O/T Fuel Queues

[boingy]

I wondered how long it would be before the effects of Covid would be blamed on Brexit. Talk about stupid. Covid has wrecked supplies worldwide. You stop producing and there will be a lot of catching up to do. The EU is such a complex monstrosity that anyone leaving can expect some adjustment problems anyway especially because the EU always thinks that any problems are always someone else’s fault and rarely if ever backs down in a disagreement.

[baggieal]

You do sometimes baffle me Mick. I read your posts from time to time, I agree with and disagree with and in the main they provide some entertainment value. However, I do think at times you get extreme or ignorant in your views for particular certain groups who behave in a certain way or has typical traits of.
You once came here to label those thugs who were about to rob your daughters car as ‘asian scum’. Do you ever wonder how that can be perceived. I know you’ll have your reasons but it does not come across well.
When you refer to chinese as little runts, again not great.
Uni students, again not very bright. It’s a very narrow minded view. I agree to a point not all uni students are smart.. this coming from me who is a former student and recently did a postgraduate level course. You get some smart and you don’t get some smart, like you get bad asians. You cannot label everyone the same way.
I don’t think it’s clever of you to come here saying your company won a contract for the padels, with so much cancel culture going on wouldn’t you be worried a rival company picking up these threads read some of your views? What do you think that will do?
However the above sounds mick, it’s not intended to feel as i’m attacking you in anyway. Just my frank honest view of it. I’m likely to have said something wrong or not explained well.

There’s good and bad in all people. Fact - most of the lazy t wats on benefits with
Satellite dishes and uneducated kids are white not Asian. Many decent Asians value education as mentioned in a previous post. From my experience in having warehouses the laziest are without doubt are the lazy white Brits!

No student who goes to university is thick!! Yes some may lack a bit of common sense but for f uck sake how can a person who obtains a degree be thick which they could fall back on to in later life.

Some would also say that anyone who didn’t get five standard GCSE’s as thick but I wouldn’t either - it could be they messed around at school or had personal problems. Difference is though - someone with a degree can always fall back on it and education can’t be taken away whereas the person who didn’t get the grades has nothing to fall back on but yes they might have the work ethic and ability to make a success of their life and many do. Out of the two options I know which one I would pick!

The problem with this country is the minimum wage is too low with the huge increase in bills so EU Nationals have left and for those on benefits there is no incentive to work!

Being honest - would I work if on benefits but there was no financial benefit? Would I hell and I’m far from lazy and paid my dues!

[Albionic68]

Not a drop of petrol anywhere. Mine and a lot of other businesses who rely on a car/van will be right shafted for gawd knows how long. Perhaps this bumbling Government will train up some GPs to drive the lorries as most don't do hardly anything else.

Tough shyt, you're helping to kill the planet. I'm off to hug a tree 😊😊😊 .

[Omegstrat6]

Brexit always reminds me of the situation in the US that enabled Trump to be elected. Huge swathes of the population felt that their concerns were not being listened to by Clinton or the liberal elite and were then easily swayed by Trump's MAGA mantra. In the UK, many leavers had genuine concerns over immigration for example and these views were stirred up by some of the populist press. Such views were often informed by ignorance or misconception but instead of engaging in a meaningful debate the Left tended to simply take the moral high ground and simply label them as bigots or racists. The early so called "debates" on brexit were mostly just gain-saying and both sides lied and both sides fear mongered. Certainly there were many areas where the EU did not directly help the UK (it was not created to simply help us) and there were genuine causes for criticism-but there were also benefits of belonging. Once the vote to leave had happened new or previously little discussed issues came to light and some then wanted a second vote. What angered me was those leavers who claimed a second vote would be "undemocratic". Surely Brexit was far too an important issue not to have the most informed discussions first before making a decision? If new concerns came to light then surely they should be properly discussed and voted on? Too many leavers simply seemed worried that a second vote would overturn the original. I had hoped afterwards, with so much of our trade done with Europe and vice-versa that Europe would not "cut off its nose to spite its face" and not make things too difficult for us but the pandemic has obviously overshadowed everything and any true long-term benefits or drawbacks will probably take a while to see. Certainly Brexit is not to blame for all our current woes but I still cannot see how anyone can claim that it has not impacted on sectors such as agriculture or haulage given the numbers of EU workers previously employed in these areas.
As for the fuel situation, all those panic buyers have now caused a genuine short term problem. Whilst the news and press have had their part to play in this, I sadly think it says more about the mentality of too many people. This is not a real surprise though as anyone who works in retail or hospitality will tell you that the end of lockdown has led to a significant increase in the numbers of abusive or rude customers.

[phild]

Tough shyt, you're helping to kill the planet. I'm off to hug a tree ������ .

I'll have you know I have M&S Ocado deliver my grocery of venison meatballs, Aberdeen Angus steaks and organic spotted dick amongst other mundane items 2/3 times a month, which saves me using petrol, so i'd say i'm doing my bit for this climate change BS

[mickd1961]

I'll have you know I have M&S Ocado deliver my grocery of venison meatballs, Aberdeen Angus steaks and organic spotted dick amongst other mundane items 2/3 times a month, which saves me using petrol, so i'd say i'm doing my bit for this climate change BS

The days of “Spotted Dick” must be numbered under this woke generation!

[Albionic68]

The days of “Spotted Dick” must be numbered under this woke generation!

Possibly, as if Phil has 'Spotted Dick' two to three times a week the other lovers of dick (be it spotted or otherwise) will be rationing it out to save the planet.

[Albionic68]

..... due to fuel shortages if it's delivered to their doors (fkn carp edit function 😊 ).

[mickd1961]

Looking at the figures of HGV driver shortages around the world ( according to the International Road Transport Union who are the most reliable source for this type of info I would expect ) it seems that all this blame, as per usual on Brexit, is utter rubbish!!

There is a driver shortage across Europe of over 400,000 drivers.

Germany ( the great panacea) is 40,000 drivers short.

France is around 43,000 short.

Italy are 15,000 short.

Elsewhere the USA is 63,000 short and wait for it.....

China are short of 4 MILLION drivers.

The USA are facing their biggest ever driver shortage crisis apparently.

So once again Brexit gets the blame but across the world in other countries Covid is being sited as the reason.

Most of you on here know that I rely on imported goods from China, the lead times for my items have risen from 4 months to somewhere between 6 and 8 months with certain items now on an 11 month lead time.

It’s a nightmare trying to get goods across China and then finding a container for them to go into and even when you do find one it’s price is around 7-10 times what it was pre Covid.

Let’s blame Boris and Brexit though eh?

Remainers don’t want to think about why the Eu is so short of HGV drivers when apparently, we sent them all packing in December 2020.

Very few of you are involved in the world I inhabit on a daily basis, I cannot stress what a mess the world supply chain and transport in general is in.

As for making sales into the Eu and vice versa, since the duty declaration value was increased to around £150 it’s become a piece of cake, since July changes our sales have rocketed in the Eu again.

Life isn’t perfect, I won’t pretend it’s as easy as it used to be but most businesses adapt like we have.

This blaming Brexit by supposedly superior people of higher learning needs to stop.....not every ill in this country is due to Brexit.

It just isn’t.

[Omegstrat6]

Whilst I agree that Brexit is certainly not to blame for the whole of our driver shortage, surely the loss of EU drivers has also had an impact on the sector? That said, TBH, I think much of the root cause can be attributed to the whole furlough scheme. I dont mean that the scheme itself caused issues but that it brought to light long standing problems within certain sectors including haulage and hospitality as examples. Im sure that many of us on here have, at some time or other, been sucked into working excessively long hours because we had strong work ethics and felt that we needed to work hard to put food on the table/ pay the mortgage etc etc and, as a result, our work-life balance was crap and home lives suffered. Its all too easy to get very blinkered when this happens and it gets hard to stop and try and change. But furlough provided many with an enforced break and they probably then thought, you know what, I like spending more time at home and not working shed loads of hours or working nights/evenings/weekends. About 15 years ago I remember contract drivers boasting to me about how much money they made but those days are long gone. I cannot blame anyone for wanting better working conditions and decent pay or not wanting to work "unsocial" hours. In the hospitality sector, as an example, chefs might be contracted for 40 hours but actually work double that. There are plenty of qualified HGV drivers in this country but most are over 50 and few want to remain in the industry because of poor pay and conditions. These two sectors both need to change in order to attract people into their industries, especially as regards decent pay and conditions -and rightly so. That said, I know of several hospitality buisinesses that pay decent wages but are finding it increasingly hard to get staff and I am finding it increasingly difficult not to think that some people are actually work shy and would rather sit at home on benefits or with mum and dad rather than work weekends or evenings. I sometimes think that we are breeding a generation with an exaggerated sense of entitlement and poor work ethic. Im sure this is a generalization and there are certainly exceptions but it does feel that way sometimes!