The chairman of the Association of British Petrol Stations (PRA) told the BBC that up to two-thirds of its members, which represent 5,500 independent sites out of a total of 8,000 recharging stations in the country, were running out fuel this Sunday and “the others almost dry.” Stations were mostly running out of gasoline in urban areas of the country while Northern Ireland seemed spared the problem so far, he detailed.
Gasoline shortages in the country are due to “outright panic buying,” he said. “One of our members received a container at noon and by the end of the afternoon it was totally gone” in people’s cars, added Brian Madderson, a PRA official, attributing the panic effect to a “leak of a confidential BP report during a government meeting” which “aired on Wednesday”.
Lack of truck drivers
Gas stations have been stormed due to stockouts that are also affecting agri-food shelves. Faced with worsening shortages, mainly due to a shortage of truck drivers, London finally resolved on Saturday to amend its post-Brexit immigration policy and grant up to 10,500 temporary work visas.
The three-month permits, from October to December, are intended to address a critical shortage of truck drivers but also of staff in key sectors of the UK economy, such as poultry farming.
The weapon called for backup?
According to the British press, the government is studying the possibility of calling on the military to alleviate these shortages in the short term. The Minister of Business and Energy Kwasi Kwarteng, for his part, said on Sunday in a press release that he had temporarily exempted the fuel distributor sector from competition rules so that they could deliver priority to areas where it is need it most.
Brian Madderson qualified the improvement that army drivers could bring: “It’s not as easy as you might think because truck drivers are very specialized” and tank trucks carry “a very flammable liquid to across the country ”which requires proper loading and unloading procedures.
40,000 applications for heavy vehicle permits pending.
On bringing back European drivers who returned to their countries with the pandemic and Brexit, Brian Madderson argued that there were also driver shortages in mainland Europe. He noted the problem of the backlog of heavy vehicle driving licenses that could not be passed during the lockdowns: “
Brian Madderson noted the problem of backlogged HGV licenses that could not be cleared during lockdowns: “There are 40,000 pending HGV license applications from the British.” He hopes the problem will be partially resolved “by the end of the week.”
