Boris Johnson says there is a global shortage of tanker drivers: he offered 300 immediate visas, but they only asked for 127

The UK government has only received 127 visa applications for tanker drivers, out of a total of 300 it has offered with immediate effect to address gas station shortages.the Prime Minister said on Tuesday, Boris Johnson.

Speaking to BBC At the Conservative Party’s annual convention in Manchester (in the north of England), the head of government said this reflected “A problem of global supply” of this type of work.

“We said to the trucking industry, ‘Well, give us the names of the drivers you want to bring (from overseas) and we’ll arrange their visas, we’ll give them 5,000 visas. And they only provided 127 names “he explained.

“This shows that there is a global shortage», He underlined.

According to the Conservative leader, “the global supply problems”, which affect both the delivery of products and the availability of workers as carriers, “are due to the strength of global economic recovery “as pandemic restrictions lifted.

In the United Kingdom, where the situation has been made worse by Brexit, The government wants to encourage the hiring of workers resident in the country instead of bringing them from the European Union (EU), despite which it has made available 5,000 visas for the transport sector and 5,500 for industry. poultry..

“What we cannot do is revert to the old failed model where the main line of employment is unskilled labor with low wages, people who are often very hardworking, wonderful and courageous, who come to work in very difficult conditions, and we must not go back to it“, did he declare.

According to Johnson, this has led to a situation where different economic sectors were no longer investing in services or training and people like transporters “had to urinate in the bushes due to lack of appropriate dependencies”.

In addition to transport, sectors such as the hotel and meat industry have requested emergency visas to attract labor, with the warning that the shortage may affect the supply during the Christmas period.

The government insists that the situation is “Stabilization” in service stations across the country, where in recent days the lack of carriers has resulted in a fuel shortage which has led to long lines of drivers to refuel.

Some two hundred British military personnel began transporting goods from oil terminals to gas stations across the country on Monday, while waiting if the distribution companies ask for more visas to bring in foreign carriers.

(With information from EFE)

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