UK EASES FOREIGN TRUCKER RULES TO TACKLE SUPPLY CHAIN CRISIS

Sun 17 October 2021:

In an effort to ease a supply chain issue before Christmas, Britain announced on Friday that it was loosening regulations on how many deliveries foreign lorry drivers can make.

Drivers from the European Union are now limited to two pick-ups and drop-offs within seven days of their arrival in the United Kingdom.

They will be permitted to take as many trips as they like during a two-week period under the new guidelines, which the government intends to implement before Christmas.

“That’s the equivalent of adding thousands of extra lorry drivers to the road…, it’ll come in towards the end of the year,” transport minister Grant Shapps told Sky News.

Global bottlenecks caused by reopenings from coronavirus lockdowns and foreign workers leaving Britain after Brexit have caused an acute shortage of lorry drivers, leading to supply chain issues across the country.

“This economy is growing the fastest of all those in the G7 economies, which means that the pressures are of course very real, but people will be able to get things for Christmas,” he promised.

Because of the supply chain issue, the British Ports Authority warned on Wednesday that the world’s largest container ports will stay blocked for six to nine months.

The bleak forecast came only one day after Danish shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk announced that, due to a traffic backlog, it has begun diverting traffic away from Britain’s busiest container port, Felixstowe, in eastern England.

“When I talk to ports they’re saying ‘yes, it is busy, it’s a globally busy picture’, but if you compare us to many ports around the world, we need to keep this in proportion — things are flowing,” said Shapps.

Following fears that up to 150,000 pigs could be destroyed due to a labor shortage in the meat processing business, the government said on Thursday that it will issue 800 temporary visas for international butchers.

Like agriculture, which has had labor shortages, the sector was primarily depended on EU employees, but has been harmed by the EU’s decision to curtail free movement.

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