughter in Eastbourne for the following day (she has a broken leg) and everything on her much larger order was successfully delivered.

Definitely regional, I went to Waitrose on Thursday with DD the only shelf that was empty was one for tissues, which had 20% off.

Aldi on Friday, all shelves full.

Just been to Waitrose, quite a lot of empty shelves. Lots of fruit and veg missing for example, but then I’m not a Tory voter

Just a thought.

Wouldn’t it be possible to sterilise and reuse the blood sample bottles. I expect they are thrown away generally.

Yes Alegrias my world does seem a lot happier than yours, it’s true.?
Being a Tory voter has nothing to do with any empty shelves
Lucca ( but maybe it should!? i.e. only Tory voters get the goods we need) I shall have to have a word with Boris.

janejudge The blood sample bottles are made of plastic and would probably melt or deform if subject to great heat, I also think it would be very difficult to source sterilisers as there is no deman for them now that all medical supplies like this are one use only.

Both here and in all the many countries with a HGV driver shortage ...people will have to get used to less choices ( which are massive in the first place) until more drivers are recruited and trained.Pay them properly! Transport firms have relied on cheap EU labour for far too long, and are still clamouring for it, so I hope the government won’t give in to their pleas.

It wasn't me re the blood sample bottles, I am pretty sure they are incinerated via clinical waste route.

I almost made a joke that my dd had created the shortage. The last time I took her for blood they filled up FIFTEEN vials #Hematology

FIFTEEN?!
It's bad enough giving three. Her arm must be empty!

I took photos of full shelves as proof and got pilloried for doing so.

I know it’s hard for some people to believe but shortages are regional.

As for the full shelves in my area being because I voted Conservative Lucca that point is verging on the hysterical

Are they like the photos of the empty wards we had to endure during the start of the pandemic?

I can go to my local Tesco right now and take photos of full shelves. Then I can turn round 180degrees and take photos of partially empty ones. Pictures of full shelves in a particular supermarket or two in a particular part of the country does not disprove the fact that there are shortages.

Callistemon

*FIFTEEN*?!
It's bad enough giving three. Her arm must be empty!

she had to have a coke out of a machine as I thought she was going to faint!

Alegrias1

Are they like the photos of the empty wards we had to endure during the start of the pandemic?

I can go to my local Tesco right now and take photos of full shelves. Then I can turn round 180degrees and take photos of partially empty ones. Pictures of full shelves in a particular supermarket or two in a particular part of the country does not disprove the fact that there are shortages.

I took several photos, one had gaps

I have never said that there are not shortages but have repeatedly pointed out that they are regional, different products/produce.

It is not as if there are no tinned tomatoes (just as an example) U.K. wide.

Wards?
What item can’t you buy that you really want Alegrias?

Well actually, tomato juice, seeing as you ask. And this morning, butter.

Did you not understand the "wards" reference? I'll explain it for you. Some activists were taking pictures of empty hospital wards at the start of the pandemic and trying to say that meant there was no problem in the hospitals.

So if someone posts a picture of a full shelf in a supermarket and says look, no shortages, it just proves that this particular shelf is full, not that there are no shortages. Its really a complete waste of time, and just a wee bit desperate.

I will happily post tomato juice and butter to you Alegrias1 maybe Scotland is suffering more, maybe write to Ms.Sturgeon.

Thank you for your concern but I am in no way desperate.

Word’s out ...panick buying next!

I am not inconvenienced by anything at the moment but I can still acknowledge it becomes difficult for people on tight budgets or with dietary restrictions. Someone was making fun earlier of if the Mcdonalds milkshakes and it always reminds me of a family member of mine who was chronically ill and need calories and certain things to keep weight up or my friend who had chemotherapy and needed to have what she could eat or keep down. You only have to changed a few of your circumstances and things become more difficult. I have lived rural though for quite a long time now and I can see how limited some choices may be or become. Not everyone lives by a big supermarket or does internet shopping.

GrannyGravy13

I will happily post tomato juice and butter to you Alegrias1 maybe Scotland is suffering more, maybe write to Ms.Sturgeon.

Thank you for your concern but I am in no way desperate.

Converted DH to cranberry juice and dry loaf

you should try and keep two slices of bread, like in the war

Sorry, Jane, I now cannot find who did say that, but I am sure I read it.

Grannygravy13 Why does the fact that shortages are regional have any bearing on whether we have enough lorry drivers or not. It is what you would expect.

Lemongrove we are only shorter of drivers than them because we won’t recruit more ( new)Eastern Europeans who aren’t already resident in the UK..... we could do, if they were considered by the ‘points’ basis, that’s a government decision.

I thought one of the (main) reasons for Brexit was so that the government could control immigration into this country. So that is what it is doing. Of course they have it within their remit to change it, as you readily admit. But they are choosing not to change it. Which is why farmers are giving away their crops of soft fruit to anyone able to pick it, others are ploughing crops back into the fields for lack of transport and farm labour.

I just do not understand it,I thought Brexit was meantt o make life better for us by giving the government more flexibility in managing the economy, I was naive enough to believe that this is what they would do.

Can someone explain to me how exacerbating these problems improves the economy?