Panic buying, hoarding

[Oldjohnw]

And apparently there is no problem but in order to address this non-problem the government is: changing competition law, providing visas for dreaded foreigners, altering driving licence requirements, bringing in the army…

[reohn2]

I may be a little behind the curve on this,I don't know what you mean.
If the army are called in and they don't have enough staff or vehicles it'll be no more than a gesture,so given they can't make a dent in the problem their involvement would be an own goal for the government and an admission they and their stupid brapexit deal has failed miserably.

Are you skim reading posts ? I said "it isn't an astute political move as it demonstrates something hasn't quite gone to plan"

We're in agreement,yes?

[Vorpal]

Visas are unlikely to be much help with the lorry driver situation. There was a Europe-wide shortage prior to covid & Brexit, which was exacerbated by covid. The UK is seeing it worse because of Brexit and lower flexibility in alternatives. Many other European countries had more rail freight capacity and initiatives to make rail more competitive. So they are coping better with the shortage, and haven't recently lost significant numbers of drivers.

IMO, one of the things that makes it hard to attract people to lorry driving is working conditions, and the UK has just made that worse, rather than better.

[Jdsk]

IMO, one of the things that makes it hard to attract people to lorry driving is working conditions, and the UK has just made that worse, rather than better.

And not just your opinion, that's consistently given as a major cause. The Parliamentary Report in 2015 analysed it and suggested who needed to do what...

Jonathan

[ossie]

I may be a little behind the curve on this,I don't know what you mean.
If the army are called in and they don't have enough staff or vehicles it'll be no more than a gesture,so given they can't make a dent in the problem their involvement would be an own goal for the government and an admission they and their stupid brapexit deal has failed miserably.

Are you skim reading posts ? I said "it isn't an astute political move as it demonstrates something hasn't quite gone to plan"

We're in agreement,yes?

I believe so

[reohn2]

Relying on market forces to improve pay is a very poor alternative to minimum wage legislation and a fair benefits system and redistributive taxation.

It will only work as long as shortage of labour exists, and we should have measures that work all of the time.

Jonathan

+1

[francovendee]

I'm just wondering what is the incentive for EU drivers to go to the UK and work there but only until Christmas.
There is a shortage of drivers in the EU so finding work isn't a problem even if it's not your own but a neighbouring EU country.
The fall in the £ has made earning money in the UK to take take home less attractive.
Add to all this the driving conditions and some attitudes to european workers and I wonder why anyone would leave their family and come to a country that clearly didn't welcome free movement of labour.
I await to see how successful the scheme is.

[Mick F]

We chatted about this, but they wouldn't have any profit.

It could be sold without profit temporarily until delivery resumes

They know as well as we know, that people can shop online if they can't get it locally ......... and many people don't bother with shopping locally and just use eBay or (God forbid) Amazon and online supermarkets..

So if your local trademan who you do business with charged a little more than ebay/amazon then why not buy from him?
ATM by him not supplying at all he risks loosing all further trade in that particular item.

Without making sufficient gross profit, the company wouldn't exist.

We went down for lots of things, so we had a good shopping experience and socialised with them too.

[mjr]

Now yet another development:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/ ... oogle-maps
Smart move indeed, respect to you, 'Militant Cyclist', whoever you are! (not someone on here is it? Don't give yourself away!) Next target should be the luckless Mr Shapps' home. If anyone knows where that is...

I note that motoring lobbyist Cox has no evidence for his claim it was a cyclist other than his reading of reaction on Twitter. Why do you trust him?

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

It really would be so much more convenient if the retailers could gather together the panic bought goods and clearly mark the Panic Buying Aisle.

On our hols ATM in St Neots......

When I read that I wondered how long until somebody (probably some Russian Government internet mis-information operator) puts out that ATMs are not being refilled because of driver shortages and we start having empty ATMs as people make sure they have enough cash for Christmas and ... we have a run on the banks that then need rescuing ... (again).

Ian

I thought I was out of fashion.
I simply never put my money back in last time round.
And you can guess that it's under the mattress.
The problem is that it keeps falling out and going through the cracks in the floorboards.
i'm just too stingy to relay the old carpet, I thought I'd keep it for my old-age.
The Mrs is complaining that it's not very nice on her feet.
So I had a bright idea and I stuck a couple of carpet tiles to her slippers.
The problem with this is she keeps tripping over when she tries to go through the doorways, I cured this by knocking down all the Internal walls.
On the plus side I can now see exactly where the roof is leaking, but I'm getting a bit tired of moving my bed and constantly kicking buckets.
i'm seriously thinking about going back to a tent in the garden, all I need is a bonfire, no problem with that as I've got so much rubbish, and a spit To roast the ever increasing wildlife that we have in the garden.
Mind you that's hardly more than a mouthful at the moment

[kylecycler]

Incidentally, did anyone notice the BBC sending a reporter by the name of Phil McCann to stand outside a petrol station?

Confirms my suspicion that this is all just a really, really bad movie.

[Mick F]

There was a report on R4 this morning with the reporter in the NE of England in some town or other - can't remember which - and the petrol station was empty.

He went along the A66 to Middlesborough? and the station had plenty of fuel and there were no queues.

Yesterday, we drove down to Saltash, and passed two filling stations and then Tesco, then drove south past another.
The local one up the hill had big queues, and the one only a mile further on had no queues though people were there filling up.
Tesco had a big queue - but no bigger than we've seen it before - and when we were on our way out, the queue had dwindled to only a couple of cars.
The one further on had no queues at all.

It all seems daft to me.

There's an old adage that can be applied to many things.
Don't go out to buy petrol, buy petrol whilst you're out!
ie fill up when it's convenient and you're doing other stuff.

[Psamathe]

I'm just wondering what is the incentive for EU drivers to go to the UK and work there but only until Christmas.
There is a shortage of drivers in the EU so finding work isn't a problem even if it's not your own but a neighbouring EU country.
The fall in the £ has made earning money in the UK to take take home less attractive.
Add to all this the driving conditions and some attitudes to european workers and I wonder why anyone would leave their family and come to a country that clearly didn't welcome free movement of labour.
I await to see how successful the scheme is.

Plus paying for private health insurance in the UK
Plus delays in applying for a visa
Plus, give notice on accommodation and find new digs in UK
And then head home after max 10 weeks day before Christmas to find somewhere to live, find a job, etc.
...

It's also a bit insulting to the EU workforce to expect them to come to UK for very short time to bail us out after we (elected UK Government) clearly said we don't want foreigners in the UK and gave them a "hostile environment".

Ian

[mjr]

It's also a bit insulting to the EU workforce to expect them to come to UK for very short time to bail us out after we (elected UK Government) clearly said we don't want foreigners in the UK and gave them a "hostile environment".

Yes, but many rubbish jobs demonstrate that some people are willing to be insulted if it means more pay than they get otherwise.

We might be about to see how much these insults cost, plus then the effect of these extra costs on UK businesses and how much more UK buyers will have to pay for things, alongside the imminent increases in energy prices and reductions in welfare payments to the lowest-paid.

[reohn2]

We chatted about this, but they wouldn't have any profit.

It could be sold without profit temporarily until delivery resumes

They know as well as we know, that people can shop online if they can't get it locally ......... and many people don't bother with shopping locally and just use eBay or (God forbid) Amazon and online supermarkets..

So if your local trademan who you do business with charged a little more than ebay/amazon then why not buy from him?
ATM by him not supplying at all he risks loosing all further trade in that particular item.

Without making sufficient gross profit, the company wouldn't exist.

We went down for lots of things, so we had a good shopping experience and socialised with them too.

I give up!