Keep this one simple - if HGV driver from Europe, would you come to help out on a 3 months contract?

No they are short of drivers in Europe as well so I'd stay in my own country

No!
We have HGV drivers. It's the ones who can drive the dangerous/hazardous chemicals that we have a shortage of!!
We have fuel, it's just taking time to get to places - we have our own oilfields!!!

More than 50,000 people are waiting for their licenses to be processed according to the news.

MaizieD I agree that it should have been picked up years ago, there is apparently a backlog in issuing/renewing HGV licenses by DVLA.

It really is time for the hauliers to pay the going rate and we as consumers to realise that wanting to buy foodstuffs and non-consumables as cheap as chips is part of the problem.

Unfortunately I think we are fast approaching (if not in) a perfect storm some of which is due to the Governments lack of foresight.

Last night on the news, they showed a map across Europe, of where the shortages of HGV drivers are. Poland is the worst, followed by Germany, and then us. The other countries all had their shortages on a sliding scale.

The reasons for this were divided into three categories.

1. Covid
2. Brexit
3. Natural turnover which has happened gradually over years.

It was thought that the young people who would previously have trained for this type of work, and many other skilled jobs to be honest, have been going to university.

We now know what little benefit many of these degrees have had, but over time, has caused these, ( and many other I don’t doubt), shortages.

Growstuff

You're nit picking but not paying attention, to work a 30 hour week would make you are part timer, generally part time work is not available as said earlier. They need drivers to work as many hours as possible and a driver can't just abandon their load because they think they've done enough hours. The pressure to do more is constant. People don't do 15 hour days for fun.
I've never even been in a trade union in my life . You're free to ignore everything I've said you can bury your head just like the road haulage association have for the past decade.
I won't be supporting anyone other than me quite frankly and you being skint doesn't mean everyone else has to join you, especially when they are working so hard to support their families. So I may feel sorry for you but is everyone supposed to live at the same level, personally I don't think so. If you have a skill that's in demand you should not be exploited.

GrannyGravy13

I have just read that according to the ONS 10,000 EU HGV drivers left the U.K.

This is a relatively small proportion of the driver shortage.

But in a system where there is no slack even the loss of a relatively few drivers can have a disproportionately large effect.

We know that the transport industry has been having problems with a driver shortage for a number of years now. Problems that were, to a certain, extent masked by the use of EU drivers. Losing them has tipped it from 'just about managing' to 'breakdown'. It was foreseen...

I have just read that according to the ONS 10,000 EU HGV drivers left the U.K.

This is a relatively small proportion of the driver shortage.

NO.

25 k per annum is very low for what they do isn’t it ? I’d just laugh if I were them.

FlexibleFriend

Growstuff

Prices may matter but we can't keep them artificially low if transporting goods costs more we have to pay more just as if vegetables are costing more to pick we have to pay more to buy them.
Just because the median income is 25k per annum doesn't mean some people should be expected to work 60 hour weeks for long periods of time because they have a certain skill set.
I accept no one has a magic money tree but if we accept rising energy costs why should transport or vegetable picking be any different. If we actually pay what we need to for everything we'll all be tightening our belts but it's what needs to happen.
I saw a farm in Lincolnshire advertising for cabbage pickers with a wage of 62k per annum who do you think will be paying for that?

You're contradicting yourself again. You wrote that drivers have to work 60 hours to earn £50,000, so presumably they can earn £25,000 (ie the same or more than half the population) for 30 hours work. Does somebody have a big stick and make them work longer hours?

How are you going to support the people on below average incomes who will end up paying for this?

Sorry, but you sound like an old-fashioned trade unionist and I can't take what you write that seriously.

Would totally depend on the deal on the table.

Kandinsky
We did actually meet a 65 year old Grandmother HGV driver in a lorry park in Romania. Wonderful woman ?
She was very proud of the fact that she’d never taken a test in her life. That was no surprise as I’ve met too many Eastern European’s who’ve never taken a driving test.

NO ….such a blooming cheek
“We don’t want you so go home”
“Oh do come back for a little brief time to help us out a pickle”

My answer would be f o

Now I have to say I have heard daft things in my time - but .......

Considering none of us are HGV drivers from Europe this survey is meaningless.

It’s like asking HGV drivers from Europe to pretend they’re 65 year old grandmothers.

Thanks all . it seems most of us agree, and it is a

NO

Wait and see.

At least those drivers who lost their job in Derbyshire will find new jobs quickly. Good for them!

It's not even three months. The earliest they could arrive is late October and they have to be gone by Xmas. Not a very tempting offer to those HGV drivers who were booted pout because of brexit and have the freedom to work in any of 27 EU countries.

No.

NO

- even if I applied today - how much would it cost and how long would I need to wait for the Home Office to make a decision? How long before I got my visa in my hand and the right to work?
- then I would need to apply for a job
- then I would need to put my affairs in order (in some EU countries you need to give at least 3 months notice on a rented flat)
- then I would need to find somewhere to live in the UK - or am I expected to live in my lorry?
- then there is the fear that with the current petrol chaos I might not be able to make deliveries and would I be paid?

So by the time all of this is resolved at best it will be sometime in November - and with the visas set to expire on Christmas Eve - is it really worth it for 4-6 weeks of work?

NO! Drivers have much better conditions in Europe so why would they.

yes, because I could earn a fortune to what I would get in my own country...

Growstuff

Prices may matter but we can't keep them artificially low if transporting goods costs more we have to pay more just as if vegetables are costing more to pick we have to pay more to buy them.
Just because the median income is 25k per annum doesn't mean some people should be expected to work 60 hour weeks for long periods of time because they have a certain skill set.
I accept no one has a magic money tree but if we accept rising energy costs why should transport or vegetable picking be any different. If we actually pay what we need to for everything we'll all be tightening our belts but it's what needs to happen.
I saw a farm in Lincolnshire advertising for cabbage pickers with a wage of 62k per annum who do you think will be paying for that?

Kali2

MerylStreep

If I couldn’t pay my rent or feed my children and no welfare net to help me, then Yes I would. Pride wouldn’t come into it.

Well, as some have said, there are shortages in the EU still- so much much easier to go and work there with good conditions, higher salaries, more stable currencies, respect, no red tape due to Schengen, etc. So I will stick to

NO

You posed the question if HGV driver from Europe, would you come to help out on a 3 month contract
I wouldn’t care what country wanted my skills. If I’m out of work and someone wants to employ me, that’s where I’ll go.
A country’s politics wouldn’t come into it.

On the news they said 150 army tanker drivers on standby. Not sure 150 will be enough and why are they on standby, there must be work for them to do now.