UK pledges to ‘move heaven and earth’ to fix heavy truck driver shortage amid fuel and supply chain crisis – Business Live | a job

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Good morning, and welcome to our renewed coverage of the global economy, financial markets, the eurozone and business.

Pressure is mounting on the UK government today as a severe shortage of truck drivers across the country disrupts fuel supplies to some petrol stations across the country.

Ministers are being urged to relax immigration rules as an emergency measure to lure heavy truck drivers from abroad, as the industry warns that around 100,000 is needed to fix the supply chain crisis.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he wouldn’t rule anything out, but insisted that the real problem lay in the bottleneck in driver testing, as well as the systematic shortage of drivers over many years.

When asked if the government would add truck drivers to the list of occupations in short supply, meaning that drivers abroad can obtain skilled visas to work in the UK, Shapps said:

We don’t rule out anything at all. We want to see this issue resolved, but we also want to see it resolved in the long run.

Q: A quick solution might be to get short-term visas for drivers in Europe to come and work…

Shapps pledges to consider all possibilities:

I will look at everything, and we will move to heaven and earth to do everything in our power to make sure the shortage with heavy truck drivers is alleviated.

But we need to look at the things that will make a difference, and the biggest problem is driver testing.

The transport minister also insists the pandemic is the main cause of the problem, as Covid-19 has prevented people from getting tested to replace those leaving the industry.

He also argues that the short-term shortage must be resolved quickly, as there are twice as many tests on offer now.

“Several tests are being made available now, so we should see that they run smoothly fairly quickly.”

But can it be solved fast enough to save Christmas?

Last night, Rod McKenzie of the RTA trade body accused ministers of “government by inertia”, allowing the situation to become “progressively worse” in recent months.

He told BBC Newsnight.

“We have a shortage of 100,000 (drivers),

“When you think everything we get in Britain comes on the back of a truck – whether it’s fuel, food, clothes, whatever – at some point, if there are no drivers to drive those trucks, the trucks don’t move and we don’t get our things.”

McKenzie insisted that people should not race to panic buying fuel or food:

“I don’t think we’re talking about any fuel or food at all or anything like that, people shouldn’t panic buying food or fuel or anything else, that’s not all there is.

“It’s about out of stock, it’s about shortages, it’s about the normal supply chain being disrupted.”

Speaking on Sky News, Grant Shapps also argues that the UK has relied on importing cheap labor from abroad, and needs to make trucking more attractive and remunerative – so salary increases are very welcome, and people are drawn back into the sector.

He also argues that it also needs to become more diverse, as drivers are mostly white and male, often over 55, so better conditions should help increase the number of people.

Yesterday, BP said as many as 100 of its front yards were short of at least one degree of fuel, with many forced to shut down completely due to supply problems. Esso said a few of its gas stations operating alongside Tesco Express stores have been affected, while some supermarket chain-branded locations are also experiencing outages.

Fuel supply problems are the latest blow to the economy, as the energy crisis, rising inflation, labor shortages and squeezing living costs are raising fears of winter or even fall of exasperation.

Neil Henderson (@hendopolis)

SCOTSMAN: ‘Autumn of discontent’ warning as crisis deepens #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/a4Vw9QXNzG

September 24, 2021 Neil Henderson (@hendopolis)

The Guardian: Fuel shortage warning amid supply chain crisis #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/99jO0IAGzB

September 23, 2021

British farmers are warning that supermarket shelves will run out and consumers will panic buying to try to get through winter unless the government takes urgent action to alleviate a labor shortage.

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFU) yesterday called for an urgent Covid Recovery Visa to allow businesses to hire from outside the UK to alleviate a “handicap” labor shortage across the supply chain.

National Farmers Union President Minette Butters has written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning that the food and agriculture sector is on a “knife edge” due to a shortage of workers across the entire supply chain….more here.

Also soon today:

Financial markets are on edge as uncertainty over debt-laden property group in China, Evergrande, weighs on investors.

Evergrande was due to make an interest payment on an offshore bond at midnight in New York (5am UK time) – but there is no official word on whether it has been paid, leaving investors in the dark.

Evergrande, which owes about $300 billion, is caught in an unfolding storm as Beijing tries to suppress excessive debt in the real estate sector… A default could hit China’s real estate and banking sectors, dampening growth:

Agenda 9 am GMT: Ifo survey of German business climate September 11 GMT: CBI survey of UK retail sales (distribution trade) September 3 GMT: US new home sales for August
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