Monday, October 25, 2021

UK Haulage Industry Tells PM to Act on Supply Chains or Face Christmas Crisis

THE GUARDIAN: Calls for Boris Johnson to intervene personally after ‘lacklustre’ efforts to tackle lorry driver shortage

The haulage industry has urged Boris Johnson to step up “lacklustre” efforts to tackle a shortage of 100,000 HGV drivers, telling him to act now on supply chains or face a Christmas crisis.

Bosses of multiple trade bodies and businesses in the trucking and food industries have written to the prime minister saying not enough had been done to resolve the crisis and urging him to intervene personally.

They said measures intended to plug the gap, including a temporary three month visa for HGV drivers, “simply do not go far enough to tackle the crisis and protect the UK economy in the months ahead”.

“Without further action, this will only get worse, particularly as we begin the countdown to Christmas,” they added.

A lack of qualified HGV drivers has been cited as a factor in last month’s petrol shortages and interruptions to supermarket supply chains, as well as prompting warnings of major disruption at Christmas, such as bins not being collected. » | Rob Davies | Monday, October 25, 2021

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