Toilet Rolls - Now Petrol/diesel!

[Andrewcook]

As this whole problem of not having enough HGV Drivers as we are now going to be Importing them from abroad to solve our own Crisis with theses Two problems Food shortages and Petrol as soon as possible but make the most of it till Christmas Eve what a time that's gonna be may I add. .

[grendel]

15 minutes ago, Chelsea14Ian said:

Reporter on BBC breakfast  now,reporting on shortages.Called Phil McCann. 

you mean this one?

[TheQ]

The sun,  newspaper? Has been running articles on Britain "RUNNING ON EMPTY"  23rd sept.

We drove down from Scotland yesterday, no problem with fuel on the motorways, except £1.599 a litre but elsewhere very little fuel about. When I got to Tesco's Stalham the queues were out onto the A149, I had to drive to Sutton and back to the high street to walk into Tesco for a bottle of milk.

We have half a tank of fuel left, we use a tank and a half with me just going to and from Norwich for work. I can't remember what's left in the Landrover but that hopefully will keep me going for a few more days..

[TheQ]

I don't know if its been mentioned,  the DVLA staff have been running a go slow / strike since early August..

[andyg]

Andy it's the media responsibility to report facts and not incite panic. There wasn't a fuel supply issue until the media got hold of what was basically a non story regarding a very small number of bp outlets. We have great big 50inch TV screens in our transport office showing both bbc and sky news and we stood amazed as the news reporting just got more and more laughable as the day went on. We worked all through the pandemic our depot is one of the largest in the UK, not once during the first lockdown did any media organisation ask to come film in our warehouse to help reassure the public there were no shortages of food etc. In fact it was the total opposite, we were bursting at the seems. But plenty of TV crews outside our stores filming the chaos. Its was the same story at all our distribution facility's and stores. Why our news channels feel the need to copy our cousins across the pond and use  sensationalism and hear say as news is beyond me. 

[Hylander]

34 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I don't know if its been mentioned,  the DVLA staff have been running a go slow / strike since early August..

Go slow. Don't think normally they are exactly quick. 

 

Does anyone else cringe when they hear the word normal.  Is there such a thing anymore   

 

I mean we are looking forward to going back to normal.  Are we? Really!!! 

 

 

[Oddfellow]

1 hour ago, Chelsea14Ian said:

Reporter on BBC breakfast  now,reporting on shortages.Called Phil McCann. 

His English cousin, Jerry, was unavailable for the job. 

 

[SwanR]

41 minutes ago, andyg said:

Andy it's the media responsibility to report facts and not incite panic. There wasn't a fuel supply issue until the media got hold of what was basically a non story regarding a very small number of bp outlets

Agree with your post completely Andyg. Well said. 

[Oddfellow]

7 hours ago, andyg said:

Andy it's the media responsibility to report facts and not incite panic. There wasn't a fuel supply issue until the media got hold of what was basically a non story regarding a very small number of bp outlets. We have great big 50inch TV screens in our transport office showing both bbc and sky news and we stood amazed as the news reporting just got more and more laughable as the day went on. We worked all through the pandemic our depot is one of the largest in the UK, not once during the first lockdown did any media organisation ask to come film in our warehouse to help reassure the public there were no shortages of food etc. In fact it was the total opposite, we were bursting at the seems. But plenty of TV crews outside our stores filming the chaos. Its was the same story at all our distribution facility's and stores. Why our news channels feel the need to copy our cousins across the pond and use  sensationalism and hear say as news is beyond me. 

AH, I see the problem here. I think you have the wrong understanding of the media. Well, most of it anyway. The media's role is to get you to read more, watch more, buy more. This is especially true of media that's in the hands of profit making organisations (and here I use the word "profit" to include propaganda). 

If the SUN can push the price of petrol up so that the scumbag petroleum companies increase profits and thus run more adverts and pay News Corp more money, that's their role. Don't ever fall into the trap of thinking that a newspaper or other media outlet is delivering news. It's delivering profit first and foremost and is very clever at disguising it as fact. 

Another big problem is that people see headlines and don't read the story. Most of us will be guilty of this. The headline's purpose is to attract you to a story and the story may be rather less sensational than the headline. 

 

[charlesa]

38 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I don't know if its been mentioned,  the DVLA staff have been running a go slow / strike since early August..

The DVLA are an abomination. I have a 3 year restricted license due to Diabetes. It was due to expire in June of this year which it did. I applied for my renewal in February knowing that I would require some medical confirmation that I was fit to drive.
I got a written response in early June (they don't do emails) to say that they wanted me to have a visual Fields test (absolutely fine, I have had them before) to check my peripheral vision . This was to be done via Specsavers (again fine, I have had them do it before) but that due to covid this was not possible. It said, in a completely unhelpful and non committal way, that I might be able to continue driving if medical opinion from my specialists (who I couldn't see) was positive.
At this point I tried to call them, tens of times.
Each time the same message along the lines of " Covid, very busy, industrial action, try later".
After trying for a week I eventually got through to some unhelpful halfwit who said he couldn't help with my application.
I suggested getting this VFT done myself on the NHS and he eventually said " we might be able to accept it but I can't guarantee it ".
So I had this test done at Basingstoke hospital and came home clutching the result (99/100) in my hand.
I then attempted to call DVLA to inform them of the test result and email a scanned copy over to them.
After many attempts I finally get through again to Halfwit number two.
Me: " I have had the test done as you suggested, I scored 99/100, I will email it to you"'
Halfwit 2: " You can't, we don't accept emails you need to post it".

So off it went and nothing happened for weeks. I continued driving on the tenuous assumption that I would be ok if stopped by the police.
In the meantime I sent a stinging email to the Chief Executive , Ms.Julie Lennard.
I copied said email to by MP.
He thanked me for pointing out the fact that this Government organisation was entirely unfit for purpose and said he would be bringing this up in the Commons.
Anyway I am boring you all and am boring myself for which I apologise.
I received my new license about a week ago.

 

Rant over !

[Hylander]

36 minutes ago, charlesa said:

The DVLA are an abomination. I have a 3 year restricted license due to Diabetes. It was due to expire in June of this year which it did. I applied for my renewal in February knowing that I would require some medical confirmation that I was fit to drive.
I got a written response in early June (they don't do emails) to say that they wanted me to have a visual Fields test (absolutely fine, I have had them before) to check my peripheral vision . This was to be done via Specsavers (again fine, I have had them do it before) but that due to covid this was not possible. It said, in a completely unhelpful and non committal way, that I might be able to continue driving if medical opinion from my specialists (who I couldn't see) was positive.
At this point I tried to call them, tens of times.
Each time the same message along the lines of " Covid, very busy, industrial action, try later".
After trying for a week I eventually got through to some unhelpful halfwit who said he couldn't help with my application.
I suggested getting this VFT done myself on the NHS and he eventually said " we might be able to accept it but I can't guarantee it ".
So I had this test done at Basingstoke hospital and came home clutching the result (99/100) in my hand.
I then attempted to call DVLA to inform them of the test result and email a scanned copy over to them.
After many attempts I finally get through again to Halfwit number two.
Me: " I have had the test done as you suggested, I scored 99/100, I will email it to you"'
Halfwit 2: " You can't, we don't accept emails you need to post it".

So off it went and nothing happened for weeks. I continued driving on the tenuous assumption that I would be ok if stopped by the police.
In the meantime I sent a stinging email to the Chief Executive , Ms.Julie Lennard.
I copied said email to by MP.
He thanked me for pointing out the fact that this Government organisation was entirely unfit for purpose and said he would be bringing this up in the Commons.
Anyway I am boring you all and am boring myself for which I apologise.
I received my new license about a week ago.

 

Rant over !

You could not make it up could you.   What a flaming carry on.     Glad you have received your licence at long long last.

[ScrumpyCheddar]

[Andrewcook]

Well I still cannot believe this Cars still queuing for petrol from 6.30am this morning have they gone mad?As will announce today Visas for foreign drivers to ease the situation please god.

 

[Wonderwall]

3 hours ago, andyg said:

Not quite sure what media outlets you've watched Andy but your wrong I'm afraid. Both bbc and itv have hyped up the issue using some quite evocative images and comments. Totally agree about the social media sheep that just follow the herd. Typical of society today I'm afraid. 

The irony being, here you are on social media , talking about 🤩.

My son has just come back from a jaunt around France and Belgium. The shelves in the shops are full, and there is no mention of a fuel shortage. All the harvest has been picked and no reports of produce rotting away.

Food for thought .

[vanessan]

22 minutes ago, Andrewcook said:

As will announce today Visas for foreign drivers to ease the situation please god.

But will any want to come???

[Bikertov]

2 hours ago, grendel said:

you mean this one?

That one has gone my 'mates' WhatsApp group 🤣

[Bikertov]

1 hour ago, charlesa said:

The DVLA are an abomination. I have a 3 year restricted license due to Diabetes. It was due to expire in June of this year which it did. I applied for my renewal in February knowing that I would require some medical confirmation that I was fit to drive.
I got a written response in early June (they don't do emails) to say that they wanted me to have a visual Fields test (absolutely fine, I have had them before) to check my peripheral vision . This was to be done via Specsavers (again fine, I have had them do it before) but that due to covid this was not possible. It said, in a completely unhelpful and non committal way, that I might be able to continue driving if medical opinion from my specialists (who I couldn't see) was positive.
At this point I tried to call them, tens of times.
Each time the same message along the lines of " Covid, very busy, industrial action, try later".
After trying for a week I eventually got through to some unhelpful halfwit who said he couldn't help with my application.
I suggested getting this VFT done myself on the NHS and he eventually said " we might be able to accept it but I can't guarantee it ".
So I had this test done at Basingstoke hospital and came home clutching the result (99/100) in my hand.
I then attempted to call DVLA to inform them of the test result and email a scanned copy over to them.
After many attempts I finally get through again to Halfwit number two.
Me: " I have had the test done as you suggested, I scored 99/100, I will email it to you"'
Halfwit 2: " You can't, we don't accept emails you need to post it".

So off it went and nothing happened for weeks. I continued driving on the tenuous assumption that I would be ok if stopped by the police.
In the meantime I sent a stinging email to the Chief Executive , Ms.Julie Lennard.
I copied said email to by MP.
He thanked me for pointing out the fact that this Government organisation was entirely unfit for purpose and said he would be bringing this up in the Commons.
Anyway I am boring you all and am boring myself for which I apologise.
I received my new license about a week ago.

 

Rant over !

And no doubt they couldn't deal with the said written correspondence they insisted on because they were all 'efficiently' working from home due to Covid ...

That was my similar experience of the ICO last year.

 

[grendel]

20 minutes ago, Wonderwall said:

and there is no mention of a fuel shortage

There is no fuel shortage.

Just BP announced they could not get it to a small number of garages due to HGV driver shortage is all.

Yet the media attention this has been given has blown it out of all proportion, and yes some garages have run out due to high demand, but they will have deliveries booked in , and once everyone has a full tank then things will return to a more normal level.

[andyg]

13 minutes ago, grendel said:

There is no fuel shortage.

Just BP announced they could not get it to a small number of garages due to HGV driver shortage is all.

Yet the media attention this has been given has blown it out of all proportion, and yes some garages have run out due to high demand, but they will have deliveries booked in , and once everyone has a full tank then things will return to a more normal level.

Exactly, the fuel distribution network here in the UK is very robust. Give the guys a chance and they will turn it around in 48hrs. You can only fill your car up so much. 

[Bikertov]

And despite my best reasoned argument, my OH added to the problem by filling up from half a tank full this morning because she was worried.

And from the petrol station at the top of the road that is the most expensive around.

I despair ...

[rightsaidfred]

2 hours ago, Oddfellow said:

AH, I see the problem here. I think you have the wrong understanding of the media. Well, most of it anyway. The media's role is to get you to read more, watch more, buy more. This is especially true of media that's in the hands of profit making organisations (and here I use the word "profit" to include propaganda). 

If the SUN can push the price of petrol up so that the scumbag petroleum companies like BP increase profits and thus run more adverts and pay News Corp more money, that's their role. Don't ever fall into the trap of thinking that a newspaper or other media outlet is delivering news. It's delivering profit first and foremost and is very clever at disguising it as fact. 

Another big problem is that people see headlines and don't read the story. Most of us will be guilty of this. The headline's purpose is to attract you to a story and the story may be rather less sensational than the headline. 

 

I dont read papers (refuse to call them news) and havn`t for many years, I rarely look at the BBC and ITV news these days as most of the time it isn`t trouble is to many still do and are gullible enough to believe it, while not perfect Sky news and one or two other outlets do tend to report facts more than propaganda.

Fred

[Ray]

Social Media, mostly FB but probably others are still posting photos of queues and name calling everyone in them. I think it's worth bearing in mind that 3 days in to this non crisis people who just want to buy fuel because they would now anyway are having to join the scrum. Seems to add insult to injury to tar them all with the same brush.

Personally I can just about see the week out and hopefully by then things will have eased, but if they haven't I'll have no choice!

[Mouldy]

49 minutes ago, vanessan said:

But will any want to come???

Exactly.  If drivers from the EU have returned home and are now in gainful employment, are they going to leave to take a short term contract here?  I don’t think so.

I assume that the powers that be think they can train 100,000 drivers before Christmas.  I’d be surprised if they succeed in training more than a few hundred.  Visas for temporary workers need to be for at least a year to make it worthwhile.

I heard one of our government ministers on TV a couple of days ago saying that the first batch of people they hope who would take up training were existing HGV drivers returning to the profession.  He clearly hasn’t a clue what he’s talking about, as no retraining is necessary to regain a lapsed licence.  All they need to do is take a medical and submit an application to renew it.  That would be up to whether they can get a doctors appointment and how quickly the DVLA can issue a licence, which at the moment is taking around twelve weeks.

As I said before, a public school education doesn’t guarantee knowledge.

[Oddfellow]

This is going around Social; Media. It's worth reading. 

Quote

Jim Titheridge

17 Sept 

So, you are running out of food on the shelves, fuel in the garages, you can’t buy things you need, because the shops can’t get their supplies.

Why is that?

A shortage of goods? No

A shortage of money? No

A shortage of drivers to deliver the goods? Well, sort of.

There isn’t actually a shortage of drivers, what we have, is a shortage of people who can drive, that are willing to drive any more. You might wonder why that is. I can’t answer for all drivers, but I can give you the reason I no longer drive. Driving was something I always yearned to do as a young boy, and as soon as I could, I managed to get my driving licence, I even joined the army to get my HGV licence faster, I held my licence at the age of 17. It was all I ever wanted to do, drive trucks, I had that vision of being a knight of the roads, bringing the goods to everyone, providing a service everyone needed. What I didn’t take into account was the absolute abuse my profession would get over the years.

I have seen a massive decline in the respect this trade has, first, it was the erosion of truck parking and transport café’s, then it was the massive increase in restricting where I could stop, timed weight limits in just about every city and town, but not all the time, you can get there to do your delivery, but you can’t stay there, nobody wants an empty truck, nobody wants you there once they have what they did want.

Compare France to the UK. I can park in nearly every town or village, they have marked truck parking bays, and somewhere nearby, will be a small routier, where I can get a meal and a shower, the locals respect me, and have no problems with me or my truck being there for the night.

Go out onto the motorway services, and I can park for no cost, go into the service area, and get a shower for a minimal cost, and have freshly cooked food, I even get to jump the queues, because others know that my time is limited, and respect I am there because it is my job. Add to that, I even get a 20% discount of all I purchase. Compare that to the UK £25-£40 just to park overnight, dirty showers, and expensive, dried (under heat lamps) food that is overpriced, and I have no choice but to park there, because you don’t want me in your towns and cities.

Ask yourself how you would feel, if doing your job actually cost you money at the end of the day, just so you could rest.

But that isn’t the half of it. Not only have we been rejected from our towns and cities, but we have also suffered massive pay cuts, because of the influx of foreign drivers willing to work for a wage that is high where they come from, companies eagerly recruited from the eastern bloc, who can blame them, why pay good money when you can get cheap labour, and a never ending supply of it as well. Never mind that their own countries would suffer from a shortage themselves, that was never our problem, they could always get people from further afield if they needed drivers.

We were once seen as knights of the road, now we are seen as the lepers of society. Why would anyone want to go back to that?

If you are worried about not getting supplies on your supermarket shelves, ask your local council just how well they cater for trucks in your district.

I know Canterbury has the grand total of zero truck parking facilities, but does have a lot of restrictions, making it difficult for trucks to stop anywhere.

Do you want me to go back to driving trucks? Give me a good reason to do so. Give anyone a good reason to take it up as a profession.

Perhaps once you work out why you can’t, you will understand why your shelves are not as full as they could be.

I tried it for over 30 years, but will never go back, you just couldn't pay me enough.

Thank you to all those people who have shared this post. I never expected such a massive response, but am glad that this message is getting out there. I really hope that some people who are in a position to change just how bad it is for some drivers, can influence the powers that be to make changes for the better. Perhaps some city and town councillors have seen this, and are willing to bring up these issues at their council meetings. It surely cannot be too much to ask of a town/city to provide facilities for those who are doing so much to make sure their economies run and their shops and businesses are stocked with supplies. I never wanted any luxuries, just somewhere safe to park, and some basic ablutions that are maintained to a reasonable standard. I spent my nights away from my home and family for you, how much is it to ask that you at least give me access to some basic services.

There are tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of licence holders just like me, who will no longer tolerate the conditions. So the ball is firmly in the court of the councils to solve this problem.

 

[andyg]

Time to disp

5 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

Exactly.  If drivers from the EU have returned home and are now in gainful employment, are they going to leave to take a short term contract here?  I don’t think so.

I assume that the powers that be think they can train 100,000 drivers before Christmas.  I’d be surprised if they succeed in training more than a few hundred.  Visas for temporary workers need to be for at least a year to make it worthwhile.

I heard one of our government ministers on TV a couple of days ago saying that the first batch of people they hope who would take up training were existing HGV drivers returning to the profession.  He clearly hasn’t a clue what he’s talking about, as no retraining is necessary to regain a lapsed licence.  All they need to do is take a medical and submit an application to renew it.  That would be up to whether they can get a doctors appointment and how quickly the DVLA can issue a licence, which at the moment is taking around twelve weeks.

As I said before, a public school education doesn’t guarantee knowledge.

Nope, you are wrong there I'm afraid, they do indeed. If there cpc entitlement ( card ) has expired they do need to do that all over again. So the minister was correct.