Truck crisis closes UK petrol stations

Whitehall pledges urgent steps amid queues, stretched supply chains

Britain on Friday vowed to do whatever it takes to resolve a trucker shortage that has closed petrol stations and strained supermarket supply chains to breaking point but the haulage industry cautioned that there were no quick fixes.

Just as the world’s fifth largest economy emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, a spike in European natural gas prices and a postBrexit shortage of truck drivers has left Britain grappling with soaring energy prices and a potential food supply crunch.

BP temporarily closed some of its 1,200 UK petrol stations due to a lack of both unleaded and diesel grades, which it blamed on driver shortages.

ExxonMobil’s Esso said a small number of its 200 Tesco Alliance retail sites had also been affected. Queues formed at some petrol stations in London and the southern English county of Kent on Friday as motorists rushed to fill up, Reuters reporters said.

For months, supermarkets and farmers have warned that a shortage of truck drivers was straining supply chains to breaking point

— making it harder to get goods onto shelves.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said there was a global shortage of truckers after Covid-19 halted truck driver testing so Britain was doubling the number of tests.

Hauliers and logistics companies cautioned that there were no quick fixes and that any change to testing or visas would likely be too late to alleviate the pre-Christmas shortages as retailers stockpile months ahead.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that Johnson, whom he met in New York, had asked him for an “emergency” agreement to supply a food product that is lacking in Britain, though the British embassy disputed Bolsonaro’s account.

Such is the strain on the supply chain, McDonald’s had to take milkshakes and bottled drinks off the menu at its British restaurants in August and chicken chain Nando’s ran out of chicken. Suppliers have warned that there could be more shortages of petrol because of a lack of drivers to transport fuel from refineries to retail outlets.