Supplies in shops

[Veem]

Supplies are very iffy here at the moment. I can go in and find different sections of the supermarket stripped bare.

It has nothing to do with Brexit or Covid though. We have a new franchisee who is bit by bit taking the shop apart and replacing the display shelving. Someone is working very hard to accomplish this and spending shedloads of money - new trolleys, new roof, newly resurfaced parking area, new shelving......... With a bit of luck the quality of fresh produce won't be too far down their list of things to address.

[Hotrodder]

Just at the moment I'm unable to find my favourite beer.

The only time I noticed any shortage of anything was during the lockdown when flour and yeast were hard but not impossible to find.

[exile]

Where France is just now is that priority is understandably given to perishable and then other food/necessities. Those at the bottom of the priority list are (as I suggested above) things like building materials where if deliveries are delayed a few days or a week no one really notices unless they want the specific product from the specific store. Big cities - no problem, just go to another supplier; small towns - rather more problematic.

I predict that this will slowly get worse but unlike the UK which seems to be on course for a Christmas car crash, it will be years before driver shortages really bite. In the mean time things can - probably have to - change. Reduced consumption; more efficient delivery; new delivery systems; abandoned JIT; and of course incentives for new HGV drivers - as in don't expect them to invest 4k€ of their own money to get a licence just for starters.

[Bayleaf]

I can't see many (save for the desperate) going to the UK for a temporary visa for HGV and Poultry vacancies.

Anyone know the situation regarding oak floor planks in the Aquitaine area?

[Char]

Around these parts, if you want a HGV licence, you can sign on at the Pole Emploi, do a formation which is paid for by the gov (tax payers) and you get paid for doing the course as well.

I really can't see many wanting to go to the UK to drive over there until New Years Eve. The working conditions and pay is better over here.

[niemeyjt]

Around these parts, if you want a HGV licence, you can sign on at the Pole Emploi, do a formation which is paid for by the gov (tax payers) and you get paid for doing the course as well.

I really can't see many wanting to go to the UK to drive over there until New Years Eve. The working conditions and pay is better over here.

As France also has a shortfall of drivers as well, why should they want to travel to the UK for work?

However, as a general point vocational training in UK probably needs rebalancing towards industries with demand. The building instructors in the local college lament the shortfall in students, for example.

[Blaze]

Around these parts, if you want a HGV licence, you can sign on at the Pole Emploi, do a formation which is paid for by the gov (tax payers) and you get paid for doing the course as well.

Some places are teaching people to drive HGVs by simulator prior to going on the road, which could be interesting. In my day, they let us loose immediately (I had a Class 1 licence, now long lapsed ...)

[Spardo]

Same here [mention]Blaze[/mention] I passed my car test just after my 21st birthday and the next day started driving a lorry, albeit a small one. Learned on the job. First time I ever drove an artic, was given it Friday evening, took it home to the waste ground where I used to park and practised all day Saturday and Sunday, perfect on Monday. Big lorries, bigger lorries, extra long lorries (road trains) then longer/higher/wider/heavier lorries (abnormals). Then back down the scale to frigos (here). Hated them and trying to sleep next to the noisy buggers, so retired early at 60.

The problem with the UK, but not here, is nights away from home, so few old time transport cafes and, while modern cabs are the epitomy of comfort, cooped up in one for days, weeks or even longer at a time is not what youngsters want with their lives.

Here, the routier culture continues, the restos are numerous, their food is good, the sanitaires acceptable and the camaraderie excellent. In most places all the drivers eat together often at one long table, in the UK, if there is a transport cafe with 13 tables, it is full after the 13th driver has arrived. Sure mobiles and telly have killed it to an extent, but the culture remains always. The one thing I miss and what sustained me during my 11 years after retirement on the road with the dogs.

If I was still a French driver, even if looking for a change, there is no way I would be taking up Boris' ridiculous offer of 'come here, we'll give you good job with high wages, then boot you back where you came from before you have a chance to settle'. The appropriate answer is a very big, vertical, single, finger.

A bit of history, the UK was one of the last places to accept sleeper cabs, the unions were against them, objected to workers sleeping alongside their machines. Very laudable, but completely overlooked the fact that many drivers chose to do just that, across the bonnet in cramped day cabs. Because lack of parking facilities, and drivers' digs drove them onto bomb sites, lay-byes and back streets. Some of the digs were good, some very good (I had my favourites), some bad and some appalling. I remember one large room with 20 beds cramped in and only 12 inches between each one. So eventually sleepers arrived and were received with open arms, the digs disappeared, but the other problems remained. Where to park and eat, in safety. Thereby lies your driver shortage.