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Comment by sideshowb | Hacker News Reader

I don't know where you live, but for context, the departure of continental European truck drivers from the UK has been in the headlines a lot here of late; for those who live here the point isn't exactly elbowed in. Though I do appreciate our domestic issues are of little interest internationally.

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The British media has indeed very successfully spun this to our domestic audience as a problem unique to the UK that's caused primarily by Brexit. I think that says more about the British media than about reality though; the complaints of local truck drivers seem very similar, and the industry here was complaining about driver shortages well before Brexit.

Driver shortages in the rest of Europe / the world aren't causing problems with fuel availability or supermarket stock.

Given similar complains and conditions a few years ago, and that Germany, France etc have since made improvements, but the UK has only added border controls and added barriers to working, it's no surprise that EU drivers left the UK.

I can confirm that it is also a problem here in Spain https://www.elmundotoday.com/2021/10/la-falta-de-camioneros-... and there was a huge backlog in licensing even before the pandemic. (Driver licensing here is a shitshow in any case.)

But then Spain didn't tell drivers from all over Europe that they are undesirable and unwanted, create a "hostile environment" for them and their families, and then dissolve our trading relationship with our most important partners.

Drivers also don't enjoy gambling with uncertain paperwork, peeing in bottles and crapping next to hedgerows as they wait for endless border queues, so why would they choose those routes when instead they can drive somewhere else where they're not hated, resented and officially unwelcome?

Chiming in from the Continent <popcorn/>

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