OPINION: The post-Brexit shortage of truck drivers has led to chaos throughout supply chains in everything from food to fuel, which will probably lead to price increases, writes Shannon Ebrahim.
Brexit has made it particularly difficult for the UK to hire workers from the EU, and now the country finds itself in dire straits with a labour shortage in sectors across the country from the trucking industry to care homes, the National Health System, agriculture, food processing, fast food, construction, and hospitality. There is no one in the UK who has not been affected by the shortage of workers.
But even more devastating this week has been nationwide panic buying due to the shortage of truck drivers, resulting in up to 90% of petrol stations running out of fuel, and many being forced to close. This will certainly have devastating effects on the UK’s economy, at least in the short term. The business sector had been warning for months about the serious consequences for the economy of labour shortages, and the trucking industry was consistently warning that the logistics industry was stretched to breaking point.
The plan had supposedly made provision for hundreds of military personnel to be making fuel deliveries by driving a reserve fleet of 80 tankers. But now that implementation of such a plan is urgent, it is clear that it could take weeks to mobilise the requisite number of soldiers. What was also not factored into the planning was the fact that driving fuel tankers would require specialised training and safety qualifications, no matter who was brought in.
The question will be whether Britain will be able to entice Eastern European workers, particularly truck drivers, to fill the labour gap created by Brexit.