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โWeโre experiencing some gas provide points at a few of our retail websites within the UK and sadly have due to this fact seen a handful of web sites briefly shut because of an absence of each unleaded and diesel grades,โ the corporate mentioned in a press release shared with CNN Enterprise on Thursday.
BP declined to touch upon what number of gasoline stations can be affected, however an individual acquainted with the state of affairs mentioned that โtensโ of web sites have been experiencing gas shortages.
That is the second time in as many months that BP has needed to briefly shutter some UK areas due to issues distributing gas because of an absence of truck drivers. In line with the Highway Haulage Affiliation, the UK is brief round 100,000 truck drivers, 20,000 of whom have been EU nationals that left the nation after Brexit.
Employee shortages are a rising drawback in Britain, which had a file 1 million job vacancies between June and August, based on the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics.
The UK authorities has introduced some measures to extend the variety of driving checks for truck drivers. However a spokesperson for the federal government mentioned final month that โa lot of the optionsโ will likely be pushed by {industry}.
โWe wish to see employers make long run investments within the UK home workforce as a substitute of counting on labor from overseas and our Plan for Jobs helps folks throughout the nation retrain, construct new expertise and get again into work,โ the spokesperson mentioned.
Nevertheless, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps didnโt rule out issuing short-term visas to EU drivers on Friday.
โI will take a look at the whole lot and weโll transfer heaven and earth to do no matter we are able to to guarantee that shortages are alleviated with HGV [Heavy Goods Vehicle] drivers,โ he instructed Sky Information in an interview.
It isnโt simply truck drivers. The meals and farming sector estimates that there are 500,000 vacancies throughout the {industry}, which is resulting in meals waste as a result of there are inadequate staff to select, pack, course of and transport contemporary produce.
Teams representing the meals and farming sector on Wednesday referred to as on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to implement a โCovid Restoration Visaโ to alleviate what they described as โcrippling labor shortages throughout the availability chain.โ
โ Charles Riley and Lauren Gunn contributed reporting.
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