A generationThere are gaps in the supermarket shelves, and the dairy farmers insist on their own milk Sit, IKEA does not have mattresses, and the sewage treatment plant lacks important chemicals. Today, almost no industry in the UK does not complain. The reason is almost always the same: lack of people who can get from A to B. These people are usually truck drivers. According to the Road Transport Association, the UK currently lacks approximately 100,000 cars.
As often happens, this is also due to Brexit and its consequences. In addition, the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated this situation. But experts do not expect the island to solve this problem alone. “Brexit has accelerated what is happening in the UK. But I firmly believe that we will also encounter the same situation in Western Europe, just later,” said Dirk Engelhardt of the German Road Transport Association. logistics And disposal. “We warn that we will also face a supply collapse in Western Europe.”
According to Engelhardt, there has also been a shortage of 60,000 to 80,000 truck drivers in Germany-and this trend is still rising. About 30,000 drivers retire every year and only about 15,000 young people come. “The whole world needs drivers.”
“We need to have a new understanding of this profession”
The shortage has a lot to do with the fact that the work of truck drivers is becoming less and less attractive. The waiting time is long in traffic jams, it is difficult to balance family and work, and there is a very lack of suitable parking spaces, you can safely stand or shower and eat. In addition, trucks are seen as large, noisy polluters, they will not provide food for other road users, but will disturb them. “Drivers are worried about a bad image. We need to have a new understanding of this profession,” Engelhardt said.
Although the shortage of drivers in Germany is still not noticed in many places, it is already obvious in the UK when shopping in supermarkets. There are always bottlenecks in various products, and unusually large gaps appear on the shelves. The BBC interviewed a dairy farmer who was about to throw away thousands of liters of milk because they did not pick it up as usual. The Guardian reported that sewage treatment plants were unable to carry out certain processes due to lack of appropriate chemicals. If things continue like this, the first batch of supermarkets expect prices to rise-no signs of improvement are currently visible.
During the pandemic, many European drivers, such as those from Poland or Romania, left the UK and returned to their families in the home country. There are many reasons why many of them will not come back. On the one hand, since Brexit, the free movement of EU workers has become a thing of the past, requiring complicated and expensive visa procedures. But at the same time, many other European countries also need drivers, so the attractiveness of the UK is waning. New trade barriers and border controls have made the situation more difficult.
The Road Transport Association called for more lenient visa regulations for foreign workers. Dirk Engelhardt of the German Industry Association doubts whether this will solve the problem. For Germany, he advocates approval of longer trucks so that drivers with integrated sanitation facilities and better equipment can spend their rest time more independently. Otherwise, Engelhardt sees black: “If you don’t take quick countermeasures, buying hamsters like at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic may become a daily affair.”
