Covid - 19

[Sorastro]

A shortage of H.G.V. lorry drivers is putting food and medicine deliveries in jeopardy...........

Now am I missing something here,
Having spent well over 40 years {of my 50 year working life} in the driving and delivery game I am finding it difficult to comprehend why it's causing SO many problems, there WILL be problems obviously but, if the resources usually used are not available you downsize.

Take for example in Fly's line of business, 8 people book a mini bus to take them somewhere, the bus breaks down we'll say and no other is available so obviously the next step is you order TWO taxis, yes more manpower needed, smaller vehicles, and it will cost a little more, but in the long run THE JOB GETS DONE!!
Now transfer that onto haulage...
 Example...a supermarket can't get it's stuff picked up from the wholesalers because of a shortage of trunker drivers, so instead of trying to send in ten trunkers to get the stuff.... send in 40 smaller seven and a half tonners in to fetch it and, as with the taxis, the job gets done. As I say it may not be pretty and it may have a few problems but the stuff is still moving. Yes more manpower, smaller vehicles but the extra cost can be picked up in a couple of ways:-
A/ by the customer {just put one penny on the price of EVERYTHING in the shop}
B/ the government picks up the slack cost wise {if they can burn up millions of pounds paying their cronies they can do this}.

Yes there's a shortage of H.G.V. drivers but I guarantee there would be no shortage of seven and a half ton drivers out there. Supermarkets could even suspend home delveries for a day and send their delivery trucks to {non palletised} pickups from smaller suppliers and use the seven and a half tonners to pick up pallets at bigger warehouses.

As I say even I know it may not run as smooth as a Swiss watch and there WILL be problems but just standing around waiting for H.G.V. drivers to suddenly appear is not helping anyone. 

[Sorastro]

So this is the eleventh hour for care workers to get a Covid jab or lose their jobs.

I actually heard one care worker {who has refused} on the news this evening, when asked why no jab she basically said "God was protecting her and others from harm"! and as she is at retirement age anyway so she will just go.

There are many things in life that can harm you just as there are many things in life that can save you, medicine plays a large part in that.
That lady has possibly over the years received many inoculations Flu etc {you actually need some sometimes to go on holiday} but for something as important as this it's a definite "NO".

We can't afford to lose care workers, there aren't enough as it is so this bloody mindedness from some of them beggars belief. If it's a ploy to get their salaries increased {and they do deserve it} they are going about it in a funny way. By holding their bosses, and worse still their patients hostage they are playing with peoples lives as well as their own.

So if push comes to shove the answer must be get rid of them....no redundancy pay as basically they have sacked themselves, no references to give to a future employer.
No doubt they will possibly get other jobs, possibly even better pay and conditions but it's the care homes that are going to suffer.

[Sorastro]

The large supermarket chains {as well as others} are moaning about the lack of H.G.V. drivers to get their produce from the suppliers to the shelves.

It is alleged....
One supermarket, it appears, has played a part in this problem.
In the 90's being a H.G.V. driver was a well sort after job as they were well looked after and well paid for what they did. Unfortunately as with other companies that outsourced their work to contractors quality gave way to quantity and as with this supermarket chain the vast majority of their own drivers, seeing their work being given to contractors {eventually} either left in disgust or ended up being sacked.
This resulted over the next few years most drivers leaving the industry, either through retirement, frustration, new jobs taken up or lost their licences on medical grounds, either way these positions were never fully refilled but it wasn't all that noticeable before because of drivers from the E.U. plugging the gaps, now they've gone it's left a sizeable hole and now because of the pandemic it's left a whacking great hole.

[Old Cruser]

If the care workers 'care enough' they would have the job!
We have to have two lateral flow tests the week before our special needs lady comes for the weekend. I isn't pleasant - but needs must!

I am amazed we enjoyed a week in Skegness and none of us came back with Covid.
Maybe it is because we still wear masks indoors when in shops etc, ate meals and drinks outside when possible, and still follow the hand cleaning routing. Or maybe we were all just lucky!

[hifimad]

If the care workers 'care enough' they would have the job!
We have to have two lateral flow tests the week before our special needs lady comes for the weekend. I isn't pleasant - but needs must!

I am amazed we enjoyed a week in Skegness and none of us came back with Covid.
Maybe it is because we still wear masks indoors when in shops etc, ate meals and drinks outside when possible, and still follow the hand cleaning routing. Or maybe we were all just lucky!

since the covid pandemic started me and my family have managed three midweek breaks in skegness in between the lockdowns and two of them were before we were vaccinated, so i guess we were lucky too.

[Alsatian]

Got my booster jab at Walton Hospital yesterday, all very well run.

I just have a slight tenderness at the jab site today, which is somewhat different to my flu jab that I had a couple of weeks ago. I did think she was aiming a bit high (double top perhaps) when she injected just below the top of my arm. By the nigh-time I couldn't lift my arm without helping it with the other arm, and the arm was really painful.

The strange thing about the Walton site was the road layout both to and from the car park, it was like driving on a Scalextric track (for those of us who can remember them).

[Fly]

I'm sick of driving round it when dropping folk off. The security guard keeps telling me I can't drop off there and go down into the carpark. Sod him LOL, I keep dropping off anyway.

[Sorastro]

Been to Tesco's Clay Cross this morning and I am amazed at, not just how many shoppers are no longer wearing masks, but how many of their staff aren't either.
This "cautious" approach to easing the lock down obviously means the majority binning their masks as it's "business as usual".
As I've said before maybe me and the wife are being over cautious about this but I would sooner be over cautious than run the risk of it kicking off again, until then we will continue to wear our masks, possibly up to Xmas {or beyond}.
During the worst of the pandemic about one in every 50 people didn't wear a mask, for one reason or another, now it seems like one in half a dozen.
Mask wearers are definitely in a minority now!

Well I for one am not surprised at the sudden spike in Covid deaths. I foresee another Xmas having to re introduce certain restrictions, and the very people that have been "flouting" the mask rule for the past couple of months will be the very same ones moaning about another possible spoilt Christmas.
The very last thing I wanted to write on this particular post was "I told you so!", but "I told you so!"

[Old Cruser]

Got my booster jab at Walton Hospital yesterday, all very well run.

I just have a slight tenderness at the jab site today, which is somewhat different to my flu jab that I had a couple of weeks ago. I did think she was aiming a bit high (double top perhaps) when she injected just below the top of my arm. By the nigh-time I couldn't lift my arm without helping it with the other arm, and the arm was really painful.

The strange thing about the Walton site was the road layout both to and from the car park, it was like driving on a Scalextric track (for those of us who can remember them).

We had our Covid boosters there as well and totally agree how well organised it was.
As for the car park ----- well that was an experience

[Sorastro]

According to updated figures there are 2,500 vaccination centres throughout the U.K.
and according to Saint Boris we will have a million vaccinations a day before Xmas, sounds a lot but Mathematically speaking in an ideal world that's only 400 jabs per day for each centre to reach the target which is achievable, or would be.

Unfortunately the centres have got to be within reasonable distance to all wanting a jab, it's no good expecting a woman from say Tupton to travel to Derby or Mansfield and in some cases beyond especially as they may not have the means to get there. The system used basically looks at a centres bookings for the next day possibly 200 so it chooses another 200 to go there without taking into account the possible geographical and logistical problems of the people concerned.

During the first two jabs a mate of mine when he booked his first jab was offered Leeds {and he went} his second jab was Mansfield. This time round we do seem to be more prepared.

I heard on Radio Derby the other day {poss Monday} they were putting out an urgent appeal for people to visit a particular walk in centre in Derby as according to the radio the staff were there, the vaccines were there but no one was turning up, the staff were literally stood twiddling their thumbs.....madness.

[Alsatian]

It is madness, especially as residents in my disabled sisters care home (Matlock) had their 2nd jab in April, and they didn't get their (Moderna) jab until this week. And that was after many irate phone calls to the surgery, threatening them with the CQC and/or local MP.

It's absolutely disgraceful......... and it was exactly the same when they were due their 1st jab, so it wasn't a one-off!

[Old Cruser]

It is madness, especially as residents in my disabled sisters care home (Matlock) had their 2nd jab in April, and they didn't get their (Moderna) jab until this week. And that was after many irate phone calls to the surgery, threatening them with the CQC and/or local MP.

It's absolutely disgraceful......... and it was exactly the same when they were due their 1st jab, so it wasn't a one-off!

I hope they have been reported to the CQC, it's just not acceptable!
They have a duty of care and haven't achieved it.
I made sure my own disabled daughter had all of hers asap.
I do hope the residents are kept safe 

[Sorastro]

FINALLY.......the government is realising they have "conned" the public into believing they knew what they were doing and have actually asked a [proper?] logistics firm to step in, not before time.
Clipper Logistics. Having said that Clipper is only a bulk distributor {obviously what's needed} but a quick look and they don't seem to have any depots in the south of England, so even I know they will need some help.
Then again anything is better than what was attempted previously.

It is alleged.......
It would appear that that since the above picked up the P.P.E. contract last year their income increased substantially making it many millions in profit. Quite obviously the more work one does the more turnover one makes, so when they came in to "help out" last year certain people were given the impression that the "temporary" contract was worth just over a £1million, in fact it is alleged that from getting the contract to reaching the end of it, they were paid £112million, and they have just resigned another contract for another 6 months.
Allegedly the founder of the company is a Tory donor.