"It's Nothing to do with Brexit"

 There's currently a meme on Twitter featuring a lady at a fish market complaining about inflation and the price of container shipping during a BBC (natch) interview.

Sarcastically she says to the camera "It's  nothing to do with Brexit", as if to infer the opposite.

Sadly for her, she's wrong. The cost of shipping containers has increased massively globally. Pre-Covid we could ship a container from Japan for £1500. The cheapest rate is now £9000 post-Covid. 

Brexit has nothing to do with it. It's supply and demand. After the global shutdown, companies have sold out of stock during the post-Covid restart and are demanding stock to be shipped to them, more than likely from China. 

That's EVERY company globally. Can you imagine the sort of demand that generates? There just isn't enough capacity to deliver EVRY container to EVERY company in the world within pre-Covid timescales.

So there will be delays. You want priority shipping? You pay for it. The lady in the Twitter meme was complaining of container shipping going up to £19000. I can believe it, if you have perishable goods (she sells fish and seafood) and you want the container delivered quick enough so your stock doesn't go off, then you'll have to pay a higher price than everyone else to jump the queue. 

That's just the nature of supply and demand love. Globally. Nothing to do with Brexit. Everything to do with Covid, the global shutdown and the restart. 

It's not just us. One of our suppliers has been told there will be a three  month delay in getting alloy wheels shipped to the UK. From Malaysia because the factory/foundry has taken months to restart and the Malaysian company have months worth of orders already placed with them. 

Nothing. To. Do. With. Brexit.

Absolutely.

Just as the shortage of lorry drivers has nothing to do with Brexit either. There is a shortage globally as well. Just look at the companies complaining in America. Sad to say a portion of drivers (not the fittest in the world) died during the pandemic, plus a number of drivers hit the age at which they could no longer drive trucks, or weren't able to renew medicals (everyone knows how bloody difficult it is you see a doctor face-to-face at the moment) and new drivers weren't able to take tests to replace the attrition of the older, retiring drivers. 

HGV driving is a pretty shit job too. So much regulation (medicals, driving hours, tachos and the like) the VOSA vultures ready to pounce on trucks to see if they are a couple of kilos overweight and most companies treating them like shit (not allowing them to use toilets, etc), it's no wonder that having had a rest during the pandemic, a number of drivers have not returned to the job.

In the UK the situation is compounded by East European drivers moving back home, to be with family during the pandemic and/or taking better-paid jobs in Germany, closer to home and within the EU. That's mainly a reflection of the poor wages paid to HGV drivers in the UK. Most East Europeans are now concentrating on local courier van deliveries. Less red tape and regulation and less time away from home, with comparable wages.

Again, nowt to do wi' Bloody Brexit.