UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps on Sunday said if people behaved normally there won’t be queues and shortages.
His call for normalcy came as long lines of vehicles formed at petrol stations for a third day.
Motorists wait in line, some for hours, to fill up with fuel after oil firms reported a lack of drivers was causing transport problems from refineries to forecourts.
This had led some operators to ration supplies and others to close gas stations.
The fuel supply issues come on the back of warnings from the retail industry that unless the driver shortage was sorted out there would be major problems ahead of the busy festive shopping period
The situation remained bad even after Britain’s decision on Saturday to issue temporary visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers.
The UK’s Road Haulage Association (RHA) says Britain is facing a shortage of some 100,000 drivers, a result of workers leaving the industry, Brexit and the pandemic, which put a stop to driver training and testing for about a year.
Under the government’s plans, 5,000 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers would be able to come to Britain under temporary visas, while another 5,500 visas would be issued to poultry workers “to avoid any potential further pressures on the food industry”.
(Reuters)