by Lordo » Sat Sep 25, 2021 12:17 pm
Government is obviously blaming covid for the shortage of 100,000 HGV drivers and of course I have no doubt it had an effect but was it the only cause. Naturally back in March 2020 when we were locked in DVLC were clearly not processing paperwork and drivers could not take lessons or exams to qualify.
Lets have a look at Brexit and what it caused.
There were HGV divers who either did nit apply to remain or applied and were not given the right to remain in the UK after we were out of the EU.
There are also drivers now in the Eu who are not actually allowed to come here to work even if they wanted to. Interestingly the government may offer temporary visas for people to come an work and they actually think there are so many people who would take advantaged of that only to be kicked out of their job back to the country they came from. This reminds of the time when the company I worked for had been bought out by another company and they sent out an email telling us how many people will lose their jobs and asked us to reapply for our jobs. My manager was surprised that I did not apply for my job and asked me in the office to talk to me. He asked why I did not apply as he assured me that I would get my job back and was surprised at my reply. I told him to give my job to somebody else as I was not very happy working in such backstabbing environment. His face went bright red from anger.
Let’s take a look at Unsocial hours and low pay.
They are treated like dirt sometimes unable to even use the facilities of the company they are delivering to. So consequently, people leave the profession for better work environment.
There is one other reason that was caused by government itself.
Few years back they forced everybody who were self employed and actually spend capital to be self employed to be included in the IR35 Tax regulations which meant that they not only did not get the normal benefits of self-employment, they were effectively treated as an employee but not for the company they are working for, they had to use an umbrella company which meant they lost even more money as the umbrella company takes a cut to deal with your tax affairs.
And now having been in government for 11 years it was as if they had nothing to do with it.