To think the lorry queues in Kent should be headline news

[lurchersrule]

I can't believe that the queues of lorries in Kent and the crisis in our ports isn't being more widely reported. I'm pretty sure that 20 years ago when there was some fuel crisis and lorries were queueing it was all over the news. I know there's Covid to take precedence now but it's not on the homepage of BBC or Sky at all. Looks like food shortages coming our way in time for Christmas and it's not even being reported.

Another thing the government will be grateful for the pandemic distracting us from.

If it's this bad now how awful is it going to be after 1st Jan if they insist on going ahead with the completely insane no-deal Brexit?

I literally saw it as a photograph in the headline news this morning but I take your point. People living in the area do see this quite a lot though. Operation TAP is often in effect for miles at the port (bad weather etc) and heading out for miles. Its unfortunate that the channel tunnel is in the same sitiation as it makes it look worse than it is because once the port queues ends you then reach the start of the channel tunnel queue so it appears to go on for miles and causes very slow traffic as the speed limit on the open lanes for cars is 40MPH.

I think there has been a fair bit of reporting on potential issues with import recently, relating to christmas gifts etc. I read earlier that the price of a shipping container has gone up 3 times so at the very least we can expect price rises on imported food, yes. DP works in food retail management and this week they've had to raise prices significantly on some basic goods after holding off as long as possible. Think twice as much for a broccoli as an eg.

If anyone is looking for articles on the matter I suggest looking at the kent news websites who report on it with great frequency.

There definitely aren’t going to be any food shortages before Christmas.

I’m on the M20 daily and have been for decades, so well used to Ops Stack & Brock. The queues are nowhere near as bad as they could be and in the last few weeks have only been coast bound. There is definitely no shortage of lorries London bound. In fact, I’d say there were noticeably more lorries than usual.

Don’t get me wrong, God only knows what is going to happen after Christmas, but perhaps that’s when it will be reported? Like it’s a massive surprise that import/export isn’t running as smoothly as normal.

Don't worry; according to Gove it should all "settle down after a few weeks".

Nothing to see here; please move along...

I know about it but my partner is a HGV driver so I’m more aware of what’s going on naturally. Thankfully his job doesn’t mean going down there. But the situation for the new year with the backlogs we already have at the ports isn’t looking good with all this uncertainty

Yes, I know it has been mentioned but I can't understand why it's not wall to wall coverage. This is a crisis, or pending crisis, of the government's own making and the general attitude seems to be 'oh, well...'

Yes, bacon, I imagine there's a lot of reporting on it in Kent. I feel very sorry for people down there.

Yanbu

How is it different to the usual operation stack that came into place years ago, more than 20 years ago. Lorries always queue there so hardly news.

My prediction has been December 23rd for many months
after that the drivers will be heading home and not wanting to do the UK run until there is certainty

Brits are in for rather a shock
but they voted for it repeatedly
so it will be fine

@m0therofdragons

How is it different to the usual operation stack that came into place years ago, more than 20 years ago. Lorries always queue there so hardly news.

Read the article and the many others around and find out why this is different.

To be fair they are trying to sort it. By reducing driver rest hours - because obviously over tired drivers is safe!

@Sirzy

To be fair they are trying to sort it. By reducing driver rest hours - because obviously over tired drivers is safe!

Having lost a friend when a lorry driver, who had exceeded his hours, fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into her car, I find this very alarming.

What good would it do? If it was rammed down my throat 24/7 it would just make me anxious and angry but I wouldn’t be able to change anything.I voted remain, I hate this Govt, the country’s a shit show atm. I don’t need any more 🤷‍♀️

It's not just on the motorway. Lorries are trying to use the back roads and lanes. One was blocking a road that is part of the emergency route to the tunnel Last week
It's awful

Yes, I see where you're coming from, JoeBlack, but they need holding to account and too many people are oblivious to it all. I'm probably ridiculously naïve (I know I am) but I want to see people pounding on the doors of their MPs and Conservative clubs and saying this is in no way acceptable. You can't have a government deliberately making life worse for its people, no matter what some of them may or may not have voted for.

Me too lakie I would hope most companies would protect their drivers but I know some won’t and they will push them to the legal limit. Two consecutive 6 day weeks so up to 99 driving hours in a fortnight is just dangerous.

My partner did a 6 day week last month and was knackered the weekend after. He certainly couldn’t have safely worked that weekend too

Seems there's lots of delays.
Empty containers not being returned - as we import more than we import.
Queues in France as well.
There's the covid impact as well as Brexit stockpiling. And Christmas

We are seeing the effects of the port issues at work, we are contingency planning for material shortages Jan-March. I've also stocked up on tinned food and freezer food because I think there will be much bigger delays in Jan that will disrupt supermarket supply for a while. Not for long but enough to see a repeat of the lockdown shelves from April.

Write to some news desks about it. Emails with quotes from locals will add heft to a story and they may begin to look further into the situation and write more if they think it's in public interest.

Most journos are working from home right now so it's a bit more difficult than usual.

Containers do not go through Dover.
The Containers impact is on Felixtowe, Tilbury and Southampton.

The M20 is caused by fresh food imports
and EU drivers trying to get home before Christmas.

Yanbu, I live in Kent and haven’t been out and about much and last week was thinking of popping down to the coast near Dover. Luckily a friend told me about the traffic but I had no idea. Wish the news would mention useful stuff instead of all the human interest stuff.

As PP have said it happens quite often - due to bad weather; the French border guards being on a work to rule at Dover, so they stop the freight traffic and let the cars through; problems at the Tunnel, then you get past that queue and there is the port queue.

I did the schlep between Devon/Cornwall and Egham to Brussels for years, and it was a treat if there wasn't a queue of lorries on the M20.

Kent voted for this

I work in logistics and it’s been hitting our business for weeks. I’m dreading January 😓 anytime i mention it to people they just say “It’ll be worth it so we can get back to the good old days”

And now France has stopped the Boats and the Tunnel