I'm looking for a first hand account of the supply chain issues in Great Britain.

submitted by HiddenFox from self.AskSaidIt

Here in Canada they have talked about the problem quite a bit on the news. How bad are things really? I feel the news here tends to tell you only the parts they want too, all while either downplaying or emphasizing points based on their opinion or agenda.

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[–]raven9 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

They are claiming it is now about to become a big deal in the US too. The narrative says a shortage of truck drivers is causing a supply chain bottleneck at the docks which are swamped with uncollected containers that are preventing newly arriving container ships from unloading.

The question has to be, why is there this sudden shortage of drivers now, on both sides of the Atlantic? In Britain they are blaming it on Brexit but of course there was no Brexit here in the US so what are they up to?

[–]Noam_Chomsky 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

what are they up to?

Sabotage of the petrol dollar.

The Great Reset.

DEPOPULATION.

[–]jet199 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Same problem across Europe so definitely not brexit.

More that it's a horrible job and companies haven't taken that into account with wages and conditions. They thought they could just keep stealing workers from poorer counties and not make the job appealing to people at home or train their own staff up.

Someone caught a British company recently advertising a driver job for €2k a month in Eastern Europe when they are paying British drivers up to £50K a year for the same thing. They are doing this shit now while at the same moaning about a shortage and brexit.

I read a driver just this summer saying he was giving up because he had to sleep in his cab with no air con (because he'd have to leave the engine on which is bad for the environment) and all the windows shut to prevent muggers and it was impossible. This is simple stuff which should have been fixed long ago but they didn't have to because they were able to rely on a transient, temporary workforce with covid-19 restrictions have killed off.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

reminds of how there is a bus driver shortage, lot of kids not getting picked up for school

[–]raven9 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

If this was happening because it is s horrible job it would have already happened decades ago. How was there no shortages this time last year? I think this is being manufactured and it has something to do with extending the plandemic.

[–]jet199 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's too do with the covid regs making people not want to leave their homes on top of all the other horrible stuff.

Most countries in Europe want you to do multiple tests or have a vax pass to cross boarders. Every additional bit of admin and bureaucracy makes more people think "fuck it".

[–]jet199 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I've not seen any shelves empty. Everything I've wanted to buy has been there. I tend to go in smaller supermarkets with less choice do maybe that makes a difference.

I've seen at least a couple of people post up empty shelves which were clearly the summer seasonal stuff being cleared out to put the Christmas stuff in (I'm guessing we're behind Americans on that).

I queued for petrol for 2 hours a week ago after holding out for a week. There was plenty of petrol, just people panicking. In fact the unleaded pumps had no one on them when we got to the end of the queue, it was the diesel drivers causing the havoc (probably because many of them need their vehicles for their work so they have more reason to be cautious). I believe the problems with the petrol distribution never actually came about, it was just people being stupid which caused problem.

Even through this queue of people were apparently really worried about a petrol shortage and running out 90% of them had their engines running for the whole time in the queue. I think it's more a case of people see a queue and think they better join it in case they miss out. I've certainly seen a difference between urban and rural petrol stations. The ones in town have the big queues likely because they have more passing traffic.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I think the shortage of new xboxes and playstations, while not a big deal, was a canary in the coal mine

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

OPEC cutting production. Gas prices going way up.

[–][deleted]  (8 children)

[deleted]

    [–]jet199 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

    Right, so fruit comes in via tanker or plane not lorry and most meat sold in the UK comes from the UK.

    0/10 for shilling, must try harder.

    [–][deleted]  (1 child)

    [deleted]

      [–]jet199 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      Seriously, you think a lorry across Europe in the sun is the way fruit and veg is imported. That only happens in refrigerated lorries which wouldn't be effected by delays at borders.

      Yeah, I have worked in a supermarket, I know how things move. Very high tech and large scale these days. Most fruit and veg in the UK comes into the store half frozen to maintain freshness and this has been the case for a couple of decades. Things go to in large scale to regional distribution centres and then go out in lorries from there.

      Maybe you should also look at the labels some time. We get a lot of fruit and veg from Africa, south America, Israel, etc. That stuff definitely isn't coming by road. Have a Google about food miles.

      [–]raven9 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      They are not shilling. We have been seeing similar weird shortages in the US too. Like for a good while there were hardly any canned tomatoes on the shelves.

      [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

      So you are from England?

      [–][deleted]  (1 child)

      [deleted]

        [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

        And you are a shill and liar.

        [–]HiddenFox[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Thanks for your insight. Things here in Canada are on the same level but with different items. (At least where I live.) I've been to the supermarket and there was no chicken available at all. You could find it if you shopped around though. Prices for everything have risen sharply but I'm not surprised given the amount of money we have printed.

        When I posted this it was just after listening to the morning news and they heavily blamed Brexit for the driver shortage. Yet tonight the news is talking about our local problem of not having enough truck drivers and workers for our fall harvest?!? (at least they didn't try and blame it on Brexit!) Again I feel like they are heavily implying that Brexit was the cause when it seams like there is a lot more too it. (I'm not surprised.)

        [–]forscher 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Wrong question:

        How hard will they get?

        How can i or my small company mitigate this ?

        These are the right questions.

        Live in the present for once.