There is strong public support for a relaxation of immigration rules to tackle the HGV driver shortage crisis, and other labour shortages, according to the Road Haulage Association.
The RHA says it is continuing to call for truck drivers to be included on the Shortage Occupation List as a short-term measure to ease the pressure on the UK supply chain while a UK-based workforce is trained up.
“This featured on the 12-point action plan we submitted to government earlier this year, but has yet to be acted on. A poll for PoliticsHome shows that 47 percent of respondents support a relaxation of rules for professional drivers coming to work from the EU, while 21% opposed it. Further, 56% said that they supported adding HGV drivers to the Shortage Occupation List, compared to 11% who oppose it.”
The independent survey of 2,000 people was carried out by Redfield & Wilton Strategies between 18-19 August. 61% of respondents who had read or heard about it — 61% — said they were concerned by it.
These results came as McDonald’s confirmed they were unable to supply bottled drinks and milkshakes in any of the GB branches, as they were unable to get enough truck drivers to secure the supply.
Nando’s recently closed 50 branches as they were unable to get chicken delivered to their restaurants. These outages of critical products come as supermarkets across Britain are affected by empty shelves.
RHA managing director Rod McKenzie told Channel 4 News that these outages will continue, and will get worse, until government takes action to bring the HGV driver shortage crisis to an end.
