British military begins fuel delivery due to driver shortage – KIRO 7 news Seattle

LONDON – (AP) – British military personnel have started delivering fuel to gas stations after a shortage of truck drivers cut off supply for more than a week, leading to long queues at pumps as anxious drivers rushed to fill their tanks.

About 200 service personnel were deployed on Monday to ramp up deliveries after receiving training at commercial fuel depots last week, the government said.

The UK is short of tens of thousands of truckers, due to a confluence of factors including the coronavirus pandemic, an aging workforce and an exodus of foreign workers following Britain’s departure from the ‘European Union. The problem has helped empty supermarket shelves and shut down gas pumps.

“The army drivers are out,” Treasury chief Rishi Sunak told LBC Radio. “The situation is improving now for, I think, more than a week; every day as the stats move things get better and as demand returns to more normal levels there is a strong expectation that things will resolve on their own. .. People should know that we are doing everything we can.

As the government says supply disruptions are easing, fuel retailers continue to report local shortages.

Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, said the problem is particularly severe in London and the south-east of England, where 22% of the group’s members are still without fuel. The association represents approximately 5,500 independent fuel retailers across the country.

“Some of our members tell us they have been without fuel for several days, some for over a week now,” Balmer told Sky News.

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