To think there can not be that many key workers in my area?

[Honeysucklecastle]

I live in a semi-rural village between two towns, one with a population of 186k the other 15k. My house is on the main road through the village between these towns.
The road usually gets busy from around 5am and this morning was no exception just as busy as usual, cara, lorries, motorbikes etc. In fact looking out of the window I would say it’s even busier than usual (maybe people off for more panic buying??)
Surely these are not all key workers? How are we going to get through to people?

I wondered the same today when hearing the traffic...

It will be the same people who will be angry in months to come that the world is just facepalming at Brits and will not let them over the border because the virus will still be pretty much everywhere here

Talking about traffic issues. Anybody got any idea about cab drivers still working? I have a situation where I need to get some medication from the Chemist to my mum. The Chemist don't deliver - I'm going to see if I can get her registered with Mediquip or similar but in the short time wondering whether this is something a cab driver could do.

If you can't get a can, check local council. Ours actually called for volunteers exactly for this

I think a lot of people have gone to work today as normal, waiting to be sent home and told work is shut. Many big companies have not communicated to their staff well and staff are worried they will lose their jobs if they don't go in and get told officially.

Hopefully it will be quieter from tomorrow.

@HedgehogDramas our local handyman/man with a van is running a pick up and delivery service. Worth a try.

I think part of the problem was the timing - half 8 last night there was no senior management in my work and we were on skeletal staff so you’d have to go in as normal to be told if you are affected.

There was a reason for that announcement time imo. Yes, workers today will have to figure out what's up, but imagine if they announced it at let's say 2pm.
People were panic buying before. I wouldn't want to see the shops if the announcement was early😱

The message was not that only key workers could go to work. It was that people could travel to and from work if essential and they couldn’t work from home. A lot of businesses will still be open today and therefore workers will still be expected to come in or they won’t get paid.

I wonder if people are off to the supermarket to strip them bare before going into lockdown. I also think a lot of people, especially trades people are going to work to finish off jobs, my neighbours are having a bathroom fitted, the man doing it has still turned up as usual today, the other neighbours are having their driveway done, the guys are there finishing it off. I’m am hoping it all quietens later in the week we really need to nip this thing in the bud, just wish people could understand that.

I wonder if people are off to the supermarket to strip them bare before going into lockdown

No way! There is just no way people still have space at home for it! Everyone moans about small houses in UK and then they manage to stuff in more food that Tesco central distribution has!

There's barely any traffic here. My house backs onto a busy road and it's eerily quiet this morning.

The message was not that only key workers could go to work.

This.

You can still go work if you can’t work from home.

Our street is eerily quiet but most of us have very Dilbert cartoon office jobs and can work remotely.

Our road has been busier. It’s usually only used by farmers.
It leads to the beach. Buggers.

He did not say it was key workers only.

Same here.
I live on the conurbations of a major city.
My house is in a cul-de-sac directly off of a bypass. A very busy bypass. I only live at number 9 so there’s four houses and a small block of flats between me and the bypass, I was expecting this morning to be silent, well almost silent. Like Christmas morning, but no. I was still awoken at 6.45 by the traffic.

all construction workers have gone to work as nothing was said about them last night and they are all self employed so no work no money and no gov help, how they going to put food on the table (whats left to buy )

YANBU. I live on a main road and it's almost as busy as yesterday.

Non key workers still need to go to work if they cant work from home. It may be difficult for plumbers or delivery couriers to wor from their bedroom, so these people will still be out and about.

The builders across the road are working. 2 people outside_ I think they may be just securing the site. It isn't reasonable to expect builders just to not come in this morning- they need to get plant hire returned and tools secured up etc.

We live on a really busy road in a large town and it id dead for traffic. Loads of walkers and dog walkers. My DD saw 17 joggers this morning and 2 dog walkers- usually she would see about 8 dogs and 1 jogger.

Lots of people sitting in their windows just watching the world go by. I gave up my home office yesterday to my DH as he is still working and I am not really and have set up a desk in the dining room with a great view of the world.

There are a lot of people who can't work from home that will be going to work beyond those we think of as key workers. People who work maintaining gas, electricity, water and sewerage provision. People who work in the food supply chain, from farmers to food processing and packing to distribution and retail, not to mention delivery. People who work in oil refineries and the distribution system for fuels, also the people manning oil production in the North Sea, and all the support systems for that industry. People who work in other factories making things that we need, like alcohol for hand sanitiser (most producers of spirits have swapped at least part of their production to alcohol for sanitisers). Personally, I also need gin. The supply chain for non-essentials like clothes is still operating at the moment, that requires staff to physically move things around and pack the parcels for delivery. There are new activities - more veg boxes, meat boxes and other food deliveries. I'm fortunate that I can work from home but there are many people that we need who can't.

There is a big estate being built in our village. I walked the dog past the site at 9am, was business as usual, builders, lorries, diggers etc, just walk back and the whole place shut down not a soul on there!! I’m worried for my sister she is a cleaner and most of the time the houses she cleans are empty but of course most are now working from home, she told me today she is still working as she needs the money and all are clients are happy for her to go in. She has a nasty infected tooth and I’m concerned her immune system will be working hard to fight it and she is exposing herself to lots of people each day!