petrol stations price discussion (was ‘chaos’)

Caporegime
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Soldato
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Its a joke, I need fuel for the weekend cause I've got like 50 miles left but I don't want to have stomach the wait. May just go out at like 12am and hope a 24/7 garage has fuel left.

I do wonder the thoughts of some people, you know 80% of them won't even need fuel for 2/3 weeks, yet they go and fill up anyway, this is the kind of crap that actually produces a shortage.
 
Man of Honour
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To be fair I've just driven down the A5 from Tamworth to corby and passed plenty of stations that looked no busier than normal, as with the initial statement it looks like it may be getting blown out of proportion by social media
 
Soldato
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To be fair I've just driven down the A5 from Tamworth to corby and passed plenty of stations that looked no busier than normal, as with the initial statement it looks like it may be getting blown out of proportion by social media

Every garage I've noticed in the past 48 hours has had stupid queues. There is a tesco garage on a main road near us and people were queuing out of the forecourt onto the A road. At that point why are you not just giving up. Sainsburys near me as was just queuing off into the car park.
 
Associate
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I actually needed to fill up this morning, 530am. Went to two stations. First one was completely out and the shell only had v power. So was an expensive tank of diesel, I don’t mind as I use ever so often.
On my way home from work, the shell I filled up they were queuing up the road, Asda just looked like chaos as I passed it. My wife informed me that the Esso we usually fill up at was empty and the Tesco station was causing chaos as the it was backing up traffic round two roundabouts.
 
Associate
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Soldato
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Small firms have had to compete to stay on the road.

Mr Cook told me they have just given their drivers a 25% pay rise.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-57656327.amp

Yup and £1000 sign on bonuses, what else are they supposed to do?

There are lots of people driving around looking for petrol as many were turning around as the local supermarket station has cones across the entrance... I have half a tank but need to drive a fair distance tomorrow. I wonder how many of the panic buying people are also brexiters!
 
Caporegime
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How about 20 years of experience in the industry? The driving the down pay and conditions hasn't just happened in this country, go ask a Dutch or French truck driver their thoughts on freedom of movement and cabotage, but I guess they are all thick racist gammon. The EU along with individual governments has enabled a system that allowed big business to exploit workers. Ask a Bulgarian or a Romanian how the current system treats them. Being paid the very low wages of the old eastern bloc to work for months at a time in the western and northern European countries. It's as unfair on them as it is the workers they replace by being able to work for less than the market rate.



Hahaha, must be Brexit.



The whole driver shortage is also a massive red herring. There are something like 300,000 more HGV license holders than there are vacancies. The question is not where the workers have gone, but why they don't want to drive.

I'm sure Scania agrees pay is one aspect, but who here would want to work any random 5 days from 7 as most jobs offer right now. No weekend premium, no bank holiday premium, no bonus for unsocial hours. No decent facilities on the road. Very little genuinely safe and secure parking. Banned outright from parking in Kent outside of expensive and undersized truck parks. 15 hour shifts 3 days a week, with as little as 9 hours off, then another 3x13 hour shifts. Up to 21 hours duty time if double manning, again with 9 hours off. Locked in tiny stuffy waiting rooms sitting on a plastic chair for 3 hours while your unloaded because your banned from sitting in your cab. Banned form the using the toilets at many site you deliver to. Turned away if your early, rejected if your late, oh, and banned from parking on the very industrial estates your delivering to. Tachographs, driving facing cameras, Microlise monitoring. Some pointy shoe wearing office clerk telling you how you should be driving when they've never been in a truck. We are hated if we drive during the day, we are hated if we deliver at night.

I certainly wouldn't choose this industry if I was starting out my working life now.
Absolutely hit the nail on the head, I’ve been driving HGV’s since 1996 yet get paid the same rate as someone passing their test tomorrow…

WkJOSl9.jpg

62.5 hours after a further 3:45 deducted for my breaks, note my overtime rate is exactly the same as my day rate, I start most days @ 4am which means I’m up at 3am…

What part of the above is an attractive proposition to anyone wanting to enter the industry?
 
Associate
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Yup and £1000 sign on bonuses, what else are they supposed to do?

There are lots of people driving around looking for petrol as many were turning around as the local supermarket station has cones across the entrance... I have half a tank but need to drive a fair distance tomorrow. I wonder how many of the panic buying people are also brexiters!

As some one who voted Brexit, this is precisely what I wanted to happen. My place has the union requesting a 20% payrise on one side, and stack of drivers handing in their notice on the other. Meanwhile I'm getting daily phonecalls from agencies begging me to work for them at £25 an hour or more.
Our company comes back with their counter offer in a few days. If it's not enough I'm off to.
This kind of negotiating power wouldn't of happened without Brexit. I'm loving it.
 
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As some one who voted Brexit, this is precisely what I wanted to happen. My place has the union requesting a 20% payrise on one side, and stack of drivers handing in their notice on the other. Meanwhile I'm getting daily phonecalls from agencies begging me to work for them at £25 an hour or more.
Our company comes back with their counter offer in a few days. If it's not enough I'm off to.
This kind of negotiating power wouldn't of happened without Brexit. I'm loving it.

Its probably temporary isn't it? so make hay while the sun shines
 
Associate
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Its probably temporary isn't it? so make hay while the sun shines

Nope. We are still stuck with an ageing workforce and small numbers coming in to replace them. This is a decades old problem that Brexit and CoVid pushed over the edge, but unless the underlying problems of low pay and poor working conditions is addressed, the shortage will only get worse, and the EU workers are unlikely to return even if they are asked.
 
Caporegime
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On the road....
As some one who voted Brexit, this is precisely what I wanted to happen. My place has the union requesting a 20% payrise on one side, and stack of drivers handing in their notice on the other. Meanwhile I'm getting daily phonecalls from agencies begging me to work for them at £25 an hour or more.
Our company comes back with their counter offer in a few days. If it's not enough I'm off to.
This kind of negotiating power wouldn't of happened without Brexit. I'm loving it.
A cautionary tale, we’ve had a few leave for the promise of what agencies are offering, yet have come back, what they promise and deliver are rarely the same.

The rates agencies are offering are unsustainable, bear in mind the work your doing is budgeted at a far lower wage level (rightly or wrongly) so hauliers either have to pass this on to customers or go out of business which is already starting to happen.

Yes there’s an argument for making hay while the sun shines, it’s not shining anywhere near as much as the media would have you believe.

It’ll reach a levelling point (hopefully!) , but only after the costs have been passed onto consumers which will hit us all in the pocket.
 
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Nope. We are still stuck with an ageing workforce and small numbers coming in to replace them. This is a decades old problem that Brexit and CoVid pushed over the edge, but unless the underlying problems of low pay and poor working conditions is addressed, the shortage will only get worse, and the EU workers are unlikely to return even if they are asked.

Totally temporary, just remains to be seen how long it lasts and if wages will go as low as previously.
 
Associate
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Totally temporary, just remains to be seen how long it lasts and if wages will go as low as previously.

Yeah....that's not how it works. Agency rates rise and fall of course, but if a full time employer raises wages by 20% this year to make up for years of stagnant growth, do you really think workers will accept a 20% cut next year??
 
Soldato
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media caused this. it is no less than an attack on the uk.
media should be fined to cover the damage they caused and banned from doing it again.
and the bbc should lose their fee money, otherwise it's just fining ourselves, cut them off.
 
Soldato
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As some one who voted Brexit, this is precisely what I wanted to happen. My place has the union requesting a 20% payrise on one side, and stack of drivers handing in their notice on the other. Meanwhile I'm getting daily phonecalls from agencies begging me to work for them at £25 an hour or more.
Our company comes back with their counter offer in a few days. If it's not enough I'm off to.
This kind of negotiating power wouldn't of happened without Brexit. I'm loving it.

Good for you. And thanks for highlighting the attitude of such voters. Meanwhile, the rest of us have to pay for your pay rise.
 
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