Brexit discussion thread XIV (Please read OP before posting)

Companies can hire EU drivers to do domestic delivery; it's not intended to help with the import issues etc. That is the definition of short term fix (not enough drivers to deliver to stores = we need domestic drivers) which is exactly how Boris does things. The issues that are more long term related such as import issues etc. is not a problem now.

The issue is currently Tesco et al can't get food from farms to butcher, butcher to warehouse and warehouse to stores leaving shelves empty. Same with Shell not getting fuel from plant to forecourts etc. That's what gives Boris bad press atm; empty shelves in stores and queues to forecourts (or worse forecourts closing!). It got nothing to do with how lucrative it is; there's simply not enough drivers and hence they want to import some "temporary" (that's going to be permanent) relief. The stores in turn hope they can get away with paying less than their UK counterparts ('cause those Polish drivers will work for less which is another key driver). For Boris that's all there is; current bad press goes away; Boris has "solved" the problem as far as he's concerned.

Mixing the types of deliveries I'm afraid. Previously you'd have truck from Germany go to Tesco warehouse with cheese; drop it off and go to another company and pick up a new load of British lamb to take back to Austria before returning home. The return leg is now not really feasible due to the new custom rules which means your truck is likely to get stuck for multiple days due to customs. As the duration is not known (and the compensation is limited) it's simply not worth the risk to have your truck standing there. This truck driver would never pick up a load from the Tesco warehouse to deliver to a local Tesco store before turning back to leave UK and then go home.

What's missing now is the locally hired Tesco store drivers that work domestically only driving Warehouse to local store with deliveries. The reason the numbers have dropped of drastically is really two fold; first of all Covid and secondly visa issues for foreign truck drivers. 14k truck drivers left before jan 1st 2021 but only about 600 returned and this is a combination of covid, new tax rules and visas basically. UK now suffers from 13.4k drivers missing from their roosters and they have not had any new drivers being allowed to do the test (due to covid) for 18 months or so. Hence; reduced driver base due to people going home + no new drivers + higher need for domestic drivers for port to store etc. = shortage of domestic drivers. This has been an issue growing for years but the availability of EU drivers helped plug the hole and let the companies get away with paying **** money for the job. This meant UK drivers did not bother taking those jobs rather doing higher earning jobs (such as international delivery; special delivery ala fuel tanker etc.) leaving the cheap foreign drivers do those drives. And now those drivers left and did not come back the huge gaping hole suddenly appeared that no one could have guessed (yes that's sarcasm). The proposal that's being discussed is to fix this issue by trying to reduce the some requirements for the visa; I'd guess salary as the salary may not be high enough for a normal visa (esp. if they go to India etc. to recruit instead) to allow them to import more drivers. Fixes nothing really with the first point but works as a quick fix for the second point from a visibility perspective of empty shelves.