Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
We are told we do not have enough H.G.V, drivers ,then why are we not using the Army H,G,V drivers they have 100s of them?,same why are we not putting more on trains? we could also use ships taking goods etc to ports like Dover and many more even planes have a use. they are now saying the next lot of jabs cannot go ahead because of the H.G.V. CRISIS ,sorry but I say that is rubbish there many other ways even if they have to be deliver frozen, the UK is only 1000miles long so it does not take long to get from A to B we could even use none HGV vehicles they are bigger now then years ago and also the armed forces have their own HGV instructors and do their own HGV testing so why are we not using them ,If I am thinking along them lines and I am a nobody why are not the government thinking along the same lines .We are talking about members of the pubic even dying because of not getting the jab. We have used the armed forces before when there was a national emergency so why not now.Yes the army are filling rolls around the world but if needed in our own country then call them back. Has I said there are many ways to get supplies around such a small country find them and use them we are not talking about the size of Australia but the UK.
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Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Do you think I am right or wrong in saying this? do not want to upset anyone it is just the way I see ?it.
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Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,071
All rather predictable, I'm afraid. But an excellent opportunity to raise wages hitherto kept low and train UK drivers. If the government hadn't shut down training and testing 'because covid', and the insurers weren't hiking premiums to exploit the situation, then it wouldn't be so much of an issue.
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'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
You have some very good points there but like closing the stable after the horse has bolted
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,071
Nothing that couldn't be turned around quickly (forgive the pun) if there were anyone competent enough in government to do it. There are plenty of willing workers, and bureaucracy and costs are easily removed impediments.
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'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,299
The government are tied in knots with this (and other issues) because admitting there is a problem in the first place might be interpreted as a Brexit failure. But you're right, if things become much worse then pretty serious action will need to be taken - I can see army personnel delivering medical supplies, for example.
As WGS says, it doesn't feel like any solution to this is a quick solution, and with such a poor government I've no confidence it can be addressed anyway!
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Paul Watkins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 9 Nov 2011
- Posts: 2,226
It doesn’t help that Europe is having the same issues with driver shortages. Not just Brexit.
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ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Even the ever objective BBC has had to admit that we have been the worst hit.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57810729Guest 649 likes this
Paul Watkins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 9 Nov 2011
- Posts: 2,226
When you add the increasing supply difficulties , again Europe is suffering the same difficulties from microchips to sea freight shipping & container shortages with fresh produce adding to the list. Of course BBC having to admit problems pointed out by independent European commentators . It must be difficult for them.
Andy B
- Location: dover
- Registered: 10 Nov 2012
- Posts: 1,818
The ever greedy insurance companys do not help young drivers to get on the road.A relative of ours has recently passed his HGV test still young and only in their 20s.He applied for a few jobs only to be told it would cost the company far too much to insure a young inexperienced driver,apart from the cost of the test he had to pay for other tests as well,at the moment he is just driving a small van until he can find a suitable HGV job.
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Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,257
Or did they say "the UK has been AMONG the hardest hit by the problem."
And I bet they choked when they had to write that!
(Maybe time for another eye test Ray
)
Arte et Marte
Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,257
Using the army has been bandied around for the last couple of weeks, the problem is there are at most a couple of thousand class 1 drivers and a lot of them are not old enough to legally drive class 1 outside of the military, there would have to be some legislation change to allow it.
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Arte et Marte
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
They would not be out side the military sir all they do is commandeered the vehicle,s all done before in my time in the army
Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,057
The other way of looking at 76,000, or 90,000 or however many vacancies is that they constitute a great opportunity for UK jobseekers and UK taxpayers. This against a backdrop of (14,000?) fewer competing EU drivers and (I assume) post-Brexit cabotage rule changes that favour UK hauliers and UK wages.
Vacancies were never going to be filled overnight so I wouldn't categorise it as a Brexit failure. If anything, quite the reverse.
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(Not my real name.)
Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,257
Just last month I allowed my licence to elapse, the cost of medical to renew and the fact that I don't use it mainly, though when i looked at the latest pay rates I was in two minds. I have in the past used it to provide an easy cash injection when money was tight, a four day jaunt to the south of Spain always put a healthy chunk into the coffers.
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Arte et Marte
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
It's not only HGV drivers that are the issue. Labour shortages are biting in various sectors. That radical body, the CBI, has spoken of this government's refusal to adopt temporary and targetted inteventions as being self-defeating.
They won't do so, of course, because the Brexit myth is more important to them than economic reality.
Drivers, welders, butchers, bricklayers, care staff and now even hotels having to limit linen changes due to laundry workers' problems.
Heads still buried in the sand?
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,057
ray hutstone wrote:Heads still buried in the sand?
Or looking forward to a reduction in the JSA budget?
(Not my real name.)
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,879
There are plenty out there who could do the jobs mentioned by Ray, far to many simply do not want to do them preferring their easy life on our money.
Simply an after thought, Brexit is always blamed but never covid, some drivers will have died or even suffer from health or family changes.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Paul Watkins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 9 Nov 2011
- Posts: 2,226
I think it is going to fascinating to see the outcome of the end of the furlough scheme this month. How many will return to work.? How many will find that they are no longer required in the shake out?
Will the jobs market take up the so called short falls? Will Universal Credit clams rise excessively?
The next few months will test the systems.
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Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Iam a welder would they want me
?
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