# England's catastrophic loss of truck (lorry) drivers---why this week? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 30, 2021, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672 "2021-09-30T16:34:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2021, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672/101 "2021-10-06T22:26:27Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I can’t understand this. He must have gone to the effort to get his class 1 license and all that, then just walked away from a dream trucking job after a few days. Sometimes you find out your dream job is actually a nightmare. For his sake, it might have been best he find out early and move on to other things. For the rest of us… yeah, we need more drivers. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672/102 "2021-10-06T22:54:22Z")
There are ways for operators to improve truck driver productivity and historically that has meant tracking vehicles and monitoring drivers to the extent that some even fit CCTV in the cabs. Most drivers would say that the answer is to make the warehouses turn delivery vehicles around faster. Demurrage is the way forward and the threat of a substantial charge after an hour of waiting might encourage them to get more organised. Most of these deliveries are timed, so they have no real excuse for holding an expensive truck and driver up for hours, just for their own convenience. Drivers should be driving, not fast asleep in their cabs on loading bays. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2021, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672/103 "2021-10-07T10:21:04Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#): > > slaughtered pigs for whom there is no room at the abattoir I sense an alternative Nativity play in the making. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2021, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672/104 "2021-10-07T19:02:39Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > I sense an alternative Nativity play in the making Unto us a porkchop is born. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672/105 "2021-10-07T19:40:46Z")
There are projects like these :- [https://www.midlandsconnect.uk/projects/midlands-engine-rail/midlands-rail-hub/](https://www.midlandsconnect.uk/projects/midlands-engine-rail/midlands-rail-hub/) > **[New 775m-long freight trains begin operating on UK's rail network](https://www.globalrailwayreview.com/news/124322/775m-long-freight-trains-uk-rail/)** > > Southampton and London Gateway deep-water ports are the first in the UK to handle Freightliner’s new 775m-long intermodal container trains. Mega rail hubs which claim to be removing 1000s of trucks from the roads over the next decade. That might alleviate the problems … ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672/106 "2021-10-07T19:56:47Z")
Aah, yes, making use of the famously efficient and well-maintained British railway network, that seems sensible. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672/107 "2021-10-08T10:53:39Z")
_So_ cynical of you. Justifiably so, but still. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672/108 "2021-10-09T04:12:30Z")
New survey out: > **[One in six adults in Great Britain not able to buy essential foods, ONS finds](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/08/one-in-six-adults-in-great-britain-not-able-to-buy-essential-foods-ons-finds)** > > Survey of impact of supply chain crisis in past fortnight also finds 15% could not buy fuel ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2021, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672/109 "2021-10-11T15:49:50Z")
Someone posted this in one of the pandemic discussions, it mentions a shortage of truckdrivers in the United States: > **[America Is Running Out of Everything](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/america-is-choking-under-an-everything-shortage/620322/)** > > The global supply chain is slowing down at the very moment when Americans are demanding that it go into overdrive. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/englands-catastrophic-loss-of-truck-lorry-drivers-why-this-week/951672.md?page=5)