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forum
The bike building country on our doorstep
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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- Rendel Harris 4 min 19 sec ago
To paraphrase the Dalai Lama ("One should be kind whenever possible. And it is always possible"), there should only be 20mph limits in towns when...
- Rendel Harris 33 min 34 sec ago
Welcome - probably didn't show as they tagged it "not near miss of the day"?
- ktache 6 hours 46 min ago
The small frame, the aggressive posture, lots of standover height.
- David9694 7 hours 49 min ago
'Bad parking' blocks firefighters multiple times on same emergency call-out...
- David9694 7 hours 53 min ago
Cambridgeshire boy, 13, crashes Audi into garden wall after taking it from home...
- Adam Sutton 8 hours 39 min ago
Good stuff. Now do it on cycleway C9 through Hammersmith to Chiswick.
- Dogless 9 hours 56 min ago
You're defending bombing hospitals and refugee camps and starving children.
- mattw 12 hours 36 min ago
Used car salesman is a complete attention-seeking plank....
- tubasti 12 hours 53 min ago
I don't know if they're any better, but they's certainly become more boring.
- FionaJJ 13 hours 19 min ago
At risk of being cynical, and stereotyping the police, it's so they don't have to leave the comfort of their panda cars and pursue on foot when...
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20 comments
Brexit is not to blame for the current lack of HGV drivers.. the issue with a shortage of HGV drivers is an old one in the UK specifically.
WHY? Becuase in the UK we look on lorry driving as a crap job, which it is. It usually consists of stupid hours, constant pressure, terrible living conditions, being away from home and on top if that it's actually dangerous. Add in the added risks of migrant issues for which you might get prosecuted for (rightly) and throw in a pandemic which has made things very difficult to cross borders and there you have it. For 30years the british public have not tried to recruit drivers to it's aging population of drivers or change up the haulage industry in any meaningful manner, so year by year the lorries on our roads are driven by either foreign drivers working for UK firms or, and 'mainly', foreign haulage firms. Long distance HGV drivers get paid better for working for foreign firms, our most famous firm Eddie Stobart is considered an awful employer within the industry. Also on the continent HGV driving isn't looked down upon like it is in the UK, they put up with all the same issues, but the service stations are often that bit nicer on across the pond. Even with a more 'respected job for driving and better pay' Europe has long had an issue with staffing HGV's, throw covid in the mix and it's simply tipped them over the edge. You get a few people off isolating more than you'd normally account for and due to everything being so lean and timed to the bare minimum.. well that's really why we're where we are.
I speak not with first hand knowledge but from my bestie who does speak with a career in long distance haulage.
I saw that too - really interesting. I want to go there now (although I'm not sure there's much to see as a passerby!)
.....And then we bummed the chance of buying stuff competitivly thanks to the clusterfuck that is Brexit
We can still buy tariff free from Portugal.
But then have to pay 20% VAT? And customs duty could apply to some items as well?
Wouldn't the 20% VAT apply no matter where you bought it from?
Pre-brexit the price I paid for goods bought in the EU and delivered to me included VAT that applied in the EU - I didn't have to pay extra. Now when the goods are imported in to the UK I have to pay UK VAT of 20% on top of the purchase price.
And the purchase price no longer includes VAT.
It's a Europe (UK and EU) wide change to combat VAT avoidance.
Agreed long before Brexit.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_3098
That would be good! However the link you sent seem to be talking about import to the EU which we are obviously not a part of. Does the link say by how much EU sellers should cut their prices when selling to the UK?
And can you show me how many EU sellers (or just the Portugal ones) to the UK have cut their prices as a result?
Thanks
The link also discusses sales between member states and who should charge VAT.
This scheme was agreed whilst we were part of the EU and has been implemented after Brexit. All rules regarding location of VAT charges are therefore identical for the UK.
I obviously can't show you exactly how many Portuguese sellers have cut their prices as that is impossible for me to find out.
What I can show is that VAT changes are nothing to do with Brexit.
Which I have done.
But this is not true. Sales between member states do not include the UK which is now not a member state? Prior to Brexit I did not have to pay a uk based VAT charge, which I now do, and I would not have done so if we had remained in the EU.
Yes you would have done.
Read the link.
"From 1 July ... VAT must be paid in the Member State where the goods are delivered."
If the UK had stayed in the EU then VAT would be payable in the state of the customer.
As it is the UK has brought in the exact same legislation as the EU (agreed alongside the EU) meaning that the current situation regarding VAT charging in the UK for customers is identical to that if we had stayed in the EU.
If a bike or component is genuinely manufactured in Portugal it will, AFAIK, be tariff free.
VAT would be the same regardless of Brexit.
Origin rules on EU manufacture can be tricky.
And no VAT is now charged on imports to the UK
which would also be the case if we had not left. It was not the case before, but it would be the case now, as Rich-CB has demonstrated.
However it would be collected by the seller, and I would expect normally included in the purchase price, rather than being an administrative hassle foe the recipient of a package.
But due to Brexit there aren't enough lorry drivers bringing the parts into (and across/around) the UK. Brexit has meant that there are also fewer workers in other areas that have a knock-on effect.
Brexit UK has also led to retail prices have been hiked, due to logistical costs and/or 'supply and demand'.
And a significant number of EU online retailers will no longer ship to the UK due to Brexit, even shops with a sizeable number of UK customers.
But at least we have our fish. At least I think we have what has been termed 'our' fish.
Yet bizarrely the number of EU lorry drivers increased after the Brexit referendum. Only falling dramatically at the start of 2020.
Maybe that was related to the end of transition or maybe it was related to the COVID-19 pandemic?
I know which seems more likely to me.
Prices are increasing rapidly everywhere, there are also supply chain issues everywhere. That suggests that Brexit is not the major driver for either of those issues.
But Nigel, there IS a Portugal!
Ah, but the leave supporters still tell us we can buy unicorns instead. Who needs a bike when you can ride your unicorn?
Isn't riding a unicorn the horse equivalent of using tri-bars? Don't tell Signor Garage...