Soldato
I do 7 miles a day, I'll be fine..
Fuel price discussion thread (was ‘chaos’)
- Thread starter watercooledman
- Start date
Soldato
I remember when the last fuel shortage was on, and I needed to do my normal monthly fill up. I felt like one of the idiots in that queue!
Not everyone will be panic buying, just doing their normal thing. Luckily I've got just over half a tank so will be ok for a couple of weeks.
Caporegime
As I said in a thread in GD, it’s laughable, the media are stoking up the clueless public into panic buying which I find it strange.
Petrol tanker driving is one of the highest paying HGV driving jobs, and very sought after, I’ve never seen job adverts for such positions even during the current shortage, it’s known as a “dead mans shoes” job i.e. vacancies just don’t come up unless someone dies….
I can understand the likes of food shortages due to driver shortage as generally that side of the industry has been low paid and drivers treated like crap for years, many have left the job ironically because many of the same supermarkets will happily pay more per hour to stack shelves than they will for someone to drive an HGV.
Such companies have relied on cheaper Eastern European labour for years and now post covid (which has screwed up HGV license testing causing an even bigger shortage than already existed prior to covid) many of those drivers have gone back home as they can earn similar money in their own countries - I know quite a few who’ve done just this - so we now have a perfect storm, an exacerbated driver shortage, crap conditions for drivers, low pay (ignore media headlines of £70k,it’s rubbish) and a generation of younger workers who have bo desire to work 70 hour weeks.
No surprise to me or anyone else who’s done this job for any length of time…
Petrol tanker driving is one of the highest paying HGV driving jobs, and very sought after, I’ve never seen job adverts for such positions even during the current shortage, it’s known as a “dead mans shoes” job i.e. vacancies just don’t come up unless someone dies….
I can understand the likes of food shortages due to driver shortage as generally that side of the industry has been low paid and drivers treated like crap for years, many have left the job ironically because many of the same supermarkets will happily pay more per hour to stack shelves than they will for someone to drive an HGV.
Such companies have relied on cheaper Eastern European labour for years and now post covid (which has screwed up HGV license testing causing an even bigger shortage than already existed prior to covid) many of those drivers have gone back home as they can earn similar money in their own countries - I know quite a few who’ve done just this - so we now have a perfect storm, an exacerbated driver shortage, crap conditions for drivers, low pay (ignore media headlines of £70k,it’s rubbish) and a generation of younger workers who have bo desire to work 70 hour weeks.
No surprise to me or anyone else who’s done this job for any length of time…
Caporegime
And people said that immigrant labour did not have deflationary impact on UK wages.
How wrong were they? I've seen numerous hgv drivers get 30% rises in a week.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2013
- Posts
- 29,416
Anecdotal, but my friends dad has had people ringing him offering him 80K+ per year to drive HGV lorries. He's 71 and retired.
He used to specialise in moving temperamental chemicals and fuels etc. All he would need to do is a renewal assessment.
Do we really want geriatric lorry drivers on the road?
Edit - He refused by the way.
Soldato
Yep wondered why there was gridlocked traffic last night and it was because everyone was queuing outside BP. Drove past again this morning and its run out of fuel.
Caporegime
We got 17.5% which on the face of it sounds great, I’m now on £12 per hr, in 2007 I was earning £9.75! - wages have been stagnant in this job for a very long time and as a consequence many have left the industry.
Many agencies are offering crazy rates, £35+ per hour, not one of them will guarantee you work after January….
Caporegime
Good on him.
I’m getting inundated with on the face of it incredibly good rates, until you look deeper into it and you either have very short shifts or your only required on certain days and no guarantee of work after Christmas, which is often the case with agencies…
Classic Atkinson comedy sketch on merits of hgv driving
not too PC now Not The Nine O'Clock News - I Like Trucking
not too PC now Not The Nine O'Clock News - I Like Trucking
Soldato
Just let the idiots who don't need fuel fill up and get it over with, then it should be back to normal in a bit.
Just like toilet roll.
Just like toilet roll.
Permabanned
Are these not just temporary rises to meet demand? Once the 100k drivers positions are filled, maybe when they alter visa's for european workers, the demand goes down and wages back to normal.
Soldato
Mate of mine had his own haulage company and was working just for a sweets mover, he now contracts for Stobart, loads less hassle for him as well as more money..
Long gone are the days where you could drive up and down the country, stop in laybys or other places with facilities, its a crappy job these days, but certainly not one I would want to do, 56mph everywhere and getting fined for being late, rising fuel costs as well as other costs and yet those you drag stuff around for are trying to drive the prices down, sucks to be you chap..
Soldato
That's a crazy low wage for a job with such responsibility. You'd get paid more working in Aldi stacking shelves.
Caporegime
The way this government is carrying on, if they say “Don’t panic”, then panicking is the sensible course of action.
Caporegime
Government: "Dont panic buy"
People: "Must panic buy"
Standard.
People: "Must panic buy"
Standard.
I'll do 7mpg, I'll be less fine.
Soldato
Morons all of them, I filled up yesterday
So did I - managed to get £2 worth in and overflowed half of that. - I was the only car on forcourt.
Soldato
All 3 of our cars have no fuel
Crown and s2000 only run on super, e5. I need to get to work on Tuesday so it'll be interesting.
Crown and s2000 only run on super, e5. I need to get to work on Tuesday so it'll be interesting.
Associate
So did I - managed to get £2 worth in and overflowed half of that. - I was the only car on forcourt.
