| Title | British Petrol Stations Run Out of Fuel as Motorists Panic Buy Amid Truck-Driver Shortage | |
| Date | Monday September 27 2021, @11:23AM | |
| Author | martyb | |
| Topic | ||
| from the forget-toillet-paper dept. | ||
British petrol stations run out of fuel as motorists panic buy amid truck-driver shortage - ABC News:
Thousands of British petrol stations ran dry on Sunday (local time), as motorists scrambled to fill up amid a supply disruption due to a nationwide shortage of truck drivers.
[...] BP said nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel.
"With the intense demand seen over the past two days, we estimate that around 30 per cent of sites in this network do not currently have either of the main grades of fuel," BP, which operates 1,200 sites in Britain, said in statement.
Lines of vehicles formed at petrol stations for a third day running as motorists waited, some for hours, to fill up with fuel after oil firms reported a lack of drivers was causing transport problems.
Some operators had to ration supplies and others closed petrol stations altogether.
The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents almost 5,500 independent outlets, said about two-thirds of its members were reporting that they had sold out their fuel, with the rest "partly dry and running out soon".
[...] The haulage industry says the UK is short tens of thousands of truckers, due to a perfect storm of factors including the coronavirus pandemic, an aging workforce and an exodus of foreign workers following Britain's Brexit departure from the European Union last year.
Several countries, including the United States and Germany, also are experiencing a shortage of truck drivers.
But the problem has been especially visible in Britain, where it has contributed to empty supermarket shelves and shuttered gas pumps.
[...] The government said it would issue 5,000 three-month visas for truck drivers starting in October, and another 5,500 for poultry workers.
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printed from SoylentNews, British Petrol Stations Run Out of Fuel as Motorists Panic Buy Amid Truck-Driver Shortage on 2024-04-18 06:51:34