Take These (Supply) Chains from My Heart

[francovendee]

And the haulage industry is now complaining about cheap foreign hauliers undercutting UK firms.
This whole thing is a mess. A shortage of drivers causing stock shortages. A government that is clearly useless and protectionism now emerging.
I hear rumours of a drivers strike for better pay and conditions.
I hope it gets sorted by Christmas and people can overeat, get drunk and exchange unwanted gifts as usual.

[reohn2]

And the haulage industry is now complaining about cheap foreign hauliers undercutting UK firms.
This whole thing is a mess. A shortage of drivers causing stock shortages. A government that is clearly useless and protectionism now emerging.
I hear rumours of a drivers strike for better pay and conditions.
I hope it gets sorted by Christmas and people can overeat, get drunk and exchange unwanted gifts as usual.

I hope it gets far worse and forces a collapse of the government followed by a GE whilst all the mess is fresh in people's minds!

[Psamathe]

Is the supermarket shelves situation improving? Last week I did a visit to bricks & mortar supermarket but wondering as my Home Delivery today has managed to pick pretty well everything I ordered (a couple of coffees missing but then those are often out-of-stock anyway). First time I've had such a "successful" Home Delivery from supermarket for months and months.

Ian

[[XAP]Bob]

And the haulage industry is now complaining about cheap foreign hauliers undercutting UK firms.
This whole thing is a mess. A shortage of drivers causing stock shortages. A government that is clearly useless and protectionism now emerging.
I hear rumours of a drivers strike for better pay and conditions.
I hope it gets sorted by Christmas and people can overeat, get drunk and exchange unwanted gifts as usual.

Christmas is already compromised - we're months into the usual planning cycle, and already well behind.

[Jdsk]

Is the supermarket shelves situation improving?

I haven't found a decent source of information.

Jonathan

"Supermarkets find ingenious ways to hide stock shortages":
https://www.thecornishnews.com/supermar ... shortages/

[Psamathe]

.....
"Supermarkets find ingenious ways to hide stock shortages":
https://www.thecornishnews.com/supermar ... shortages/

My surprise was that (apart from a few coffees) no substitutions, nothing missing. And more so as when I placed the order, nothing I wanted was "unavailable to order". I can see how a physical shop they can remove one type of e.g. mayonnaise and overfull with other types/brands that they do have. But for an online order without substitutions a lot harder. Which made me wonder.

Or maybe the supermarket it came from had received a delivery a few hours before.

Ian

[Jdsk]

"Fears grow as UK factories hit by worst supply chain shortages since mid-70s":
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ing-review

"Almost two-thirds of the businesses surveyed in the snapshot from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) warned that shortages of components would hit factory output in the next three months."

...

"UK manufacturers raise prices by most since 1980 - CBI":
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-fac ... 021-10-21/

"British manufacturers raised prices by the most since 1980 over the past three months as they sought to pass on rapidly rising costs for raw materials and manage acute labour shortages, a long-running survey showed on Thursday."

Jonathan

[reohn2]

There's also been a sharp increase in fuel at the pumps,10p per litre IME,since the fuel shortage/panic buy episode.

[Psamathe]

My own anechdotal experience recently that things were better but amazed by this report today (22 Oct 2021)

Supermarkets using cardboard cutouts to hide gaps left by supply issues
Supermarkets are using cardboard cutouts of fruit, vegetables and other groceries to fill gaps on shelves because supply problems combined with a shift towards smaller product ranges mean many stores are now too big.

Tesco has begun using pictures of asparagus, carrots, oranges and grapes in its fresh produce aisles, prompting ridicule on social media.
...

Ian

[Psamathe]

Another interesting but I suppose predictable development in the HGV driver shortage saga

Christmas bin collections in UK at risk as lorry drivers quit
Local councils face a shortage of refuse collectors who can earn tens of thousands more driving for supermarkets or food hauliers

Households are being warned of a “Christmas crisis” in bin collections as drivers quit their jobs for better pay working for supermarkets and food hauliers.

Bin lorry drivers are being offered pay deals worth as much as £40,000 a year to switch to jobs in the food industry. One council in Lancashire said last week it had lost almost half of its drivers in the last three months.
...

One wonders what Councils will do as I doubt they have plenty of spare drivers sitting around to cover some leaving. Or is it all contracted out to the private sector in which case what will the private sector do as I imaging start paying their drivers more to keep them and profitable but low margin contracts will soon become loss making.

Also, if I had an HGV license would I want to spend every day manoeuvring round often narrow residential streets, parked cars everywhere, smelly load behind cab or would I prefer open road between out of town locations, motorways and dual carriageways, more pay ...

Ian

[Ben@Forest]

One wonders what Councils will do as I doubt they have plenty of spare drivers sitting around to cover some leaving. Or is it all contracted out to the private sector in which case what will the private sector do as I imaging start paying their drivers more to keep them and profitable but low margin contracts will soon become loss making.

Also, if I had an HGV license would I want to spend every day manoeuvring round often narrow residential streets, parked cars everywhere, smelly load behind cab or would I prefer open road between out of town locations, motorways and dual carriageways, more pay ...

You do a pre-determined shift though and sleep in your own bed every night. Long-distance you are a long way from home and can be waiting a long time for loads, drivers are paid for that time but unexpected waiting times obviously means longer days, especially as drivers have to have stipulated breaks. Both longer-distance HGV drivers I know who stopped doing it was because they had started families.

To some extent I think the shortage is about our societal shift in attitudes. Men being away and women looking after the children was not uncommon and not seen as unusual. Now women could well be in paid employment too and men are expected to spend more time raising their kids. It's not good for jobs which require regular periods away.

[Psamathe]

One wonders what Councils will do as I doubt they have plenty of spare drivers sitting around to cover some leaving. Or is it all contracted out to the private sector in which case what will the private sector do as I imaging start paying their drivers more to keep them and profitable but low margin contracts will soon become loss making.

Also, if I had an HGV license would I want to spend every day manoeuvring round often narrow residential streets, parked cars everywhere, smelly load behind cab or would I prefer open road between out of town locations, motorways and dual carriageways, more pay ...

You do a pre-determined shift though and sleep in your own bed every night. Long-distance you are a long way from home and can be waiting a long time for loads, drivers are paid for that time but unexpected waiting times obviously means longer days, especially as drivers have to have stipulated breaks. Both longer-distance HGV drivers I know who stopped doing it was because they had started families.

To some extent I think the shortage is about our societal shift in attitudes. Men being away and women looking after the children was not uncommon and not seen as unusual. Now women could well be in paid employment too and men are expected to spend more time raising their kids. It's not good for jobs which require regular periods away.

One aspect to the Gov.'s passing responsibility for the shortage to the transport companies I can't understand is that it is said that facilities for HGV drivers in UK are poor (compared to continent) e.g. toilets, showers, etc.. But how do transport companies improve then and rapidly. Small company with e.g. 10 tractors, are they expected to buy some land close to an A road and build and maintain a toilet/shower block? I'd have thought that would normally be done by Gov.. I'm sure I heard that EU countries (Governments) are stomping up more money to further improve their already superior facilities. I remember in France (driving a car) there seemed to be a fair number of "aires de repos", clean, working, free ...

Ian

[Jdsk]

One aspect to the Gov.'s passing responsibility for the shortage to the transport companies I can't understand is that it is said that facilities for HGV drivers in UK are poor (compared to continent) e.g. toilets, showers, etc.. But how do transport companies improve then and rapidly. Small company with e.g. 10 tractors, are they expected to buy some land close to an A road and build and maintain a toilet/shower block? I'd have thought that would normally be done by Gov.

It requires collaboration, as does everything that's reasonably complex and reasonably important.

Planning, development of standards, enforcement of standards, conflict resolution, occasionally legislation...

And that's one of the reasons that governments shouldn't play blame games with haulage companies, GPs, universities, other countries, etc. It all makes collaboration on solving problems even harder than it needs to be.

Jonathan

[francovendee]

I think at least two big differences in providing overnight truck stops in mainland Europe and the the UK. Firstly the shortage of available land where it's most needed. Secondly, and maybe more importantly, the UK government wants everthing left to the private sector take on rather than invest the government's (tax Payers) money for the common good.
Here in France we do have private motorways with good facilities but many trunk routes that are free. These also have good facilities for truck parking.

[reohn2]

Seems that after the bin lorry drivers jumping ship/truck for better pay driving for supermarkets and Amazon and other logistics companies,latest are bus drivers.
I can't say I blame them who wouldn't double their pay with a bonus incentive to boot.
But it's set to leave a big hole in bin collection and public transport services

What it does say a lot about is the psst poor government that set the country on such a course by a hard Brexit and a total lack of forethought and joined up thinking on their behalf.

It's all going so well isn't it?