Well done the BBC

[BerndRos]

Perhaps the Lorry Drivers are also demanding, that they work a few days days from home each week.

It’s pathetic, the situation we have gotten ourselves into.

 

[itsSteve]

Seems to me that too many people are blaming the media (and particularly the BBC for some reason) for "inventing" a problem that doesn't really exist. At almost midnight on Sunday evening this is the reality,

"The Petrol Retailers Association has warned that as many as two-thirds of its membership of nearly 5,500 independent outlets are out of fuel, with the rest of them "partly dry and running out soon".

This is clearly not the result of a few people unnecessarily and selfishly filling their tanks with fuel they don't need, there is a systemic problem.

So, what to do? Like everyone, I have journeys I consider essential, school runs, weekly shops, hospital appointments. All I can do is use the car (currently over half a tank) and van (less than a quarter) as little as possible, consider public transport if possible and hope the government gets this sorted sooner rather than later!

 

[Joker 1299]

Don’t we have LGV drivers and, indeed fuel tankers in the Army?

 

[andyinluton]

I had to do the Manchester Uni run again last night, from Sheffield down to Luton there wasn't fuel available at any service station. In fact the only place we saw any available was in a garage in Moss side which had just one pump running and a mile long queue.

With most petrol stations round here not open at all yesterday & the few that were, running out quickly, its going to be chaos at whichever garage has the next delivery.

 

[soulstyledevon]

Like many sectors, Care, Construction and Haulage. Poor pay and conditions are the root cause.
For to long, companies have been satisfying share holders and company profit margins, Instead of investing in people and pay packages which boost moral and self worth within an organisation at the lower end.
Sooner or later, the greed becomes the downfall. Here are the first signs…

 

[GrahamB]

Don’t we have LGV drivers and, indeed fuel tankers in the Army?

About 2000 drivers - not enough to fix it. As the Govt were warned back in August: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news...h-the-surface-of-hgv-driver-shortage-12377823

 

[Velma's Dad]

For the forum members who regard the BBC (uniquely amongst the media, apparently) as a bunch of leftie scaremongers not to be trusted, here's this morning's update in the FT:

https://www.ft.com/content/7e79e4a8-7a1e-4b2c-8f81-cbf4e9969e28

It seems likely that the fuel stations issue will now have to settle down on its own, there's certainly no spare capacity that will fix it until everyone has full car tanks and sees fewer queues as they drive past petrol stations.

As Graham says, the Army only has a couple of thousand HGV drivers in total - many of them will I think be the old class 2 (I may be out of date on that but it used to be the case) so won't be qualified to drive articulated tankers, and only a fraction of them will be fuel-trained anyway.

 

[Louis II]

This is clearly not the result of a few people unnecessarily and selfishly filling their tanks with fuel they don't need, there is a systemic problem.

There is obviously an underlying issue, a problem that needed to be resolved.
It's become a crisis because of panic buying. 400 - 500% increases in demand seem to be getting widely reported and whilst likely exaggerated not many supply chains could cope with anything close to that level of change in demand overnight.

 

[andyinluton]

Hopefully once the panic buyers that didn't actually need it have full tanks, things will start to calm down a bit. At least unlike toilet rolls, fuel is relatively hard to stockpile.

I can confirm following extensive trials this weekend, that I get less miles per gallon on BP ultimate extra finest diesel at £1.78/ litre compared to the usual Sainsbury's/ Asda stuff at £1.35

 

[WelshGas]

Not headline news on the TV or Radio.

Aldi says deliveries normal despite lorry driver shortage

The boss of supermarket chain Aldi UK says he doesn't expect any disruption for customers this Christmas.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[icic]

Not headline news on the TV or Radio.

Aldi says deliveries normal despite lorry driver shortage

The boss of supermarket chain Aldi UK says he doesn't expect any disruption for customers this Christmas.

www.bbc.co.uk

One the first page of BBC now

Aldi says deliveries normal despite lorry driver shortage

The boss of supermarket chain Aldi UK says he doesn't expect any disruption for customers this Christmas.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[WelshGas]

One the first page of BBC now

Aldi says deliveries normal despite lorry driver shortage

The boss of supermarket chain Aldi UK says he doesn't expect any disruption for customers this Christmas.

www.bbc.co.uk

Wasn't on my phone 10 minutes ago.
Maybe accusations against the media are having an effect.
No mention on the radio news though.

 

[Velma's Dad]

Like many sectors, Care, Construction and Haulage. Poor pay and conditions are the root cause.
For to long, companies have been satisfying share holders and company profit margins, Instead of investing in people and pay packages which boost moral and self worth within an organisation at the lower end.
Sooner or later, the greed becomes the downfall. Here are the first signs…

I have sympathy with that general sentiment, however those sectors you mentioned are actually characterised by large numbers of small operators rather than big companies, battling each other for business and hence typically operating on extremely thin margins (in the SME haulage sector, typically 1-2% I believe). Yes, their customers exacerbate the problem by seeking the lowest-price tenders for haulage, but it's unrealistic to expect otherwise. So it's a structural problem.

Of course, part of that problem has also been the ability of the UK to buy in cheap central European trucking/driver capacity and ending that is (IMO) a potential positive of Brexit in the long run (yes I do accept there are a few positives, just a few ).

Maybe Labour's notions of sectoral labour rate agreements have some merit, if we really want to "level up" or at least put a fair floor level on wages in the most vulnerable fields of work.

 

[Velma's Dad]

Poor old Auntie Beeb, as usual the plain speaking Dutch tell it like it is .

 

[BikerGran]

Just to back up your view I noted that the BBC this morning managed to site a reporter live on a Forecourt with no fuel as part of the 'Crisis' whilst stating that the Forecourt further down the same road was open as usual with fuel available. They obviously didn't site the Reporter there with a 'there is no fuel shortage' headline.

I saw this on social media. The reporter's name was allegedly Phil McCann, so I dismissed it as fake news.

 

[bob_summers]

Data from 2020 shows Germany short of 45,00-65,000 drivers, while in Poland, whose population is just over 50% of the UK's, the number is almost 124,000.

My simple schoolboy maths makes that just under a 190,000 driver shortage in 2 EU countries, or 205,000 if you include Spain.

People & Profit - Truck driver shortage: How a lack of hauliers is hurting the economy

A global shortage of truck drivers is hitting supplies of everyday goods. It's a particular problem in the United Kingdom, where many drivers are EU nationals. But what's the situation across the rest…

www.france24.com

Perhaps any German or Polish forumites could tell us how the situation is over there, but I shop in both France and Spain and these driver shortages are not manifesting in queues at the pump, nor empty shelves. The bigger hauliers, Schencker, etc, more often than not use a Spanish registered trailer hauled by a Romanian or Bulgarian tractor anyway; not sure how you would count a shortage in that situation.

Literally the only delivery problems I encounter is orders from the UK which spend 7-10 days in Spanish customs whereas anything from China or US does not. I don't bother any more if I can help it; doubt I'm the only one.

 

[WelshGas]

Perhaps any German or Polish forumites could tell us how the situation is over there, but I shop in both France and Spain and these driver shortages are not manifesting in queues at the pump, nor empty shelves. The bigger hauliers, Schencker, etc, more often than not use a Spanish registered trailer hauled by a Romanian or Bulgarian tractor anyway; not sure how you would count a shortage in that situation.

Literally the only delivery problems I encounter is orders from the UK which spend 7-10 days in Spanish customs whereas anything from China or US does not. I don't bother any more if I can help it; doubt I'm the only one.

Not sure what the inadequacies of Spanish Customs have to do with HGV driver shortages?
Had no problems filling up with Diesel this morning at Tesco on my way to Bristol and no empty shelves at local supermarket.

 

[icic]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1442405974468403200

The driver situation

 

[Calimili]

Perhaps any German or Polish forumites could tell us how the situation is over there, but I shop in both France and Spain and these driver shortages are not manifesting in queues at the pump, nor empty shelves. The bigger hauliers, Schencker, etc, more often than not use a Spanish registered trailer hauled by a Romanian or Bulgarian tractor anyway; not sure how you would count a shortage in that situation.

Literally the only delivery problems I encounter is orders from the UK which spend 7-10 days in Spanish customs whereas anything from China or US does not. I don't bother any more if I can help it; doubt I'm the only one.

I can confirm no shortages of fuel or goods in Germany. And I can confirm, here too , the big trucking companies have german licensed trailers pulled by mostly romanian and other eastern european licensed trucks.

 

[bob_summers]

Not sure what the inadequacies of Spanish Customs have to do with HGV driver shortages?
Had no problems filling up with Diesel this morning at Tesco on my way to Bristol and no empty shelves at local supermarket.

Just to add a bit of balance you understand. It’s not all land of milk and honey here

And as usual, as long as the supply problems are only affecting other people, it’s ok with you I guess.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Perhaps any German or Polish forumites could tell us how the situation is over there, but I shop in both France and Spain and these driver shortages are not manifesting in queues at the pump, nor empty shelves. The bigger hauliers, Schencker, etc, more often than not use a Spanish registered trailer hauled by a Romanian or Bulgarian tractor anyway; not sure how you would count a shortage in that situation.

Literally the only delivery problems I encounter is orders from the UK which spend 7-10 days in Spanish customs whereas anything from China or US does not. I don't bother any more if I can help it; doubt I'm the only one.

If goods from China and the USA clear Spanish Customs quickly what is the justification for delaying UK goods? Surely similar documentation and processes?
Is it political?

 

[WelshGas]

Just to add a bit of balance you understand. It’s not all land of milk and honey here

And as usual, as long as the supply problems are only affecting other people, it’s ok with you I guess.

Not really. Our local supermarket belongs to a company that have no HGV vacancies as they increased wages etc; in the past to pre-empt this problem and as far as fuel is concerned once the lemmings have filled up they can’t fill up again until they have used it. All they’ve done is transfer stocks of fuel to their own vehicles at inflated prices to themselves and increased fuel profit to the garages which are now being restocked.

 

[bob_summers]

If goods from China and the USA clear Spanish Customs quickly what is the justification for delaying UK goods? Surely similar documentation and processes?
Is it political?

no explanation. China arrives in ten days, UK spends ten days in customs.

 

[clarinetbcn]

no explanation. China arrives in ten days, UK spends ten days in customs.

I wonder if other EU countries are experiencing similar delays in processing imports from the UK.

 

[JamesB59]

I find some of the views here .............. surprising. If there is no fuel crisis, and if this all the fault of the media, why are government ministers "working on plans for a temporary visa scheme to make it easier for foreign lorry drivers to come to the UK. It comes as a shortage of hauliers threatens more disruption to deliveries of petrol, food and other goods."

Now, I know I've quoted the BBC here, but I cannot believe that this is yet another media conspiracy! That would mean that there was a conspiracy to invent fuel shortages, then a conspiracy to report the invented shortages, and then a further conspiracy to pretend that the government was doing something about a non-existent crisis!

Fair point, but sensationalisation (to the public) in not going to promote a selfless and measured response in the masses - we've already seen that demonstrated aplenty in the last two years with bog-roll, ibruprofen and yeast.