Only 127 fuel truck drivers have applied for a visa to work in the United Kingdom – PM
According to the Prime Minister, only 127 foreign fuel drivers have asked for immediate temporary visas to help alleviate shortages.
Boris Johnson said that the haulage industry has only provided 127 names so far in response to the government’s plan to hire 300 gasoline drivers. Mr. Johnson called it a “fascinating picture of the problem,” adding that it was a global problem. He did say, though, that there was a “specific difficulty in the UK.”
In an effort to avert future supply chain concerns, the government is issuing another 4,700 temporary permits for foreign food lorry drivers, which will last from late October through the end of February.
Working in road haulage “should be a terrific profession,” according to the prime minister, but he added that there had been a lack of investment in infrastructure and wage conditions.
He downplayed the issue as having anything to do with Brexit, noting that the “supply chain problem is tied to recovery” and that it was affecting other regions of the world as well.
Imagine the UK has been in a severe freeze for months and the pipes are just now unfreezing – the pressures and strains of the economy are waking up, he said.
In recent months, supply chains have begun to suffer as a result of the shortages, with some supermarkets struggling to keep specific items in stock and petrol stations unable to keep enough fuel on hand to meet demand.
According to data from the Petrol Retailers Association, shortages in fuel tanker drivers led to panic buying at the pumps, but supplies have improved in certain places in recent days (PRA).
About 200 Army and RAF servicemen and women have been sent in to assist in the delivery of fuel from depots to forecourts.
Temporary visas, according to the government, are not a long-term solution and businesses should invest in the UK workforce. Mr. Johnson stated that the British economy could not “return to the failing paradigm of low-wage, low-skilled labour.”
