UK Supply chain issues - Food and now fuel.

[coxyhog]

1 minute ago, Homor said:

If the U.K. government are so worried about people running of if fuel or shops not getting enough supplies for Christmas why don’t they increase the amount of hours a truck driver can do every week until after Christmas. 
At present a truck driver can only work 45 hours per week and must take every second weekend off . 

Maybe because they don't want someone driving a huge tanker full of petrol falling asleep at the wheel?

[KWA]

8 minutes ago, Homor said:

If the U.K. government are so worried about people running of if fuel or shops not getting enough supplies for Christmas why don’t they increase the amount of hours a truck driver can do every week until after Christmas. 
At present a truck driver can only work 45 hours per week and must take every second weekend off . 

They have increased the hours slightly.

[Glasseye]

It will take about 5-7 days to level off after all the knobs top their tanks off. 

Went through the same thing here on the East Coast a few months back. 

 

Even had morons filling up plastic garbage bags and putting them in the trunks of their cars. I think a couple of the idiots even caught on fire. No big loss.... f**k them if they are that stupid.

 

 

 

[Scottie]

Had an Amazon delivery today.I was due on Tuesday next.😀

[Homor]

22 minutes ago, coxyhog said:

Maybe because they don't want someone driving a huge tanker full of petrol falling asleep at the wheel?

so you perfer to see inexperience drivers driving trucks full of petrol rather then experience drivers doing a few hours per week extra? 
im only talking about 1 extra delivery per week 

[Glasseye]

26 minutes ago, Scottie said:

Had an Amazon delivery today.I was due on Tuesday next.😀

 

I'm boycotting Amazon. Another big Tech company that can suck my cock.

[Butch]

1 hour ago, Homor said:

If the U.K. government are so worried about people running of if fuel or shops not getting enough supplies for Christmas why don’t they increase the amount of hours a truck driver can do every week until after Christmas. 
At present a truck driver can only work 45 hours per week and must take every second weekend off . 

It's not that simple. I gave up HGV driving in 96, but afaik the rules are still pretty much the same.

HGV Drivers can drive for up to 45 hours a week, which is 9 hours a day, maximum 4.5 hours with a 45 minute break. This can be extended to 10 hours a day twice a week, with a maximum amount of weekly driving set to 56 hours.

That's driving, as for working, a driver can do what is called Duty hours, up to 15 hours a day (used to be called a 15 hour spreadover as it was within a 24 hour period) as the rest period was 9 hours in any 24.

"An HGV driver must rest for a minimum of nine hours within a 24-hour period up to three times a week, which allows them to work three 15-hour days in the same week" . source

So, that's 3 x 15 hour days plus potentially another 3 days of 13 hour days as rest period needs to be 11 hours for the remaining. That's the thick end of a possible 84 hour week right there. Thus, the answer is most definitely not to get them to work longer hours.

working 80+ hours a week is not uncommon, but let me tell you from experience, it is debilitating, tiring and with the added fun of everyone else treating you like a bit of turd.

The non driving time can be spent unloading, loading, waiting for a container, waiting in a yard or any other aspect of work which isn't driving.

[john luke]

Local Filling Station.  The black Range Rover just partly in forecourt and part on road.  No other vehicles queuing.

 

[Butch]

9 minutes ago, john luke said:

Local Filling Station.  The black Range Rover just partly in forecourt and part on road.  No other vehicles queuing.

 

Hopefully the queues will soon disappear as the supply chain catches up with the deliveries, and people might then realise what muppets they have been.

I mentioned it earlier, the society in which we live seems to be on a knife edge in some instances. It just seems to easy to instil panic and fear into people, that they believe what they see on social media before they actually stop to think that the person posting such drivel has any kind of credibility.

[john luke]

52 minutes ago, Butch said:

Hopefully the queues will soon disappear as the supply chain catches up with the deliveries, and people might then realise what muppets they have been.

I mentioned it earlier, the society in which we live seems to be on a knife edge in some instances. It just seems to easy to instil panic and fear into people, that they believe what they see on social media before they actually stop to think that the person posting such drivel has any kind of credibility.

I think by Tuesday or Wednesday there will be a lot of motorists driving round with full tanks of fuel.  Once it gets to that stage there will probably be a small fall in the amount of fuel sold and hopefully things will return to normality.

[Nightcrawler]

2 minutes ago, john luke said:

I think by Tuesday or Wednesday there will be a lot of motorists driving round with full tanks of fuel.  Once it gets to that stage there will probably be a small fall in the amount of fuel sold and hopefully things will return to normality.

I remember years ago when there was a shortage I think it was strike action. There were people filling up 5 gallon plastic containers. I hope that is bit going to be the case this time, because that really is hoarding. 

[john luke]

14 minutes ago, Nightcrawler said:

I remember years ago when there was a shortage I think it was strike action. There were people filling up 5 gallon plastic containers. I hope that is bit going to be the case this time, because that really is hoarding. 

It was the petrol duty  protests during the Tony Blair era.

Personally I did not have a problem then, produce works ID card and I could get unlimited fuel.

 

[Glasseye]

7 hours ago, Butch said:

Hopefully the queues will soon disappear as the supply chain catches up with the deliveries, and people might then realise what muppets they have been.

I mentioned it earlier, the society in which we live seems to be on a knife edge in some instances. It just seems to easy to instil panic and fear into people, that they believe what they see on social media before they actually stop to think that the person posting such drivel has any kind of credibility.

 

Covid threw the fear of Dog into most people. I think the long term affects will be as significant as The Great Depression and WWII. It f***d people's heads up. Fear and mistrust are the underlying issues and they are both very powerful negative forces. The vulnerable become even more so, and the powerful become more cutthroat. 

We are in trying times and this crap will take a long time to sort itself out. In the end eventually things will become more stabilized (hopefully), but the scars will take a long time to heal (even under the best case scenario). It's going to be a bumpy ride.

I remain 90% to myself. My outlets are a few friends and family, but for the most part I am on my own - with my thoughts and my way of life. And I am perfectly o.k. with that. The trouble is most folks aren't, and most of them don't know it they are coming or going. Frankly most of them are scared out of their wits and don't know how to handle it, or who the f**k they can trust. I guess you are correct in saying - people are on a knifes edge.

I see it in the peoples eyes on my daily walks. It is the look in peoples eyes. The frowns on people who otherwise would be nodding at me or saying hello. The glances away, not making eye contact, or in many cases outright rudeness. 

I hate to be negative here, but call a spade a spade. People are afraid and will be for a long time.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. This ain't Kansas anymore Toto, we better get used to it.

[lazarus]

The door is open...

U.K. Offers Thousands of Visas to Foreign Truckers to Ease Driver Shortage
The move reflects growing alarm within the government about a disruption to supplies that has prompted panic buying and, in some cases, caused fuel to run out at gas stations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/26/world/europe/trucker-shortage-britain-visas.html

LONDON — Responding to an escalating crisis, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain reversed course this weekend and offered thousands of visas to foreign truckers to combat a driver shortage that has left some supermarket shelves empty and caused long lines at gas stations.

The decision, announced late Saturday, reflects the growing alarm within the government over a disruption to supplies that has prompted panic buying and, in some places, caused fuel to run out and gas stations to close.

So great is the concern that there has been speculation that the military could be called up to drive trucks. That has not yet happened, but Defense Ministry staff members will be asked to help speed up the process for truck licensing applications.

Late Sunday night, in a move underscoring the growing anxiety over the fuel shortage, the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said he was temporarily exempting fuel companies from the law regulating competition, so that they could share information and optimize supply at stations that need it most...

... A lack of truck drivers is not the only labor shortage weighing on companies in Britain. A major poultry producer, 2 Sisters Food Group, recently said that Brexit had contributed to a 15 percent reduction in its work force this year. And this month, the British Meat Processors Association warned that companies were six weeks behind their Christmas production schedules, almost guaranteeing shortages of popular items over the holidays.

Overall, an estimated 200,000 E.U. citizens left Britain during the pandemic and have not returned. Mr. Henig, of the European Center for International Political Economy, said that the disruption could be a feature of life for some time to come.

“We are at the start of an economic transition, and we are not sure what it will lead to,” he said, noting that Britain had broken away from a European market within which it was fully integrated.

“We have never seen this before,” Mr. Henig added, “so we don’t know what happens.”

Edited September 27, 2021 by lazarus

[coxyhog]

6 hours ago, lazarus said:

an estimated 200,000 E.U. citizens left Britain during the pandemic and have not returned.

Spread over the UK that is not a great deal of people.

[john1000]

Amazing how paranoia grips the country though. 

[coxyhog]

[Krapow]

[Freee!!]

9 hours ago, coxyhog said:

Spread over the UK that is not a great deal of people.

But they were concentrated in a few more or less essential professions, mostly because of lack of British professionals in those jobs.

[Stillearly]

Jacob Rees-Mogg isn't worried about the fuel shortage ..

[coxyhog]

1 hour ago, Freee!! said:

But they were concentrated in a few more or less essential professions, mostly because of lack of British professionals in those jobs.

OK but most of them left a couple of months ago,now suddenly there's a shortage.Also a shortage of HGV drivers on the continent or so I've read.

[Freee!!]

23 minutes ago, coxyhog said:

OK but most of them left a couple of months ago,now suddenly there's a shortage.

The shortage has been building for some time (people dying, getting other jobs and/or quitting work due to old age or disability with not enough young entering the force), which could be masked for a while by the remaining people doing overtime until the tipping point was reached and "suddenly" there was a problem.

26 minutes ago, coxyhog said:

Also a shortage of HGV drivers on the continent or so I've read.

I haven't noticed it, no shortages reported and way too many trucks on the roads (commuting 130+ KM one way 😞 ).

[coxyhog]

From today's Telegraph,absolute proof that morons are amongst us:

The HGV driver shortage has seen hundreds of people resorting to filling up with the wrong fuel out of desperation, as figures showed that 90 per cent of petrol stations had run out of fuel in some areas.

[Stillearly]

Meanwhile in Downing Street ...

[Bazle]

A filling station, at which there were queues in both directions at the weekend, had no queue at all when I walked by about 3 hours ago.

However, just a few feet away, was an indication that perhaps our HGV drivers are not well trained!