Nearly 200 troops, including 100 drivers, will be available in the UK from Monday to provide temporary support.
About 200 troops will join the United Kingdom on Monday to ensure the supply of fuel to petrol stations affected by shortages due to a lack of truck drivers and panic buying, world agencies reported.
“Nearly 200 troops, including 100 drivers, will be available in the UK from Monday to provide temporary support as part of government action aimed at reducing pressure on petrol stations and responding to the shortage of truck drivers,” said in an official statement from the British government. The military completes its training for this purpose.
The government has also announced that it will immediately allow 300 foreign tanker drivers to start working in the country, the agency said. They will be able to stay in the country until the end of March 2022, adds Reuters. These 300 foreign drivers are part of the 5,000 drivers who will have the opportunity to work in the country. But most of them will not arrive until the second half of October and will have to leave by the end of February 2022 as part of a program to issue thousands of temporary work visas to ease pressure on supply chains, Reuters notes.
Since last week, long queues have formed in front of gas stations that have supply problems due to a shortage of about 100,000 professional truck drivers, according to experts. In some places, there were even scandals between those waiting in line. This exceptional situation is another one related to the shortage of working cancer caused by the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit. Supply problems have even affected supermarkets, pubs and fast food restaurants. According to the government, demand for fuels has stabilized during the week, although there are still difficulties in some parts of the country. The government has repeatedly said that the country is not suffering from a lack of fuel, but that the shortage is due to the exceptional demand caused by people’s concerns that at some point they may find themselves without this raw material, as was the case with toilet paper. or certain foods. However, the government acknowledged that Brexit was an additional factor in the situation.
“Thanks to the huge efforts of the industry over the past week, we are seeing lasting signs of a slow improvement,” said Minister of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Quazi Quarteng. “It’s important to stress that there is no national fuel shortage in the UK and people need to keep buying fuel normally. The sooner we get back to normal shopping, the sooner we get back to normal.” he added.
The British Gas Station Association also said there was an improvement, but it was happening very slowly and 26 per cent of petrol stations were still running out of fuel.
In an attempt to find a way out of the crisis with truck drivers, as well as poultry staff and the threat of empty stands at Christmas, the government decided to change its immigration policy and issue 10,500 temporary work visas, recalls AFP. According to the scheme, in addition to 5,000 truck drivers, 5,500 workers in poultry farms will come to the country temporarily. They will begin arriving in the second half of October and will remain until the end of December, adds Reuters.
The government has also temporarily exempted the fuel distribution sector from competition rules to allow the most affected areas to be given priority.
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