Lorry driver shortage

[Johnny Yesno]

It cost me a few thousand to pass the two HGV tests required, and I'm sure it's probably got more expensive since then. There are two tests, one for a rigid vehicle and then once you pass that then you can learn to drive and pass a test that allows you to pull a trailer.

How did you get to practise truck driving in order to pass the tests?

[katzenjammer]

Anyone that got a licence prior to the introduction of the driving test in 1935 is allowed to drive any class of vehicle so there are probably a few 110 year olds around that could pitch in

[JesusAndYourBush]

I reckon she could handle it

Just don't get her to drive for a brewery, because I'm told she like to guff in the beer.

[TommyTurnips]

How did you get to practise truck driving in order to pass the tests?

A driving school the same way as with a car. I booked with a driving instructor near me who owns his own rigid truck, a cab and trailer, a bus, and a car and trailer.

[Sebastian Cobb]

When I was in the Scouts one of the leaders was a Bus Driver, bus driving instructor, and bus driving examiner for Midland Red, yet he stubbornly refused to get a PSV ticket to drive the scout minibus, because the guy that handed them out was someone he trained.

[Johnny Yesno]

A driving school the same way as with a car. I booked with a driving instructor near me who owns his own rigid truck, a cab and trailer, a bus, and a car and trailer.

Oh, I see[nb]It was a dumb question, I guess, but I never learned to drive a car, although I have heard of driving schools for cars, obviously.[/nb]. I guess that's why it cost a few thousand. I imagine there are far fewer driving schools for trucks than there are for cars.

[Pranet]

Go back to using canals to transport freight. They seem to let loose any holiday maker who fancies it on a barge, so it can't be that hard to learn how to control one.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I had a summer job working for Anglo-Welsh boatyard. They paid me £15 for turning up every saturday, all I did was fill the barges with, water, diesel then pump out the bogs, we had this big gnarly diesel pump with a fly-wheel connected to a bowser for doing that, had to crank it by hand. I remember the pipe we stuck into the boats had a ~2in viewing port so you could watch the tods fly past.

[buzby]

Is it not possible for businesses to try and move more freight by rail instead?

Transshipment is the biggest problem with using rail to replace road freight. It the 'olden days' when the railways ran wagonload freight (i.e. freight trains consisting of mixed wagons carrying different cargoes) the wagons got taken from the source station or yard to marshalling yards where they then got sorted into rakes via their destination. Almost every station had it's own freight yard to accept small numbers of parcels vans or freight wagons, where the cargo would get offloaded onto road vehicles for local delivery (usually using trucks owned by the railway company).

The problem with all this was it was expensive to maintain all the freight facilities and run the large number of trains, and the railways couldn't hope to compete price-wise against road transport. The Beeching Report recommended that the wagonload market was abandoned to the road sector, and rail concentrated on 'Unit Trains' for bulk freight (long trains of coal, stone, steel, tank or ore wagons) and intermodal Freightliner trains (long container trains that run between container terminals) where rail still had a price advantage. The facilities for wagonload were gradually dismantled and reused or sold off (a lof the station freight yards were sold off for devleopment or reused as car parks). The last hanger-on for a wagonload-type service was Red Star Parcels, where parcels could be carried between stations in the Guards/Brake coach of a rake of loco-hauled coaches. The privatisation of BR and the demise of loco-hauled trains in favour of Multiple Units which have no Brake/Guards coach, finally put an end to that.

On the contininent, particularly in Switzerland, they run a 'Ro-Ro' system where articulated lorry trailers are loaded onto trains to be taken between depots, so the trucks only have to travel on the road for the local journey between the depots at each end. We can't do this in the UK as our railway Loading Gauge (the clreance around platforms, bridges and tunnels ) is too small to take a full-size box or curtainside trailer, or a container already loaded onto a road trailer (one of the disadvantages of being an early adopter, and not having your rail system completely destroyed by a war).

The last mainline to be built in the UK, the Great Central Railway, was actually built to 'Continental' Loading Gauge which would have been ideal to operate the Ro-Ro trailer system, but the line was closed in the Beeching cuts in the mid-60s and parts of it's route were later sold off for development.

Regarding the actual thread subject, I jokingly suggest to a friend that the Government would take the coming influx of refugees from Afghanistan and train them up as HGV drivers, before realising that one of the idiots in the cabinet has probably likely already seriously suggested such a scheme.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Thank you for the above, that was very interesting.

[seepage]

Go back to using canals to transport freight. They seem to let loose any holiday maker who fancies it on a barge, so it can't be that hard to learn how to control one.

Did anyone else play the 'Mine a Million' board game, which featured taking tin to Newport by barge?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://twitter.com/thelorryist/status/1432037382581329920?s=19

Worth a read, along with some of the offshoots.

[Paul Calf]

Regarding the actual thread subject, I jokingly suggest to a friend that the Government would take the coming influx of refugees from Afghanistan and train them up as HGV drivers, before realising that one of the idiots in the cabinet has probably likely already seriously suggested such a scheme.

The Afghan Rigs?

[Fambo Number Mive]

Wetherspoons has said that some of its pubs have run out of some beer brands because of supply chain issues.

Tim feeling the consequences of his actions. I feel sorry for the staff though.

[Huxleys Babkins]

But it was only supposed to stop the poncey foreign muck the metropolitan elite eat.

[jobotic]

As we were constabtly reminded by our Brexit board legend, we were only worried about dinner party brie supplies.

Wonder how things are on Tufton Street

[katzenjammer]

More or Less explain how the figure of the 100k driver shortage was arrived at and break it down. Around 20k due to Brexit

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09tpk7c
Listen from about 11:30

[Dex Sawash]

"Just got back from swimming in the pool"   /tag

[Pinball]

Robots.

[Huxleys Babkins]

As we were constabtly reminded by our Brexit board legend, we were only worried about dinner party brie supplies.

Wonder how things are on Tufton Street

Distant memories of being painted as the out of touch bourgeoise for eating spinach.

[Pinball]

Brexit, Covid and IR35 are big parts of this. IR35 tax increases have buggered up contracting across the board in the UK (many HGV drivers are contractors). Really dumb of the government to introduce this in April 2021 when the economy is on its knees, but we all know the elite muppets in charge. Instead of improving things, they'll just keep increasing taxes until we starve. Not for the corporations they represent though, of course, just the electorate they don't represent anymore.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Bin collection within 24 local councils has been disrupted due to self-isolation rules and a lack of workers to drive the lorries.

Local government leaders have called on the home secretary Priti Patel to relax immigration rules for heavy goods vehicle drivers to ease the disruption.

The Local Government Association said that while most councils have been able to keep their collections running, some – such as Manchester City council and Cambridge country council – are having to reduce services.

A spokesperson added: "These issues are partly due to the problems with a shortage of HGV drivers, which is affecting other parts of the economy as well."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-bin-collection-hgv-driver-shortage-b1913827.html

Still waiting to hear about the benefits of Brexit.

[Key]

Wetherspoons has said that some of its pubs have run out of some beer brands because of supply chain issues.

Tim feeling the consequences of his actions. I feel sorry for the staff though.

Tim's blamed it on Heineken staff striking abroad (which they have denied)
I knew it was the lefties, even when it was the bears I knew it was the lefties.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Schoolchildren in Lancashire won't get as much food for their lunch because of the lorry driver shortage.

About 500 schools will be offering a reduced lunch menu from next week due to the national lorry driver shortage.

Lancashire County Council (LCC), which provides 65,000 meals a day, said food deliveries were being hit by the issue.

Education bosses have still promised a healthy meal every day for each child while stock levels are replenished.

From Monday, schools will focus on providing jacket potatoes, soups and sandwiches rather than a full menu. Fresh fruit will still be available...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-58753203

Some children only get to eat a full meal when they are at school, and children who haven't had enough to eat will find it hard to concentrate. It'll also mean that parents will need to cook a full meal for their child or children in the evening.

I know it's not all due to the government, but if they hadn't been so bent on driving every worker from the rest of Europe out of the country and doing nothing to address the other reasons why we have so few lorry drivers than children would still be getting a full school meal.

The industry warned the prime minister in June that there were 25,000 fewer candidates passing their test in 2020 than in 2019...The government has resisted those calls until now, with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps previously saying: "We do have to stand on our own two feet as the United Kingdom".

I'm sure the cabinet find it hilarious. They can't say they didn't know. Shapps's quote is laughable. Funny how we don't ask America to stand on its own two feet when it comes to defence.

[Gurke and Hare]

Schoolchildren in Lancashire won't get as much food for their lunch because of the lorry driver shortage.

I don't think it's saying that - isn't it saying that there will be less variety rather than a smaller quantity of food?

[Fambo Number Mive]

I think I misread full menu as full meal.

[Twit 2]

I am a lorry driver, I've been driving arctics for 10 years now. Thankfully I haven't done many nights out in a bunk bed, most of my jobs, including my current one allow me to come home every night. From my memory, the bunk bed is exactly like sleeping on an uncomfortable sofa, and and there isn't much sound insulation, so I would get woken up by whoever was parked next to me in a lorry park starting their engine and leaving it running for about 15 mins before they actually drove away.

It cost me a few thousand to pass the two HGV tests required, and I'm sure it's probably got more expensive since then. There are two tests, one for a rigid vehicle and then once you pass that then you can learn to drive and pass a test that allows you to pull a trailer.

I think it's true that new drivers are going to be prone to making mistakes. It takes time to get to know the area which you will be driving in and pay attention to the signposts that are relevant to you such as height and width restrictions.

If I was a people person I would probably find it a lonely job, but I like not being around people. It was never my dream to pull trailers, but now that's what I do I can't imagine doing anything else. Trucking kept me working all through the pandemic and for that I am grateful. I have grown to hate the radio though. I used to listen to radio 2 all day and now I can't stand it. So I have Spotify premium and lots of podcast subscriptions.

I have to say, you're selling it to me. I like driving and I like being on my own. As I'm currently unemployed and finding decent work has been a cunt, I'm genuinely considering this.

Looks like the government (not that they can organise a piss up in a brewery) are gonna open these free fast track schemes up from mid-November:

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2021/09/30/how-can-i-train-to-become-an-hgv-driver-your-questions-answered/

If it actually works, it seems you can go from "bloke who only knows how to drive a car" to "behind the wheel and earning reasonable dosh" in 6 weeks.

Anyone else on CaB tempted?!

[H-O-W-L]

I have to say, you're selling it to me. I like driving and I like being on my own. As I'm currently unemployed and finding decent work has been a cunt, I'm genuinely considering this.

Looks like the government (not that they can organise a piss up in a brewery) are gonna open these free fast track schemes up from mid-November:

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2021/09/30/how-can-i-train-to-become-an-hgv-driver-your-questions-answered/

If it actually works, it seems you can go from "bloke who only knows how to drive a car" to "behind the wheel and earning reasonable dosh" in 6 weeks.

Anyone else on CaB tempted?!

I'm unable to drive and have no experience driving but I'm honestly kind of tempted to become a driver, yeah. Not that I'd ever manage it.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Can't wait to queue up at the local shop along with 50 others for milk. Do many village still have shops even? And do many of them open outside of 9-5 hours when many working people need to shop?

[Twit 2]

Lol. These cunts live in a total fantasy world. "I'd like to have an economy where ruthless multinationals run the show so I can profit from it. But I'd also like to vote for a catastrophic economic event that prevents that from working. And I'd also like to turn back time to the rose-tinted past where the village shop that my ideology has destroyed is magically restored! What do you mean, I can't have it all?!"