Poor pay and conditions for HGV drivers and the loss of many thousands of EU workers are plunging the UKs supply chain into crisis
Gaps on supermarket shelves. Fast food outlets pulling milkshakes and bottled drinks from their menus. Restaurants running out of chicken and closing. Empty vending machines. Online grocery orders full of substitutions. Fruit and vegetables rotting in the fields.
These are just some of the most visible signs of Britain’s deepening supply chain crisis, which has seen stocks in shops and warehouses slump to their lowest levels since the Confederation of British Industry began surveying in 1983.
It has led to dire warnings that the UK’s food system, which has been hit hardest by delivery delays and labour shortages, is in danger of reaching breaking point and may not be able to meet Christmas demand.
Customers may have only started noticing this crisis in recent weeks but it has been building for months, with businesses, road hauliers and transport unions telling ministers at the start of the summer that a shortage of lorry drivers could lead to empty shelves.
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The government refuses to add HGV drivers to the list of essential jobs even on a temporary basis. It has said businesses should invest in the local workforce however nobody wants to work a job with stagant wages despite the shortage and no respect, not even the 75,000-85,000 HGV licence holders according to this article who are not employed in the business.
Last year around this time Johnson was promising a return to normal in time for Christmas so that families could spent it together as normal but the lockdown did little to tame the virus and the advice just before Christmas was to make it short and with fewer visitors. This year he hasn't made the same mistake but has yet to tell the populace that even if families can spend it together they'll have very little in the way of festive fare to enjoy.
