OT: "Terrible Shortages of Everything" on the way

[Andy Burns]

You probably can drive up to 7.5 tonnes by having C1 on your licence, even I'm old enough to have got that "free", but you presumably haven't got C or C+E ?

[nightjar]

LGV = Large goods vehicle, which includes rigid and articulated lorries, which is where the shortage of drivers is.

[Chris B]

Interesting take here on what is causing the shortage

sfunny I haven't seen the BBC campaigning for more women lorry drivers....

But no mention here about money. I have no idea, is it a well paid job for someone in their 20s or 30s. Do you have to own your own lorry before you can make real money and even then would anyone recommend it to their 20 year old offspring.

[Steve Walker]

As far as reversing goes, the larger the trailer, the easier it is. Small trailers are very hard to reverse because a) you often can't see them at all, until they have turned too far and are visible to the side of the car and b) the short distance from tow-ball to axle means that a push only slightly off line, turns it too far rapidly.

A caravan is much easier, although visibility is restricted - good sized towing mirrors help a lot and cameras can make a huge difference.

It is probably not that important though. A bit of practice somewhere quiet, to get the hang of reversing around corners, in case you take a wrong turn and need to turn around; reversing onto a pitch at a site; etc. Worst case, if someone doesn't feel confident reversing into somewhere narrow, is that they unhitch and roll it in by hand - or even with an electric caravan mover these days. My parents gave me one of those to sell and I must get around to advertising it. They only had it because in their late 70s, it was getting hard to move the van by hand in the storage site and the vans were so close together that there simply wasn't enough space to use the car to positon it.

While a little harder, it is not much different from reversing a car, with the back full and no visibility through the rear windscreen or door windows - which many car drivers will have done at times. I've often had to reverse 90° into my driveway, positioning myself from one gatepost. I found it little different the last time (about 5 months ago) that I reversed a 7.5 tonner into a narrow rear alleyway, to the far end and into a driveway.

The basic driving skills are the same.

[Fredxx]

Suggested pay of £27-37k

If they're not academic, and prefer employment rather than s/e it doesn't sound bad?

[Algernon Goss-Custard]

They easily can be, though, if there really are shortages of HGV drivers. In the late 1970s the DHSS offered free training courses and tests to the unemployed. No reason why it can't be done now.

[Algernon Goss-Custard]

nightjar [e-mail]> posted

OK, but it wasn't helpful that you switched from using LGV to HGV in successive posts. To an HGV driver of my generation, LGV means vans :)

The Road Haulage Association's latest press release mentions many factors, including especially the rapid recovery of trade in the hospitality sector, the loss of 12 months of driver training and testing due to the epidemic, changes to the self-employed tax rules, and the costs of getting a licence and having medicals.

Brexit is indeed cited as one of them, but only a minor factor. In fact RHA says the shortage of HGV drivers is a Europe-wide problem not a UK one so it is difficult to see where your supposed exodus of 15,000 EU nationals has gone to

see

[nightjar]

A fleet owner I know reckons he has to pay £24 an hour just to keep an experienced driver with an LGV licence.

[The Natural Philosopher]

DHSS cant do medical exams.

[williamwright]

Done it.

Bill

[williamwright]

The rear axle to tow hitch distance also makes a big difference.

Bill

[williamwright]

No it was light goods vehicle at the start of the discussion.

Biull

[Chris Green]

I don't think so Bill, try re-reading the discussion.

[Vir Campestris]

We had a couple of containers on there. We had to airfreight some stuff.

Andy

[Radio Man]

How could less crap coming from China be a bad effect.

[Radio Man]

The shortage is HGV drivers.

[Algernon Goss-Custard]

They can't do driver training either. But they can pay for both, if the need arises.

Come to that, the government could simplify the preposterously complex licensing system. But naah. That'd put some civil servants out of a job. Can't have that.

[The Natural Philosopher]

sure. The DHSS has just paid me to go top the moon. Aint not rockets, man.

No, it would put some seriously incompetent/unfit drivers in charge of a lethal juggernaut,

>

[nightjar]

A change that was necessary when it became obvious that many here didn't realise that HGVs were renamed LGVs before the turn of the century. It probably doesn't help that the UK still uses HGV on some road signs.

A use of that acronym that I hadn't come across before this thread.

The figure of 15,000 EU citizen drivers who went home during the pandemic was given on TV. As for where they have gone to now, as you say the shortage is international, so there is plenty of work for them in other EU countries without the hassle of trying to get a UK work permit for a job that is not on the list of eligible skilled occupations.

[nightjar]

HGVs *are* Large Goods Vehicles.