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are your supermarket shelves looking empty?

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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha
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PostPosted: 06:51 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: are your supermarket shelves looking empty? Reply with quote
Our local Tescos look okay, but bloody hell the sainsburys are looking very weird - lots of gaps up and down the aisles. Worst I've seen it since the panic buying of early lockdown.

So this might well just be local to me - but is anyone else seeing this, and if so, what's it about? A lack of HGV drivers (and what's that about anyway?)? Is it something Cov19 related? Is it to do with Brexit?
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UncleFester
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PostPosted: 06:57 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
The virtual ones always look fine..... get some odd substitutes but nothing I'd cry about.
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Copycat73
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PostPosted: 08:13 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
story i`m hearing is as you say "a shortage of HGV drivers" truth is there are more than enough drivers / licence holders but the job is that crap.. pay , hours and conditions etc..they have found work else where .. many not even renewing their licence.. the European drivers have gone home and not returned .. also the pingdemic app. has played its part .. some what of a perfect storm ..
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grr666
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PostPosted: 08:43 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
My local council have suspended the separately paid for garden waste collections for the next 10 weeks citing driver
shortage as the reason. Although knowing the way councils are (i.e. When there's some piss around they're all too
happy to take it...) I suspect it's more to do with summer holidays being taken all at once because for many UK hols is all
they can afford with the extra covid related BS to get on a plane somewhere warmer. No refunds being given of course.
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Kawasaki Jimbo
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PostPosted: 14:21 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
I haven’t noticed shortages at the supermarkets recently, but the impact of Covid on economies is said to have caused an uneven distribution of shipping containers across the world; effectively a serious shortage.

https://metroshipping.co.uk/news/available-container-equipment-shortage-continues/
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wr6133
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PostPosted: 16:46 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Re: are your supermarket shelves looking empty? Reply with quote
trevor saxe-coburg-gotha wrote:
A lack of HGV drivers (and what's that about anyway?)? Is it something Cov19 related? Is it to do with Brexit?


Brexit, even if all the tests had taken place last year, all had passed ( Laughing ) and all had actually stuck at the job for more than a month ( Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing ) we were already years in to a shortage and the huge number of EU drivers buggering off home and then not coming back (why not do the same job in Germany and be nearer home) kicked the bottom out the bucket.

An idea of how bad it's been for a while I was using 40% (mostly Polish) agency drivers every day in 2015 when planning about 110 routes a day out of an RDC for a huge retailer. In 2018 I'd moved to a company that had all it's drivers tramping and the little depot I managed only had 28 Tractor units, I never in the 18 months I was there managed to get them all out at the same time. Where I work now I get an almost top down view of a big chunk of the Industry and it's to put it politely, Fucked.
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Im-a-Ridah
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PostPosted: 17:31 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Interesting one for remainers this!

They can blame the HGV shortage on Brexit...

... but then they have to accept that a chief advantage of EU membership is to expoit immigrants to weaken the working pay and conditions of the poor.

So that's the purpose of the EU then is it remainers? Wink

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Also my shelves are fine Laughing
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chickenstrip
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PostPosted: 19:12 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nope, local supermarket stocked fine.
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Nobby the Bastard
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PostPosted: 19:29 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
No idea. Shopping is Mrs Bastards job.
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to v or not to v
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PostPosted: 19:32 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
was speaking to a local HGV driver last week. he told me there has been a shortage for quite a few years now, due to long hours and poor pay. he even put his own son off from getting into the game.
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to v or not to v
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PostPosted: 19:34 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
grr666 wrote:
My local council have suspended the separately paid for garden waste collections for the next 10 weeks citing driver
shortage as the reason. No refunds being given of course.

my council are doing the same, they are adding the time off onto the end of the year though, so we wont be out of pocket.
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Easy-X
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PostPosted: 20:54 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Eventually the HGV driver shortage will be such an issue shops might - shock! horror! - pay more Shocked I often hear ppl moan about how shit their job and/or pay is but... what's that? you don't have any skills or interests so you'll just stick with it?! Well that sucks Rolling Eyes Kindly stop bending my ear over it.

"OMG! The shelves are literally empty!!! I had to make do with shop brand toilet paper instead of my usual quadruple-soft luxury brand. I'm writing to my MP!" Puts the whole half the world are starving and the other half are dying of obesity into perspective Neutral
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Tracey Suntan-King
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PostPosted: 21:32 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
All good here in Mud Wales. Although I did have trouble locating free-range tacos this week.
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wr6133
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PostPosted: 22:57 - 07 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Easy-X wrote:
Eventually the HGV driver shortage will be such an issue shops might - shock! horror! - pay more


30-40k a year (many variables and some fields scope for more) for a job that requires no formal qualification beyond throwing a few grand at a licence and doing 35 hours of classroom "training", every 5 years (which are attendance sessions you can't fail).

Arguably the money isn't bad, it requires a pretty solid work ethic though and for tramping a fairly specific type of person. Unfortunately in my experience young ones now expect it to be a 9-5 monday to Friday and melt away when they find out otherwise. Not limited to the young though I've seen no shortage of "mature" men have hissy fits and quit a job because they were given keys to a brand of truck they dislike, told to wait half hour for a load (paid time), told they can't smoke in the cab (the law), told they can't take their girlfriend with them... this list could go on.

And yeah some earn alot less and drive grotty old units, with the longterm shortage these are people who either have no ambition or so many points on their licences no decent firm will have them on the insurance.

One of the best drivers i ever employed had come to it after selling up his successful business, he was sick of the stress. He loved trucking his own words "there are no problems, i call you its your problem and while you stress I'm being paid to sleep in my bunk".

Though on your point issue arising now is the shops are paying more they can transport is a cost to them. The actual haulage firms will start burning if it continues because to them transport is the business.

The real problem is far more than drivers though, its the whole road based logistics system. We should be more multimodal but oh yeah they turned most of the old goods rail depots in to out of town retail parks.

TLDR - its fucked
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Shaft
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PostPosted: 00:31 - 08 Aug 2021    Post subject: Re: are your supermarket shelves looking empty? Reply with quote
trevor saxe-coburg-gotha wrote:
Our local Tescos look okay, but bloody hell the sainsburys are looking very weird - lots of gaps up and down the aisles. Worst I've seen it since the panic buying of early lockdown.

So this might well just be local to me - but is anyone else seeing this, and if so, what's it about? A lack of HGV drivers (and what's that about anyway?)? Is it something Cov19 related? Is it to do with Brexit?


Local Co-Op have put up signs (proper stuff from HQ, not something knocked up on the office PC) apologising for the lack of stock and promising normal service will be resumed shortly.

What seems to be happening is they either aren't getting the usual amount of deliveries, or the quantity of items, so they will go out of stock for a couple of days, then the item is fully stocked again.

I only go to a big supermarket once a week - Lidl is fine, Sainsburys looking a bit sparse in places, Tescos definitely spreading stock out to fill the shelves.

The most noticeable issue is with Asda, who have been suffering for months, to the point they started rearranging and removing complete gondolas, to make the store look fuller.

I also noticed certain items disappearing for weeks on end, then coming back as inferior products, eg packs of sliced meat returning with less slices than before.

I know they have been embroiled in some sort of merger/takeover shenanigans lately, so that might be part of the problem, but they are significantly worse than they were at the beginning of the year.
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mentalboy
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PostPosted: 04:25 - 08 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Not much different from you lot on this side of the pond so it's unlikely to be Brexit related.

Some stuff is trickier to find in the supermarkets and prices in our equivalent of B&Q are astronomical.
Lorry drivers have been in short supply here for a while but things seem to have now reached a low point.

Was chatting to a worker in the boot department of a Cabelas (think Cotswold Camping on steroids) a couple of weeks ago, their store's usual number of deliveries is four artic loads per week, they are currently only getting one a week.
Petrol tanker drivers are noticeably absent, especially so following the chaos caused when hackers close down the pipelines...
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Copycat73
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PostPosted: 17:08 - 08 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
wr6133 wrote:


TLDR - its fucked


The writing has been up on the wall for years.. a glut of drivers from the 80's are now retired or near to it .. agency's that treat you as disposable.. I'm pleased the tables have somewhat been turned..
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Im-a-Ridah
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PostPosted: 22:08 - 09 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Copycat73 wrote:
wr6133 wrote:


TLDR - its fucked


The writing has been up on the wall for years.. a glut of drivers from the 80's are now retired or near to it .. agency's that treat you as disposable.. I'm pleased the tables have somewhat been turned..


Many industries will have similar problems, with the biggest problems being for those asking for 3 or 5 years experience. Clearly if you only hire people with X years experience to save having to train new people up, you eventually run out of trained people Laughing
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Polarbear
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PostPosted: 07:38 - 10 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Im-a-Ridah wrote:

Many industries will have similar problems, with the biggest problems being for those asking for 3 or 5 years experience. Clearly if you only hire people with X years experience to save having to train new people up, you eventually run out of trained people Laughing


That was exactly the problem (or design) of the British shipping industry. They cut right back on training cadets and employed anyone from wherever who had the valid certificates of competency and then had the gall to say there were no British seafearers to employ.
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MCN
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PostPosted: 04:44 - 11 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Shortage of drivers.
Canny even get the bad ones.
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Skudd
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PostPosted: 08:15 - 11 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
KwikiMart sorry ASDA , had no own brand double strength dilute to taste juice in any flavour. Mind you the whole chain has gone down hill now that it has been taken over.
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MCN
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PostPosted: 19:04 - 11 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Skudd wrote:
KwikiMart sorry ASDA , had no own brand double strength dilute to taste juice in any flavour. Mind you the whole chain has gone down hill now that it has been taken over.


The ASDA near where I live was one of the first ASDA in Scotland. Fuck all has changed since it opened donkey's ago. It's a bit of a tip and has been a tip for years.
Word is that the new owners have plans to revamp it.

I've not used it for about a year.
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Jmoan
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PostPosted: 19:31 - 11 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Shortage of drivers in both the UK and the US again?

A trucker gives some explanations from a couple of years back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hSake-OUXU

and an African UK truck driver with a few more reasons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9UU-ns5e3c
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MCN
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PostPosted: 03:17 - 12 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Skudd wrote:
KwikiMart sorry ASDA , had no own brand double strength dilute to taste juice in any flavour. Mind you the whole chain has gone down hill now that it has been taken over.


The ASDA near where I live was one of the first ASDA in Scotland. Fuck all has changed since it opened donkey's ago. It's a bit of a tip and has been a tip for years.
Word is that the new owners have plans to revamp it.

I've not used it for about a year.
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Feasty
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PostPosted: 08:28 - 12 Aug 2021    Post subject: Reply with quote
Some of my local stores have empty shelves, and have been like that for a while - most notably Sainsbury's.

First one to create a drone powerful enough to deliver shipping containers, and setup the transport process of them getting picked directly off a ship straight to warehouse, to shop is a billionaire! Laughing
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