Britain is expected to announce plans to issue temporary work visas to truck drivers to ease an acute labour shortage that has led to fuel rationing at hundreds of gas stations and long queues to fill up – with pumps running dry in some places.
As retailers warned of significant disruption in the run-up to Christmas, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said it was looking at temporary measures to address the shortage of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers.
Newspapers reported that the government would allow up to 5,000 foreign drivers into Britain on short-term visas, a measure that logistics companies and retailers have demanded for months but which the government had previously ruled out.
The UK’s Road Haulage Association (RHA) says Britain needs 100,000 more drivers if it is to meet demand.
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Shortages of truckers have been caused partly by Brexit and COVID-19, which put a stop to driver training and testing for about a year.
“We’re looking at temporary measures to avoid any immediate problems, but any measures we introduce will be very strictly time limited,” a spokeswoman for Johnson’s Downing Street office said in a statement.
Downing Street declined to give further details.
Ministers have cautioned against panic buying, and oil companies say there is no shortage of supplies, merely problems delivering the fuel to gas stations.
However, there were long lines of vehicles at filling stations as motorists rushed out to fill up, and some forecourts closed as their supplies ran out.
The issue came to the fore after BP (BP.L) said it had to close some of its outlets due to the driver shortages, with Shell (RDSa.L) and ExxonMobil’s (XOM.N) Esso also reporting problems with supplies.
EG Group, which runs 341 forecourts across Britain, said on Friday it would impose a purchase limit of 30 pounds ($41) per customer for fuel due to the “unprecedented customer demand”.
