London, Oct 3 (BNA) The British government extended the emergency visa program for truck drivers as fuel shortages showed few signs of abating on Saturday, especially in London and southeast England.
In an announcement late Friday, the Conservative government said temporary visas for the nearly 5,000 foreign truck drivers it hopes to recruit will start until 2022 rather than expire on Christmas Eve as originally planned.
The short duration of the program announced last week has drawn widespread criticism for not being attractive enough to entice foreign drivers, the Associated Press reported.
The government said 300 fuel drivers would be able to come to the UK from abroad “immediately” and stay until March. About 4,700 more visas for foreign food truck drivers last from late October to the end of February.
In another move aimed at relieving pressure on British pumps, about 200 military personnel, including 100 drivers, will be deployed from Monday to help relieve a fuel supply shortage that has caused empty pumps and long queues at gas stations.
The government says the situation is already improving.
“UK front yard stock levels are on the rise, front yard fuel deliveries are above normal and demand for fuel is stabilizing,” said Business Secretary Kwasi Quarting. “It is important to stress that there is no national fuel shortage in the UK, and people should continue to buy fuel as normal.”
However, the Gasoline Retailers Association, which represents independent filling stations, warned that fuel supplies remain an issue and could get worse in some places.
“In London and the south-east, and possibly in parts of eastern England, if anything, the situation has worsened,” the group’s chairperson, Brian Maderson, told BBC radio.
Maderson welcomed the deployment of military drivers next week but cautioned that the impact would be limited.
“This is not going to be the main panacea,” he said. “It’s a big help, but in terms of size, they won’t be able to take much.”
Opposition parties are urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to summon Parliament next week to address the broader situation of labor shortages and disruptions in 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 an effort to head off a shortage of turkeys at Christmas, the government has 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 play down talk that the driver shortage is the result of Brexit.
However, when the country left the economic orbit of the European Union at the beginning of this year, one of the bloc’s main 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 European Union, adding to pressure on an industry already facing long-term employment issues.
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the problem, prompting thousands of EU drivers to return to their home countries. The UK’s strict lockdowns 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’ incomes are taxed, and a dearth of facilities — toilets and showers, for example — also reduced the attractiveness of the job for younger workers.
RAE