LONDON (AP) — The British government extended an emergency visa program for truck drivers as fuel shortages showed little signs of abating Saturday, especially in London and southeast England.
In an announcement late Friday, the Conservative government said temporary visas for about 5,000 foreign truck drivers it hopes to employ will continue until 2022 instead of expiring on Christmas Eve as originally planned.
The short duration of the program announced last week sparked widespread criticism for not being attractive enough to attract foreign drivers.
The government said 300 fuel drivers will be able to come to the UK from abroad “immediately” and stay until March. About 4,700 more visas for foreign food truck drivers will run from late October until the end of February.
In another move aimed at easing pressure on Britain’s fuel pumps, about 200 military personnel, including 100 drivers, will be deployed starting Monday to help ease a shortage in fuel supplies that has caused empty pumps and long queues at filling stations.
The government says the situation is already improving.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “UK stock levels are trending higher, fuel deliveries to forecourts are above normal levels, and fuel demand is stabilizing.” “It is important to stress that there is no national fuel shortage in the UK, and people should continue to buy fuel as usual.”
However, the Petrol Dealers Association, which represents independent filling stations, has warned that fuel supplies remain a problem and could get worse in some places.
“In London and south-east England, and perhaps parts of eastern England, the situation has become worse,” the group’s head, Brian Madderson, told BBC Radio.
Maderson welcomed the deployment of military drivers next week but warned it would have a limited impact.
“This will not be the main panacea,” he added. “It’s a big help, but in terms of size, they won’t be able to carry that much.”
Opposition parties are urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to recall Parliament next week to address the wider situation of labor shortages and disruption to supply chains. In recent months, several companies have reported shortages, including fast food chains KFC, McDonald’s and Nando’s. Supermarket shelves also looked barren, and fears were growing that they would not be stocked as usual in the run-up to Christmas.
In a bid to head off a shortage of Christmas turkeys, the government also announced that 5,500 foreign poultry workers will be allowed into the UK from late October and can stay until the end of the year.
Johnson’s pro-Brexit government is keen to downplay talk that the driver shortage is a result of Brexit.
However, when the country left the EU’s economic orbit at the beginning of this year, one of the bloc’s key principles – the freedom of people to move within the EU to find work – ceased to apply. With Brexit, tens of thousands of truck drivers have left the UK to return to their homes in the EU, increasing pressure on an industry already facing long-term recruitment issues.
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the problem, prompting thousands of drivers in the European Union to return to their home countries. Strict lockdowns in the UK have also led to difficulties in training and testing new local drivers to replace those who have left.
In addition, the pandemic has accelerated the number of British truck drivers choosing to retire. Relatively low wages, changes in the way truck drivers’ income is taxed, and a scarcity of facilities – toilets and showers, for example – have also reduced the attractiveness of the job for younger workers.
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