British Army Called In To Drive Tankers As Fuel Shortages Continue

British soldiers will start driving tankers to replenish empty pumps, as drivers queued again for fuel after days of shortages, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying the situation was improving.

The country has been gripped by a rush of panic buying for almost a week that has left pumps dry across major cities, after oil companies warned they did not have enough tanker drivers to move gas and diesel from refineries to filling stations.

The shortage of drivers has come about with Brexit and the subsequent lack of an EU labour pool to draw from.

But around 150 army drivers were placed on standby, with half of them of them able to begin work this week, according to officials.

However, the emergency measures carry the risk of triggering further bouts of the panic buying that ministers said have compounded the crisis. It’s also not clear how much impact they will have.

Johnson has sought to quell concerns, saying supplies were returning to normal while also urging people not to panic buy.

The UK government is poised to temporarily ease visa rules to attract more foreign taxi drivers, reports said Saturday, as it grapples with a growing shortage that has now hit fuel supplies.

Yet ministers have been struggling to show they have a grip on frequent ructions in the supply chain, of which the fuel shortages are just the latest example.

During the pandemic, supermarket shelves have been left bare amid an estimated 100,000 shortfall of truck drivers, and is now raising the spectre of empty shelves and price increases at Christmas.

The gridlock has sparked calls for doctors, nurses and other essential workers to be given priority access to fuel, a move Johnson has resisted.

Industry groups said the worst of the shortages seemed to be in London, the southeast and other English cities. Fights have broken out as drivers jostled.

The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents independent retailers who account for about two-thirds of all the 8,380 U.K. gas stations, said on Tuesday 37 per cent of its members’ stations were out of fuel.

Johnson’s opponents have blamed the Brexit deal he signed with the European Union for cutting the U.K. off from the bloc’s seamless labour market, a narrative the government has rejected.