Action to address the shortage of HGV drivers and secure fuel supplies

The government has announced a temporary relaxation of competition laws and new measures to increase the number of HGV drivers, helping to ease pressures affecting petrol stations across the UK as a result of increased demand. 

  • There is no shortage of fuel in the UK. A spike in localised demand has led to increased pressures at our petrol stations - and the government will take whatever action is necessary to resolve this. 
     
  • The government is implementing The Downstream Oil Protocol – a temporary exemption to competition laws to enable information sharing between petrol stations – and also introducing short term visas for HGV drivers, increasing HGV testing, and establishing skills bootcamps to train up to 3,000 more people to become HGV drivers and provide more resilience in the system. 
     
  • These measures will help petrol stations to respond to the increased demand – and we urge all drivers to act responsibly in filling up their cars.

Comments

Jim said…
There may be a shortage of HGV drivers, but the shortage of tanker drivers simply isnt real.
They are pretty well paid, the licences and certs requrired to carry fuel and other dangerous goods demand a very high English level which is why there are few vacancies, its an area that is prodomonently British. Also the visas wont reelly bring in eu drivers, they are higher paid in the EU and i cant see them queueing to apply for a visa in a country that begrougingly offterd. Though there are a few from Nigeria that may apply https://trans.info/en/nigerian-lorry-drivers-enthusiastic-about-uk-s-3-month-visa-scheme-256090

8:45 am
Chris Whiteside said…
Indeed - there is a genuine shortage of HGV drivers, which is due to a number of reasons including COVID-19 and probably partly Brexit (though the attempt to blame all of it on Brexit from some quarters is not credible.)

The problems at the pumps, however, were much more due to demand than supply - we are not short of petrol or diesel fuel and there is enough tanker transport capacity to meet normal demand.

The fuel difficulties over the last few weeks were a self-inflicted injury generated by the social and mainstream media and driven by panic, and it shows how vulnerable complex modern economies can be to behaviour which turns perceived problems into real ones.
11:10 pm
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