UK struggles to attract EU drivers amid fuel crisis

UK struggles to attract EU drivers amid fuel crisis


There has been a lack of applications from fuel truck drivers based in the European Union to come to the United Kingdom and help tackle the nation’s fuel supply crisis after the government temporarily reversed its post-Brexit immigration rules.

Petrol retailers in the UK said the country’s fuel crisis remained a “challenge” with some areas around London and the southeast of the country still without supply, though the government insisted the situation was improving.

Immigration laws were provisionally changed to give 5,000 visas to EU drivers willing to operate in Britain to help ease the situation. The government said 300 drivers could arrive immediately to drive oil tankers, but there have been few applicants.

The Times newspaper reported just 127 fuel tanker drivers had applied. “People don’t want to come unless it is a really attractive alternative,” Rod McKenzie, director of policy at the Road Haulage Association explained. “You don’t give up a well-paid job for a better-paid job if it will only last a few months.”

Prime minister Boris Johnson told the BBC that the haulage industry gave the government a list of just 127 names of foreign drivers who would be willing to come to the UK: “What that shows is the global shortage,” he said.

For more information visit www.ukpra.co.uk

11th October 2021