Pointless bureaucracy for its own sake?

[Petrol Pete]

There is a Polish driver out there who has been in the UK for a long time , he has his own YouTube thing for Polish drivers who drive in the UK , he was interviewed on the news and radio last week . I think he said the same thing.

 

[Bellow]

40 years of outsourcing of haulage to the lowest bidder to get all the liabilities (capital costs, employee's rights, H&S, etc) off the books has landed us here. How could anyone imaging there'd be anything left with margins cut to the bone to nurture new drivers. This is what short-termism delivers in the long term.

 

[GeeJayW]

40 years of outsourcing of haulage to the lowest bidder to get all the liabilities (capital costs, employee's rights, H&S, etc) off the books has landed us here. How could anyone imaging there'd be anything left with margins cut to the bone to nurture new drivers. This is what short-termism delivers in the long term.

Exactly!

 

[DSM10000]

40 years of outsourcing of haulage to the lowest bidder to get all the liabilities (capital costs, employee's rights, H&S, etc) off the books has landed us here. How could anyone imaging there'd be anything left with margins cut to the bone to nurture new drivers. This is what short-termism delivers in the long term.

Not just in HGV driving but in many other areas where short-sighted political aims have overridden the long term planning requirements of the country

 

[st13phil]

40 years of outsourcing of haulage to the lowest bidder to get all the liabilities (capital costs, employee's rights, H&S, etc) off the books has landed us here. How could anyone imaging there'd be anything left with margins cut to the bone to nurture new drivers. This is what short-termism delivers in the long term.

Correct.

General haulage has for many years been a low-margin business in the UK, and the trend to outsourcing has squeezed the already thin margins thinner.

My ex father-in-law owned and ran a successful general haulage business in the south-east for several decades, but eventually wound it up in the early 2000's because - as he succinctly put it - he could get a better return on his capital by putting it in a Post Office account.

 

[Rich764089]

- he could get a better return on his capital by putting it in a Post Office account.

Although probably not any longer, with post crash interest rates of recent years!

 

[st13phil]

Although probably not any longer, with post crash interest rates of recent years!

I think you're over-estimating the margins in general haulage

 

[Dryce]

40 years of outsourcing of haulage to the lowest bidder to get all the liabilities (capital costs, employee's rights, H&S, etc) off the books has landed us here. How could anyone imaging there'd be anything left with margins cut to the bone to nurture new drivers. This is what short-termism delivers in the long term.

It's such a terrible world .... and yet ...

At the same time consumers have benefited ......

However - also at the same time - regulations on HGV size allow larger loads, trucks have become more effficient and safer, roads have been improved. ('Smart Motorway' perhaps present an interesting dilemma - they improve reliability of HGV journey times and driver working and increase HGV lane capacity by 50%).

 

[Rich764089]

I think you're over-estimating the margins in general haulage

Well if they're no better than the 0.01% PO currently offers, I'm surprised we have any haulage at all

 

[Dryce]

I think you're over-estimating the margins in general haulage

Depends on what you call a margin.

So if you have a company that invests X and returns a dividend of 3% .... terrible - except the directors are presumably paying themselves salary and pension ..... and then you have the employees and contractors.

Balance sheets make things even more 'interesting' and variable when it comes to working out the real truth.

My observation is that there are lots of different haulage brands out there - with some being quite common (presumably large).

That gives the appearance of healthy competition.

 

[Connoisseur]

Reuters coverage, 24th September. Only BP had a problem, which meant that it prioritised some sites over less strategic sites.

And then the Road Hauliers' Association blew it up, creating consumer panic. Their objective: to keep margins up and wages down by importing cheap foreign labour.

Amid UK driver shortage, BP prioritising fuel deliveries to sites with big demand

View attachment 119278

Great comedy, thanks so no shortage of HGV drivers in the UK, All going swimmingly, nothing to see here. Oh, hang on, what’s this?

Do keep up…

 

[Dryce]

Great comedy, thanks so no shortage of HGV drivers in the UK, All going swimmingly, nothing to see here. Oh, hang on, what’s this?

Do keep up…

Ironic. You clearly haven't kept up ....

It has been pointed out - no shortage of fuel - and that there was a shortage of delivery drivers for BP.

The only thing that actually caused the queuing was the reaction to this reporting.

Meanwhile there haas been lots of discussion about HGV drivers and more recently the letter via the DVLA soliciting drivers.

So where have *you* been all this time?

 

[DSM10000]

Ironic. You clearly haven't kept up ....

It has been pointed out - no shortage of fuel - and that there was a shortage of delivery drivers for BP.

The only thing that actually caused the queuing was the reaction to this reporting.

Meanwhile there haas been lots of discussion about HGV drivers and more recently the letter via the DVLA soliciting drivers.

So where have *you* been all this time?

Dryce et al.

You are wasting your time with this one.

I cannot decide if this poster is the typical Troll trying to evoke a response for their own self gratification or if they are just intellectually incapable of understanding the explanations that numerous members give.

On balance probably a mix of the two.