LONDON: England is expected to announce plans to issue a temporary work visa for truck drivers to relieve the shortage of acute labor which has caused fuel allotment in hundreds of gas stations and long queues to be filled – with dry flowing pumps in several places.
When retailers warn of significant interference in run-to Christmas, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was looking at the temporary steps to overcome the lack of heavy vehicle driver (HGV).
The newspaper reported that the government would provide up to 5,000 foreign drivers to the UK on short-term visas, sizes demanded by logistics companies and retailers for months but previously ruled out by the government.
The Haulage Road UK Association (RHA) said England needed 100,000 more drivers if to meet demand.
The lack of truck drivers has been partially due to Brexit and Covid-19, which stopped the driver’s training and testing for about a year.
“We are looking at the temporary steps to avoid direct problems, but there are steps that we introduce it will be very tight limited time,” said Johnson’s Downing Street street office spokesman in a statement.
Downing Street refuses to provide further details.
The ministers have warned of panic purchases, and oil companies said there was no shortage of inventory, only a problem that gave fuel to the gas station.
However, there was a long queue of vehicles at the charging station because the riders rushed out to fill, and some work closed when their inventory was up.
The problem arose after BP said he had to close some of the outlets due to the lack of the driver, with the shell and Esso ExxonMobil also reported a problem with inventory.
For example the group, which runs 341 pages across Britain, said on Friday it would impose a 30 pound purchase limit ($ 41) per customer for fuel because of “unprecedented customer requests”.
“I regret what we saw in Forecourt,” Huw Merrident, Chair of the Parliament Transportation Committee, told BBC TV.
“I came out with my bicycle and passed the BP garage and it was a chaos.
As soon as the message came out, there might be a shortage of fuel, people understood reacted.” One police said the long queue was a potential hazard, blocking the road for emergency vehicles.
Downing Street said the country had “sufficient fuel stock”.
“The public must be convinced that there is no shortage,” said the spokesman.
“But like a country around the world, we suffer from a temporary deficiency of covid drivers needed to move supplies throughout the country.” Fuel problems arise as Britain, the fifth largest economy in the world, also wrestling with a surge in European natural gas costs which causes soaring energy prices and potential food supply crunch.
Other countries throughout Europe and the United States also dealt with truck’s shortcomings, and industrial figures have warned there is no guarantee that changes in the visa process will see foreign drivers coming to England.
“We have to see if we can attract people for a short time,” said Merriman.
England said the long-term solution was to be employed more by British drivers, with RHA saying payment and better conditions needed to attract people to industry.
But retailers have warned that unless the government acts to overcome deficiencies in the next 10 days, significant disorders cannot be avoided in the Christmas process.
England is expected to relieve the visa rules as a bite shortage of truck drivers
