Business & Economy

BP closes UK gas stations due to shortage of truck drivers

London, Sep 23 (EFE) – British oil company BP said Thursday that it has “temporarily” closed some service stations in the United Kingdom because of a lack of supply of both gasoline and diesel due to the shortage of truck drivers.

“We are experiencing some fuel supply issues at some of our retail sites in the UK and unfortunately have therefore seen a handful of sites temporarily close due to a lack of both unleaded and diesel grades,” a BP spokesman told Efe.

“These have been caused by some delays in the supply chain which has been impacted by the industry-wide driver shortages across the UK,” he added.

The company said it is in contact with its transportation provider in order to minimize disruptions and ensure efficient and effective deliveries to its network of stations.

The post-Brexit European labor shortage in the UK, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, has led to a crisis in the British labor market, which at the end of August accounted for over one million unfilled jobs.

The British Road Haulage Association (RHA) estimates that there is a shortage of 100,000 truck drivers, a scenario that has hit supply chains in most of the country’s industrial sectors.

BP’s head of UK commercial operations, Hanna Hofer, told ITV channel the situation is very bad and stressed that the government must understand the urgency of the situation.

Hofer said that the oil company has two-thirds of its normal levels of reserves and that these are decreasing rapidly. EFE

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