Britain's HGV Driver Shortage.

Well, according to Amazon, it can't be that hard to start a trucking company...
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Not directly relevant, but this is a great thread on what's happening in the ports in Los Angeles, where ships are anchored waiting to unload:


Amazingly quick and easy solution to this problem, but what's awful is that the bureaucracy didn't see it, didn't do anything about it and must importantly didn't have any incentive to do so:

 
Well, according to Amazon, it can't be that hard to start a trucking company...
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Anyone who opens a company built solely on Amazons good graces needs their brain examined as many of their suppliers have found out to their cost already.

Amazon puts as its first priority Amazon and its profits, with no consideration of anyone or anything else...Full Stop.
 
It appears the fuel deliveries to petrol station forecourts didn't change before, during and after the fuel crisis.

The entire episode was created by media hype.
 
It appears the fuel deliveries to petrol station forecourts didn't change before, during and after the fuel crisis.

The entire episode was created by media hype.

BP publicly acknowledged issues with driver availability at the time, which impacted their deliveries. There was never a shortage a fuel, there was a shortage of drivers getting it to forecourts.

 
A friend went out a few times in London in the past month and twice, 2 out of 3 things she ordered from the menu were not available. When she asked, the waiter blamed the driver shortage (goods were apparently with their supplier, just could not get in on time).

Same person confirmed her differently stacked local supermarkets (they seem to be full, but with the same products everywhere in the shop, rather than the choice available before). All due to the driver shortage ...

I was in Germany visiting some friends 2 weekends ago: they were telling me that they have seen eastern europeans move from the UK and take up jobs there, some of them lorry drivers. In the discussion about the HGV driver shortage they laughed the idea of a temp visa to go and work in the UK. "why? better paid and better conditions in Germany - why would I leave a permanent job with good benefits to work on a temp contract"

I think we have to learn to deal with the fact that getting the response we need to issues will be slowed down. I haven't seen the government say that they would bring drivers from Australia or India but they were screaming a few years ago that it is not fair that the eastern europeans were jumping the queues.
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BP publicly acknowledged issues with driver availability at the time, which impacted their deliveries. There was never a shortage a fuel, there was a shortage of drivers getting it to forecourts.

The data says there was no shortage of drivers, deliveries to forecourts remained constant, before during and after.
 
The data says there was no shortage of drivers, deliveries to forecourts remained constant, before during and after.
As with many companies, drivers are self employed, so they have significantly more control over when they take holidays etc.

BP got caught in a perfect storm of drivers on holiday, absences due to COVID, the end of the Working Time Directive reference period - which reduces the number of hours a driver can work to ensure the average remains within the legal maximum and an increase in fuel demand.

So there was not a drop in driver numbers, but there was a drop in driver availability.
 
The data says there was no shortage of drivers, deliveries to forecourts remained constant, before during and after.
Are you suggesting that BP were lying about their driver availability shortages?
 
The data says there was no shortage of drivers, deliveries to forecourts remained constant, before during and after.

In this thread alone you've posted 4 times about there being driver shortages, and no petrol when you tried to fill up yourself;


Polands HGV driver shortage double UKs.

I stopped To fill up at a petrol station this morning near Bergerac and it had no fuel .
There is a driver shortage throughout Europe, the idea you can just pull more in from abroad is a fallacy.

The reality is, we have over 30 million people sitting on their arses doing nothing, sure some of them are pensioners or unable to work for one reason or another, the majority of them are not.

People are just going to have to get used to paying proper prices for things so that key workers get proper wages.


Why do you think that was?

You also never did clarify your "30 million people sitting on their arses" claim.
 
The data says there was no shortage of drivers, deliveries to forecourts remained constant, before during and after.
Thanks to Sophie
Fast-forward to today and Sophie is back in the UK, delivering fuel to forecourts in South East England on Operation Escalin. She is one of 200 personnel supporting the Government’s plan to help ease pressure on petrol stations and address the shortage of HGV drivers.

Sophie, who has been in the Army for three years, is currently working night shifts out of a haulage depot in Thurrock, Essex. She’s never driven tankers before and had two weeks’ training before her deployment began.
 
In this thread alone you've posted 4 times about there being driver shortages, and no petrol when you tried to fill up yourself;
That is correct, the fact remains, the forecourt deliveries have remained constant, before during and after the fuel shortage crisis.

In the same way the delivery of toilet rolls to supermarkets remained constant before during and after the first lockdown.
 
That is correct, the fact remains, the forecourt deliveries have remained constant, before during and after the fuel shortage crisis.

In the same way the delivery of toilet rolls to supermarkets remained constant before during and after the first lockdown.

If the “forecourt deliveries have remained constant”, why were the Army drafted in to drive tankers?

I agree that some consumers obviously over-stocked, thanks for all facets of media hyping the story, but I don’t see how you won’t acknowledge the reduced driver numbers which started it all off?
 
If the “forecourt deliveries have remained constant”, why were the Army drafted in to drive tankers?

I agree that some consumers obviously over-stocked, thanks for all facets of media hyping the story, but I don’t see how you won’t acknowledge the reduced driver numbers which started it all off?
How can "reduced driver numbers started it all off" be true if the litres fuel delivered before the shortage were the same as they are now, with no shortages?
 
How can "reduced driver numbers started it all off" be true if the litres fuel delivered before the shortage were the same as they are now, with no shortages?

And the army being drafted in?
 
How can "reduced driver numbers started it all off" be true if the litres fuel delivered before the shortage were the same as they are now, with no shortages?
Not actually constant though, and not enough slack in the system (stocks or logistics) to cope with non-standard behaviour.

A small mismatch between supply and demand created a huge spike in petrol buying which retailers could not accommodate​

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By Thomas Saunders
October 7, 2021 2:00 pm(Updated 4:57 pm)

Throughout the petrol supply crisis, deliveries to filling stations barely fell as massive levels of panic buying were the leading cause of fuel shortages, i analysis of fuel data reveals.
In the run-up to the fuel shortage, deliveries did fall in England although only marginally. At the start of September, fuel deliveries fell by around 200 litres per filling station on average.
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While this may sound like a lot, just months before, fuel deliveries had fallen by considerably larger amounts. An abrupt uptick in demand for fuel at the start of September, coinciding with the slight drop in deliveries, created a slight mismatch between supply and demand.

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This mismatch barely registers when comparing supply and demand earlier in the year, when far larger mismatches occurred.
However, as more people became aware of the shortage, panic-buying of fuel increased rapidly. Just several weeks after the initial fall in supply, sales of petrol skyrocketed.
By the 20 September, a Monday, panic-buying across England started to increase, with sales increasing by a third on that day alone.
On the following Friday, sales increased by almost 80 per cent. Deliveries of fuel were unable to keep pace with the massive increase in demand, accelerating the crisis.

Only two weeks after the initial round of panic buying, the demand for fuel had already started to abate and stock levels have begun to rise across the UK.
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As of the start of this week, fuel stock levels in Scotland were almost at their pre-pandemic levels, rising to around 35 per cent with Wales not far behind at around 30 per cent full.
Typically, fuel stations operate at around 45 to 50 per cent of capacity. England has lagged slightly behind the other nations, with the average filling station being around a quarter full, although stock levels are rising quickly across all nations.
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In England, stocks have recovered far faster in the north than anywhere else, where the average filling station is now around a third fuel only just below pre-fuel crisis levels. In the Midlands and the south of England, the recovery has been substantially slower.
Particularly in the south, where stock levels were only barely above 20 per cent at the start of this week, around half of the levels before the supply crisis occurred.
Demand was already outstripping supply before anything went to press.
 
Not actually constant though, and not enough slack in the system (stocks or logistics) to cope with non-standard behaviour.


Demand was already outstripping supply before anything went to press.
Demand is lower now than it was before the shortage episode started.

They will have to scale back deliveries due to a lack of demand.
 
There was no army drafted in before the shortage and lires delivered then was the same then as it is now.
So there were shortages then?
 
Interesting footnote to this story, difficulty recruiting bus drivers because they can earn more as HGV drivers...

I've noticed that Nottingham's bus operators have been on a recruitment drive most of the year.
A friend of mine used to drive for them, ok job except the numpties who give you grief for actually expecting them to pay for their ride!
 
The only thing to point out would be that just because you have a Self Loading Freight (Bus or Coach) licence, doesn't mean you can drive an HGV.

Depending upon your age, you may be able to drive up to 8250 KGs, but even then, you need to do Certificate of Professional Competency training, which is a minimum of 35 hours. If you want a full C or C+E licence, you are looking at 2-4 weeks training, even for an experienced bus driver. Getting tests at the moment is just about impossible, so it could be 2-3 months waiting for that.

To make the big money, you need to be driving artics on long shifts - 15 hours per day for 4 days / nights per week. Local multi-drop, vans and driving bin lorries etc. really doesn't pay that well.
 
The only thing to point out would be that just because you have a Self Loading Freight (Bus or Coach) licence, doesn't mean you can drive an HGV.

Depending upon your age, you may be able to drive up to 8250 KGs, but even then, you need to do Certificate of Professional Competency training, which is a minimum of 35 hours. If you want a full C or C+E licence, you are looking at 2-4 weeks training, even for an experienced bus driver. Getting tests at the moment is just about impossible, so it could be 2-3 months waiting for that.

To make the big money, you need to be driving artics on long shifts - 15 hours per day for 4 days / nights per week. Local multi-drop, vans and driving bin lorries etc. really doesn't pay that well.

Many vocational bus and coach drivers of recent have been involved in campaigns for better terns and conditions from their employers. That has often involved them continues strike action for many weeks.

In the above those drivers have been gaining HGV work from driving agencies who will give them all the work the require on a daily bases with no problems.

That is how many of the PSV drivers have sustained themselves and their families over strikes that have been ongoing for more than five weeks.

Indeed, with the strike support pay from their union and the earnings from the driver agencies in any number of cases they may well be better off while the strikes continue.

It's a strange old world in road transport these days.
 
Interesting footnote to this story, difficulty recruiting bus drivers because they can earn more as HGV drivers...

That just reiterates the issue we have where there aren’t physically enough U.K. nationals to do all the jobs, so we still need immigration.

Those celebrating that someone can earn more as an HGV drive just entirely misses the point that they then leave a shortage of bus drivers (in this case).
 

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