As early as Friday morning, 14 cars were lining up in front of the BP petrol station in the London borough of Kingston. They were all waiting to finally get to the pump to fill up again. Who knows how long this will last.
Like here in the south-west of the British capital, there were traffic jams in front of the petrol stations across the country. After all, the warnings in the British newspapers had been hard to miss. the Sun printed a last drop of gasoline on its front page, along with the headline: “We’re running on empty”. This sentence was almost identical on page 1 of the Daily Mail. And the otherwise rather unexcited one Times gave the advice of the UK government to its readership: “Don’t panic”.
No panic? Well, a lot of Britons preferred to play it safe on Friday. The day before, the oil company BP had announced that at least 50 filling stations in the country could not be supplied with gasoline and diesel as usual. Esso also reported problems. It’s not because fuel is running out; the problem is that there aren’t enough truck drivers to bring them to the pumps.
There is a shortage of around 100,000 truck drivers across the UK
The driver shortage not only affects the petrol stations. British supermarkets and restaurants have been complaining about “driver shortage” for weeks. There are simply not enough people who can get goods from A to B. According to estimates by the UK transport industry, there are currently around 100,000 truck drivers missing.
There are all sorts of reasons for this. On the one hand, there is the high average age. Many older drivers retire, too few young ones follow because the job is not paid particularly well. On the other hand, there is Corona: Many have given up their work as truck drivers because of the pandemic; and those who wanted to be couldn’t because the driving schools were closed in lockdown. It was simply not possible to get a truck driver’s license.
Problems like this exist in many European countries, but in Great Britain there is one more aggravating factor: Brexit. Experts estimate that around 25,000 truck drivers have returned to their home countries since Britain left the EU, mainly to Eastern Europe. How many will come back to the UK is an open question.
Since the beginning of the year there has been a major obstacle: the new immigration rules. Since Brexit, it has not been so easy for people from the EU to work in the UK. Not only do you have to prove proficiency in English, but also a minimum wage. In addition, the visa procedures are expensive and sometimes take a long time. Since Brexit, there has been a new, points-based system that favors highly skilled workers. From the government’s point of view, truck drivers are not included.
The minister promises: “We will set heaven and hell in motion.”
The economy has therefore been demanding for weeks that truck drivers be added to the list of so-called shortage occupations in order to be able to work in Great Britain without any problems. Laboratory technicians, architects and employees in health management can be found on the government’s “shortage occupation list”. They are all officially wanted, truck drivers are not.
So far, the government does not want to know much about the lawsuits from the transport industry; and certainly not hear anything about the fact that Brexit could be to blame for the misery. Economy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng called on companies to train local unemployed people and raise wages. There are now agencies that try to lure truck drivers with cash bonuses.
For its part, the government promises to do whatever it takes. “We will move heaven and earth to ensure that the bottlenecks are alleviated,” said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on Friday. The government is working hard to change laws to make it easier for new truck drivers to train. In addition, one must ensure that the job becomes more attractive. Until then, the government has at least an emergency plan: If things get really bad, soldiers should bring the gasoline to the filling stations.