What my concern is is the additional operating cost, in percentage, between an experimented HGV driver and a new one considering the 70000 vacancies to be filled! I have paid over £1100 per year for my kids car insurance when they started to drive, does any body know what the average policy for brand new HGV driver is and what it means for hauliers budgets? I always dreamt of my two to get a PPL(H), I even trained them to drive their car with the lef hand on the hand brake and pull on it when in front of an obstacle to get over it... (JOKE!!!) but I know it does not make economical sense, for my wallet anyway.

One of the largest transport organisations in the UK has no insurance. They have sufficient turnover and cash reserves to self-insure.

To drive a vehicle without insurance is surely illegal?

Do you perhaps mean public liability insurance?

You could self-insure by depositing a £500K bond with government up until Nov 2019 when the law was changed.

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/fleet-ma...ncing-the-risk

There was a consultation to remove the option, where the DoT agreed that the existing act should be changed. The last link seems to show that new bonds ceased to be available from Nov 2019 and existing ones lapse on Nov 2021.

https://assets.publishing.service.go...d-deposits.pdf

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/...ade?view=plain

Thanks for the clarification ORAC. I reviewed that business back in 2016 and was not aware that the legislation had changed.

...and let's not get onto Loco Missile Captains...

From "The Economist" - June 26th 2021:

"In early June Britain's long-suffering Europhiles got a rare taste of Schadenfreude. Tim Martin, a forthright Brexiteer who is the boss of J.D. Wetherspoon, a chain of pubs, announced that Britain ought to create a more liberal immigration policy to allow more Europeans to move there to work. Over the past 18 months, hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, most of whom worked in pubs and restaurants and lost their jobs when everything closed during the covid-19 lockdowns, have gone home. Brexit means that many cannot return. He denies it, but Mr. Martin's establishments are most certainly suffering from the staff shortages afflicting the rest of the British hospitality industry".

Executives like Mr. Martin, who ardently supported Brexit, deserve to be slapped up the side of the head. The damage he and his kind have done to Britain is already evident. By virtue of their position and supposed business savvy, they should have known better. So, I would ask him: If not immigration, then what in the Brexit manifesto did he strongly support?

Option 1 The EU's accounting principles are flawed and this is yet another example of the EU being vindictive, ...Unlikely

Option 2. The UK Gov't were aware of the extra costs and chose to ignore or not publicise less "getting Brexit done ! " suddenly became far less attractive along with deciding we would be doing our own interpretation of the "deal" and agreement along with Boris blustering his excuses as to why....Very Likely.

Brexit ‘divorce bill’ higher than UK’s forecasts, Brussels estimates | Brexit | The Guardian

Option 3 - the Guardian gets its facts wrong?

Oxymoron - Facts are by definition correct.

Spelling. The facts speak for them selves. 😁

What like leaving a gap between them and selves?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Commander Taco View Post
From "The Economist" - June 26th 2021:

"In early June Britain's long-suffering Europhiles got a rare taste of Schadenfreude. Tim Martin, a forthright Brexiteer who is the boss of J.D. Wetherspoon, a chain of pubs, announced that Britain ought to create a more liberal immigration policy to allow more Europeans to move there to work. Over the past 18 months, hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, most of whom worked in pubs and restaurants and lost their jobs when everything closed during the covid-19 lockdowns, have gone home. Brexit means that many cannot return. He denies it, but Mr. Martin's establishments are most certainly suffering from the staff shortages afflicting the rest of the British hospitality industry".
https://www.thenational.scot/news/19...orkers-brexit/


But then again if he had put his hands in his own pockets to retain his foreign staff here, they would have been able to stay, it sounds awfully like not my probem, right up until it is, then blame the government for their policies that he knew would have a detrimental effect on his staffing levels. No sympathy.

Reference the EU bill.

They are both estimates worked out on bills due over the next 3-4 decades including pension liabilities etc. Governments can’t even forecast 12 months ahead correctly. Over such time spans £4-5B isn’t quite a rounding error - but it’s well within the confidence factor either side of the eventual bill.

But it makes a good story to fill a few column inches.

But it makes a good story to fill a few column inches.
... and who could be better qualified to judge such qualities ?

oh well, if he says it isn’t so, I guess I believe him 🤣

This blog gives an explanation, and makes sense from my limited understanding of Commission accounting. Commission communications on these matters tend to be very precise, but only address the technical matter in hand - don't look for them to address the wider context (so in this case only the debt is addressed, with no mention of other factors that might change/reduce it)

Brexit: another myth is born

Heard on a passing news programme yesterday, that 'our man Frost' has said that the shambles as a result of the Brexit fiasco are down to the Buffoon's predecessor , the blessed Treeza. Should we feel reassured that our present Government were so lax in due diligence, that they just signed up to someone else's negotiations ? Or, is this the expected attempt to shuffle off any blame for the catastrophe which they, (and they alone), created ?

Not entirely, the EU did account for 1.8 billion the UK is due from fines collected on companies running afoul of EU rules over the time the UK was a member of the EU. But yes, liability does not directly translate into payments, for example going around and killing the UKs ex MEPs would considerably reduce the UKs payment into the EU pension system.