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Empty Shelves??

23 Comments

Sandown Bay with 13 Container Ships on the Horizon that can’t get into Port

I took this photograph late this afternoon. I only had my little pocket camera with me and although the zoom is pretty good on this particular Sony, it wasn’t quite good enough to give me the result I needed. However, if you enlarge the photo you will see up to 13 Container ships on the horizon, all waiting to enter the waters for Southampton or Portsmouth harbour to unload their cargo. I was told by a fellow onlooker that there were 17 out there, his younger eyes gave him the advantage.

We are continually reading and hearing that due to Brexit/Covid, a mixture of both but at least one of them could have been foreseen, goods will be in short supply in the coming months.

Well, here they are, sitting in the Bay area of Sandown/Shanklin.

23 thoughts on “Empty Shelves??”

  1. No, they are still playing party politics and trying to re-write the original deal while making sure their backs are covered. The People, the famous ‘People’ they were elected to serve, aren’t given a thought. But what’s new in the world?

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  2. We are also experiencing food shortages here in Australia due to so many people being off sick with Covid or in self isolation. The workforce has diminished. Chicken processing plants have closed down and farmers can’t get their produce to the supermarket distribution centres, and even if they could get their crops to the d.c’s – they don’t have enough workers to send it on to the supermarkets themselves. They screamed open the borders so that business could thrive again – but now there is another obstacle.

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    1. Seems like a worldwide situation but we in the UK have the added complications arising from Brexit. I haven’t found any serious food shortages in my area but I know the situation is bad in many places.

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  3. Presumably the ships are being unloaded more slowly because of a lack of dock workers and drivers for the lorries that should be taking the containers away? In that case you’re right to blame Brexit compounded by Covid. While no one could have foreseen the latter, there were plenty of people predicting this impact of Brexit on labour in this country. What a mess it has been 😦 Good photo however, despite the shortcomings of having to rely on your phone!

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  5. I’m intrigued by how container ships from all over the world are affected by Brexit, eg India, New Zealand, Argentina, USA? Also, there is definitely a shortage of lorry drivers globally, apparently Germany is one of the worst countries hit. No Germexit to explain that one! It seems inexplicable to me, where have they all gone? There seems to be a shortage of people in a whole range of jobs in a whole range of countries. Where has everybody gone?

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    1. Definitely a shortage of drivers many of whom hailed from mainland Europe and can no longer work here. I know of two firms near to me, one of which is about to go into receivership, because of this lack of drivers and the hold-ups involved in checking papers. There are drivers available but not with the necessary licence to drive the vehicles used. And as regards papers, I had a Christmas hamper sent from Sicily for which I’ve now been presented with an Invoice from FedEx for £80 Customs & Duty (this includes £13. 67 VAT)! I’m fighting it as the sender was assured that the hamper could be sent as a gift without payment on this side.

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      1. You’re right to fight FedEx! But, anecdotal evidence doesn’t override the data, you have to look at the world as a whole and bizarrely the whole world is short of drivers. Germany was the worst country for a while but has recovered slightly. I think the worst is Poland!

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    1. Yes, it was Jo. We had planned to have coffee and cake along the beach but nothing was open. I suppose we were too optimistic, we leave a well-heated house and expect to find some poor soul manning a kiosk just to minister to our need for coffee and cake. Chatting made up for a lot though and although my walking is very slow now, I can still cope provided my companion doesn’t want to stride out too much. I should really have photographed those little horses though. Last time I neglected to do something like this was when I was totally absorbed in watching baby tiger cubs from the zoo being walked along the beach very early in the morning. They used to do this in the summer before the visitors were up and about and I couldn’t take my eyes off them.

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    1. Yes, we had sunshine wall to wall which tempted me along the beach but I walked too far and by the time I turned around to come back the sun had gone in. I had my camera in my backpack and I should have got it out earlier but was too engrossed in watching a family walk two miniature horses (not Shetland ponies, miniature horses, smaller that the Shetlanders) along the beach and then along came a llama! Watching was more fun than photographing them.

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  11. It seems to be the same here in the big ports, Mary. Here, the build-up is due to the fact that there are not enough lorry drivers to carry off the containers once they have been unloaded.

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    1. Yes, that’s more or less the problem here but our is made worse by Brexit because the lorry drivers who came from Europe to drive the lorries and a lot of our transport, are no longer permitted to do so.

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