A weekend of panic buying has left many gas stations across the U.K. dry.
on Monday, Environment Secretary George Eustice said the government had "no plans at the moment to bring in the army to actually do driving."
"A lot of people have filled up over the weekend, many people only fill up once a month," he said. "That might give us some respite to start to replenish stocks over the next few days." "We continue to work with our haulier supplier to minimize any future disruption and to ensure efficient and effective deliveries to serve our customers. We are prioritizing deliveries to sites with largest demand and seeking to minimize the duration of stock outs."'s Esso told CNBC on Monday that a number of its 200 forecourts had been impacted "in some way."
"We have good availability of fuel, and we're working really hard to ensure regular deliveries to our petrol filling stations across the UK every day," a spokesperson for supermarket and gas station operator Tesco said via email on Monday. Before the pandemic, the U.K.'s Road Haulage Association estimated that the U.K. had a shortage of more than 60,000 heavy goods vehicle drivers. At that time, around 600,000 HGV drivers were employed in the country, according to the RHA, 60,000 of whom were from EU member states. Since the pandemic, the RHA estimates that the shortage has widened to 100,000 drivers.
The exodus was exacerbated by Covid-19, according to the RHA, with many more drivers leaving the U.K. throughout the pandemic and not returning.
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