Brexit Impact On The Driver Crisis
The current driver crisis is evident in many aspects of our everyday lives right now, but the government seems to be at odds with transport organisations over the impact Brexit may have had on the situation.
The ongoing issue is continuing to disrupt supply lines throughout the UK. Many food and drink products have been in short supply over recent weeks and now fuel is being delayed getting to pumps.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has now reportedly claimed that Brexit is not the cause of the driver shortage, as the crisis continues to disrupt UK logistics.
The minister has even told Sky News: “I have seen people point to Brexit as the culprit here when in fact they are wrong”.
The claim comes in contrast to the views of many major transport associations, including the Road Haulage Association (RHA).
Backed my many leading supply chain bodies, the RHA have been lobbying government to allow temporary visas for foreign nationals, in a similar vein to the rules applied to the farm and fruit industries.
An estimated 20,000 foreign drivers were lost to the UK during this year’s Brexit transition, and so far the government have been quick to dismiss the temporary visa option.
Shapps also implies Brexit has helped the government’s plan to fix the situation, going on to say “because of Brexit I have been able to change the law and alter the way our driving tests operate in a way that I could not have done if we were still part of the EU”.
This month, the government announced they were working on plans to reduce the HGV test process to enable 20,000 more drivers to qualify per year.
However, transport organisations feel this will not aid the current crisis in the short term, as based on a reported shortfall of 100,000 drivers, this solution will take years to come to fruition.
Meanwhile, the problem continues to disrupt collections and deliveries throughout the UK, especially container transport. The Atlantic Pacific team are continuing to utilising the advantages afforded by our own in-group container transport business to provide solutions.
As ever, Atlantic Pacific continue to work diligently to mitigate supply chain disruption during these extremely difficult times. Should you require further information on the above, then please do not hesitate to contact us.
