Petrol queues reported now on BBC news

As we are mentioning housing, it will be far harder for those that rent to add office space too unless they rent off HA/council or other sustainable estates

Well said GrannyGravy13 !!
Working from home must be dreadfully hard for those who do not have the space and amenities. The employer should be checking their home situation and if not suitable they should come to work. It is not right to expect people to struggle. At one time (at the office) they were checking our desks, chairs and screens were all set up correctly to avoid medical problems for staff. No chance of that for people working on sofas and coffee tables. This should be stopped asap.

GrannyGravy13

I am all for working from home where it is suitable for both employers and employees.

I am not for people being coerced into trying to work from home in inadequate circumstances which then impacts on family life and the mental health of the employees.

Good points, GrannyGravy
It can be more productive and suitable in some instances but not always the right option.

GrannyGravy
It took my friend 6 weeks to get her own office chair ( from her own office in the council building) by which time she was in agony.
We offered to get it for her but: computer says NO!!!
It had to be a council worker removing the chair.
So they had a senior housing officer who couldn’t do her job properly for 6 weeks and longer because of jobsworth.

GrannyGravy13

I am all for working from home where it is suitable for both employers and employees.

I am not for people being coerced into trying to work from home in inadequate circumstances which then impacts on family life and the mental health of the employees.

I agree absolutely, but my point is that the balance is definitely changing with more people working at home where possible.

To force people back where it isn’t necessary doesn’t make sense.

Kali2

A long article here that does give a real picture of what is going on. Of course this is not new, but it was hidden from view for al sorts of reasons. The Financial Sector, the Haulage and Petrol industry, AND THE GOVERNEMENT knew about it all a long time ago, but chose to ignore. And it won't go away in a matter of days and weeks either.

unravellingtheratsnest.org/politics/petrol-can-we-get-the-army-in-to-drive-tankers-and-essar-whats-it-all-about/

Thank you for posting that link Kali.

I picked up the news about Essar a few days ago and have been following it where I can. It's a concern, but the media can't be accused of sensationalising it - maybe they should be highlighting more what's been happening with some of our vital infrastructure. Stanlow/Essar is important (too big to fail?) but so was the steel industry and that was left to fail.

PS. The article nails on the head the current situation with HGV drivers.

I wonder if the government is giving contracts to their mates to deliver petrol. Another opportunity to line their pockets.

MamaCaz

Sarnia

Boris needs to forget about temporary visas and just get the Army in. No one being exploited then or companies feathering their own nests.

We are, according to the Road Haulage Association, short of 100,000 HGV drivers.

The total size of the full-time UK armed forces (trained and untrained) is only around 159,000.

Their help has already been widely used since the pandemic began, for instance, with the roll-out of the vaccination programme, and amongst other things, they are now supporting ambulance services but in reality, I doubt enough of them could be spared from genuine defence-related duties to come close to making up the shortfall across all the important services that are now failing through driver / staffing shortages.

I doubt if the army has 100,000 drivers with further ADR training.

I agree with you MamaCaz.

yes mates without HGV drivers

We are away on a little holiday at the moment, and noted that there were two closed garages on the journey, the others were all working and with no more than three cars waiting for fuel at any pump.It really does depend where you are....that doesn’t mean there are no queues elsewhere.The journey was non motorway ( I think motorways have no problems.)

It depends what time of day you are out. Morning here and along route = fine
Mid afternoon = running out/closed garages/queues/chaos
Not sure what it is like now as I am not planning on going out again

Local facebook just argues with itself

GrannyGravy13

I am all for working from home where it is suitable for both employers and employees.

I am not for people being coerced into trying to work from home in inadequate circumstances which then impacts on family life and the mental health of the employees.

I absolutely agree. It doesn’t work for everyone but I didn’t like how Urmstingran said people weren’t working from home they were “off work”.

A bit like when she said the Labour Party hate Britain …..

My reply was to ug as well tbh.

This is just not just a temporary 'blip' caused by selfish individual behaviour, although this does not help!

It is absolutely essential and urgent that some system is put into place to ensure key workers are prioritised asap.

But this is the reality

East Midlands Chamber chief executive Scott Knowles slams Government response to HGV driver shortage. It has been known for quite some time, irrespective of Brexit or Covid (and the disastrous combo) that the UK has a massive shortage of HGV drivers, for all sorts of reasons.

www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/government-hgv-visa-plan-sticking-5976766

I agree Kali and it's absolutely the kind of issue which the government has had five years to plan. There needs to more accessible training with government grants, better roadside facilities, a pension/insurance scheme.

Will Hutton

Northern Ireland is free from petrol shortages. But 90% of UK mainland petrol stations out of fuel. Rarely in economics is there a controlled experiment- this is it. Johnson’s Brexit = a fuel crisis non-existent elsewhere in Europe, including Northern Ireland. Only we suffer.

Just filled up at Tesco’s. Had a food delivery and the delivery guy said they were getting petrol and if we went early afternoon there wouldn’t be a queue. So relieved as I never run the car low having had dirt in the engine years ago. As with a lot of things Tesco’s seem to be on the ball because it’s ran by someone with foresight. I was actually shaking as I don’t get out much these days and I was terrified that I’d put the wrong petrol in or something stupid like that.

I took the car out to walk the dog and hopefully get petrol.

The Queue into sainsbury car park for petrol. I parked up and walked him in the attached footpath when we got back petrol station closed - bum.

Ooh, I’m coming in for some stick on here!

I said ‘Labour hates Britain’ because they hate the majority in Britain as they are the ones who don’t vote for them (most people) and their nonsense. Too much wokery, too much in the way of wonky ideas, too much ‘identity’ and labelling of people, their anti-Semitism, their continual in-fighting. Put your hand up if you’re a white male and would like to be heard. You may have to wait a while if you’re happy with your gender, have a job and don’t claim benefits. Unless you do, they’re not interested.

As for the other darts being thrown at me - I did say at home and not working. I meant the DVLA. Not issuing drivers licences. It’s a joke! If WFH means a department isn’t operating at full capacity as it would in the office, what’s the point to it? The DVLA now have a huge backlog to clear.

I did also say that a member of our family has been WFH for 16 months. He is a graphic designer and it works for his company. But one size doesn’t fit all. I most certainly wasn’t inferring that ALL who WFH have gone AWOL. But let’s be honest, a lot of things aren’t being done thoroughly and we all know it.

GrannyGravy13

It’s all well and good for people to work from home, but they do need an office, peace and quiet along with an appropriate chair and desk, secure/strong enough WiFi and a computer, printer, scanner etc.

I do know some folks who have been working in their bedrooms, juggling laptop and paper on their beds, also people trying to work in their sitting rooms on coffee tables and at their kitchen worktops.

Not everyone lives in a large enough home and is able to or can afford to have a dedicated home office. People living in small flats with children, people still living at home with their parents, etc will not have the same facilities.

It will be a mixture GrannyGravy. Younger people may well be happier in an office for a period of time, and their companies may want to have them there. Customer-facing roles may have to be "live", but even some of those - Estate Agent, Psychiatrist and others - may be a mixture of online and live.

The thing that will not happen is that people working from home not working. No employer can afford that to happen for long and it is an incredibly naive suggestion that this is the case.

I said ‘Labour hates Britain’ because they hate the majority in Britain.
There you go again accusing Labour (the party ? Supporters ?) of “hating”.
It’s not acceptable.

PippaZ we still have one staff member working from home, they come into the office for two consecutive days every 5-6 weeks , it’s working at the moment.

(We purchased a lap top, pay for secure WiFi, desk and chair etc)

I used to work from home before I retired, flex between office, kitchen and site, loved it. I got more done, worked late at home if necessary, but got time off in lieu, no special kit other than laptop and mobile.
Fuel prices are rising in Françe at the pump and domestic fuel rose over 12% during August, I can’t speak for the rest of Europe.
We don’t have 90% of the fuel garages shut here in the south of Hampshire Whitewavemark2, there is fuel and of course some are shut and it’s not satisfactory by any means.

PippaZ

GrannyGravy13

It’s all well and good for people to work from home, but they do need an office, peace and quiet along with an appropriate chair and desk, secure/strong enough WiFi and a computer, printer, scanner etc.

I do know some folks who have been working in their bedrooms, juggling laptop and paper on their beds, also people trying to work in their sitting rooms on coffee tables and at their kitchen worktops.

Not everyone lives in a large enough home and is able to or can afford to have a dedicated home office. People living in small flats with children, people still living at home with their parents, etc will not have the same facilities.

It will be a mixture GrannyGravy. Younger people may well be happier in an office for a period of time, and their companies may want to have them there. Customer-facing roles may have to be "live", but even some of those - Estate Agent, Psychiatrist and others - may be a mixture of online and live.

The thing that will not happen is that people working from home not working. No employer can afford that to happen for long and it is an incredibly naive suggestion that this is the case.

Both my daughter and her partner have worked from home since the start of the pandemic and have been told they won't need to return until the New Year. They know that they are lucky in that they have the space for both to have a separate office.

My daughter is an HR Manager in a large organisation, so has been at the front line in decisions about working from home. Some people in her company expressed a preference to work in the office, but they were in the minority. She has had to make sure that everybody has what they need to work in the location they have chosen. There are currently discussions about the long-term future. All the discussions are taking place online.