REFERENDUM RESULTS AND DISCUSSION THREAD

[Paddingtonwolf]

Only of milkshakes which actually are really good.

 

[AndyWolves]

If only this could have been predicted

Hire UK workers to drive lorries, minister tells firms

The business secretary rejects calls to relax immigration rules as companies struggle to fill vacancies.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Nobody wants to do the job at the wage levels the Eastern European drivers were accepting. So hiring UK drivers puts the cost up and food costs more.

Brilliant.

 

[Keef]

Then wages are an issue, but there's other stuff that puts people off the lorry driving,
Living away all week, and sleeping in the cab, it's called tramping for a reason.
Poor facilities at services, plus £25-40 a night to park, guess who pays that?
Poor organisation at distribution centres, keeping drivers hanging about for hours.
Long hours, up to 10 hours driving a day, total hours of work a day can be up to 14.
DVSA ( the old vosa safety people) they can make your life an absolute nightmare, if you've missed the slightest thing safety wise, it's a fine and points on your licence eg, nail in the tyre that you didn't see because it was at the bottom of the tyre on your walk round safety check 3 points £200 fine, guess who pays that?
Slightly over your driving hours due to traffic/accident, points and a fine, paperwork on the tachograph side of it, slightly wrong, points and a fine.
Then you've got the general public being angry at you for holding them up anywhere, especially if you're trying to reverse into the tesco metro to deliver down a small side street.

 

[sycophantia]

Nobody wants to do the job at the wage levels the Eastern European drivers were accepting. So hiring UK drivers puts the cost up and food costs more.

Brilliant.

It boils my password the way this country decides what's 'skilled' and what's not. Driving a 40 tonner etc is absolutely a skilled job and should be paid accordingly, hopefully brexit will drive wages and conditions up for lower paid workers (I won't hold my breath though).
Foods cheap anyway and can probably stand an increase

 

[Tredman]

It boils my password the way this country decides what's 'skilled' and what's not. Driving a 40 tonner etc is absolutely a skilled job and should be paid accordingly, hopefully brexit will drive wages and conditions up for lower paid workers (I won't hold my breath though).
Foods cheap anyway and can probably stand an increase

Bang on. Apart from the password part anyway

 

[sycophantia]

Bang on. Apart from the password part anyway

Fucking spell checker!

 

[Paul]

Then wages are an issue, but there's other stuff that puts people off the lorry driving,
Living away all week, and sleeping in the cab, it's called tramping for a reason.
Poor facilities at services, plus £25-40 a night to park, guess who pays that?
Poor organisation at distribution centres, keeping drivers hanging about for hours.
Long hours, up to 10 hours driving a day, total hours of work a day can be up to 14.
DVSA ( the old vosa safety people) they can make your life an absolute nightmare, if you've missed the slightest thing safety wise, it's a fine and points on your licence eg, nail in the tyre that you didn't see because it was at the bottom of the tyre on your walk round safety check 3 points £200 fine, guess who pays that?
Slightly over your driving hours due to traffic/accident, points and a fine, paperwork on the tachograph side of it, slightly wrong, points and a fine.
Then you've got the general public being angry at you for holding them up anywhere, especially if you're trying to reverse into the tesco metro to deliver down a small side street.

I'm sorry mate but that's the biggest pile of tosh I've read in a long time and I've had a Class 1 (C+E) licence since '87 and have been a qualified Transport manager since 1992, Your last sentence is correct, but the rest is just misinformed (or needs context) or incorrect.

 

[Tony Towner]

Not sure how true it is, but a buyer at a major national retailer who like everyone else has a shortage of drivers told me yesterday a qualified experienced driver can command £60k pa at the moment.

 

[Keef]

Fair enough on that, I'm only quoting what HGV driving friends have told me, Ive never driven them, only buses and coaches, (and now earning more working for halfords!) did get caught by the DVSA at Newtown bus station for the nail in the tyre and got points and the fine, company got a snap inspection due to me saying tyres were fine on the walk around check.
Would you go back driving? You'd be exactly who they're trying to tempt back into the wonderful world of trucking

 

[sycophantia]

Not sure how true it is, but a buyer at a major national retailer who like everyone else has a shortage of drivers told me yesterday a qualified experienced driver can command £60k pa at the moment.

If that's true then good on them.. however a few years ago when I worked in despatch/goods in, a lot of the couriers we used (mostly 7.5 tonners tbf) were only just over minimum rate.

 

[Paul]

Fair enough on that, I'm only quoting what HGV driving friends have told me, Ive never driven them, only buses and coaches, (and now earning more working for halfords!) did get caught by the DVSA at Newtown bus station for the nail in the tyre and got points and the fine, company got a snap inspection due to me saying tyres were fine on the walk around check.
Would you go back driving? You'd be exactly who they're trying to tempt back into the wonderful world of trucking

Sorry if I came over all nobbish, that wasn't my intention, If that what your mates telling you then that's quite worrying, you can drive for 10 hours, but only twice a week (and you need to balance that out as you are only allowed 90 hours per fortnight), but if the company are making him pay for nights out without reimbursement, that's a whole different ballgame, night out and meal allowance are one of the few allowances that are untaxed, so if the company are getting him to pay it and they're claiming off his receipts, that's a visit from the people who are not the police but can still arrest you!
As an aside there was an agency advertising for Tesco deliveries at £20 an hour, guaranteed 10 hour shifts so there is money out there, have you thought about retraining , could build yourself a nice little nest egg over the next 12 months?

 

[Keef]

Didn't come across as knobbish at all, just a bloke who knows the trade better than I do putting me right on hearsay from my mates, no offence taken at all mate.
Regards the retraining, I paid for a bike mechanic course 2 years ago I'm currently earning the same amount I was earning on the buses 10 years ago for half the hours, and £4000 pa more than my last job taking kids to school in a minibus as a bike tech at halfords! I'm more active due to standing and walking about, a bit thinner and having to think about what I'm doing rather than being on autopilot doing the driving, and best of all no traffic stresses or screaming kids, occasional dickhead customers but on the whole most people are going away happy because I've fixed their bike, hopefully I'm impressing management enough to keep me on after the probationary period

 

[AndyWolves]

The more jobs that are no longer done at lower wages by immigrants then the more that will have to be done by UK nationals who will want higher wages. Things are going to cost more if that happens.

 

[leedswolf]

I wonder if there's any Customs Union or something that might assist...

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

That’s spectacular. Such a lack of self awareness from the biggest Brexit drum banger.

 

[lemonjelly]

lack of availability of test tubes to significantly impact on the NHS, and specifically their ability to run blood tests. A pretty fundamental, and likely expensive in implications issue.

Still not a single upside to this that I can see.

 

[Paul]

According to NHS figures there was 7 million less admissions to hospital from 18/19 to 20/21
Why are they running out of anything or do they buy test tubes as and when needed ?

	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
All Admissions	17,127,498	17,202,558	10,477,913
Non- Primary Covid Admissions	-	-	10,278,664
Primary Covid Admissions	-	-	199,249
Primary or Secondary Covid Admissions	-	-	279,500

 

[BillyDee]

NHS blood test tube shortage: Doctors 'facing difficult choices'

Doctors call for more guidance after the NHS in England and Wales stops all non-urgent blood tests.

www.bbc.co.uk

Basically global shortage due to increased demand because of the C word, compounded by the supply issues caused by the B word.

 

[BillyDee]

Also not sure why you're using admissions as a yardstick here. I haven’t been admitted to hospital for three years, but I've had more blood tests in the last year than I have anytime in the last ten.