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* BP closes some petrol stations
* Britain to boost HGV driver testing
* Hauliers: there is no quick fix
(Recasts)
By Sarah Young, Victor Jack and Kate Holton
LONDON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Britain on Friday vowed to do
whatever it takes to resolve a trucker shortage that has closed
petrol stations and strained supermarket supply chains to
breaking point but the haulage industry cautioned that there
were no quick fixes.
Just as the world's fifth largest economy emerges from the
COVID-19 pandemic, a spike in European wholesale natural gas
prices and a post-Brexit shortage of truck drivers has closed
some petrol stations and raised fears of a food supply crunch.
BP temporarily closed some of its 1,200 UK petrol
stations due to a lack of both unleaded and diesel grades, which
it blamed on driver shortages. ExxonMobil's Esso said a
small number of its 200 Tesco Alliance retail sites had also
been impacted.
For months supermarkets and farmers have warned that a
shortage of truck drivers was straining supply chains to
breaking point - making it harder to get goods to market.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said there was a global
shortage of truckers after COVID halted lorry driver testing so
Britain was doubling the number of tests. Asked if the
government would ease visa rules, he said the government would
look at all options.
"We'll do whatever it takes," Shapps told Sky News. "We'll
move heaven and earth to do whatever we can to make sure that
shortages are alleviated with HGV drivers."
"We should see it smooth out fairly quickly," Shapps said.
But hauliers and logistics companies cautioned that there
were no quick fixes and that any change to testing or visas
would likely be too late to alleviate the pre-Christmas
shortages as retailers stockpile months ahead.
TRUCKER VISAS?
Such is the strain that McDonald's had to take
milkshakes and bottled drinks off the menu at its British
restaurants in August and chicken chain Nando's ran out of
chicken as they battled the supply chain issues that have hit
businesses across the economy.
Suppliers have warned that there could be more shortages of
petrol because of a lack of drivers to transport fuel from
refineries to retail outlets.
The trucking industry body, the Road Haulage Association,
has called on the government to allow short-term visas for
international drivers to enter Britain and fill the gap, while
British drivers are being trained for the future.
"It's an enormous challenge," Rod McKenzie, head of policy
at the RHA, told Reuters. In the short-term he said
international drivers could help, even if it may be too late to
help Christmas, and in the longer term the industry needed
better pay and conditions to attract workers.
"It's a tough job. We the British do not help truckers in
the way that Europeans and Americans do by giving them decent
facilities," he said.
The British haulage industry says it currently needs around
100,000 more drivers after some 25,000 returned to Europe before
Brexit and the pandemic halted the qualification process for new
workers.
Shapps said COVID-19 exacerbated the problem and that
Britain was unable to test 40,000 drivers during lockdowns.
"It's a bit of a global problem so it's not immediately
obvious that opening up visas would actually resolve the problem
but we'll move heaven and earth on this," he told Times Radio.
(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Toby Chopra)
