London (AFP)

Gasoline shortages in the UK worsened over the weekend with much of the country's gas stations hit by "panic buying" as the government reportedly considering resorting to the army to temporarily fill the shortage of truck drivers.

Long queues at stations have multiplied during the weekend, particularly in large cities and in particular the capital London.

On Monday, about 30% of the giant BP's stations were affected by fuel shortages.

"One of our members received a container at noon and by the end of the afternoon it had completely disappeared" in people's cars, said Brian Madderson, an official with the PRA, an association of distributors of fuels, on the BBC.

The tabloid The Sun quotes a tearful medical assistant who had to go to three gas stations and wait a long time: "Now I'm late to see patients who rely on me for their meals and medications."

The surge in gasoline demand led the PRA to warn that up to two-thirds of its members at nearly 5,500 independent locations, out of a total of 8,000 refueling stations nationwide, were out of fuel on Sunday, " the others almost dry ".

In recent days and despite calls from the government not to panic, gas stations have been taken by storm due to stockouts which also affect the shelves of agri-food products in supermarkets.

A situation reminiscent of the 1970s when the energy crisis led to fuel rationing and a three-day work week.

A decade ago protests against high fuel prices also shut down refineries and crippled activity in the country for weeks.

- Provisional visas -

Faced with fuel shortages or sparse displays in stores, attributed to a lack of truck drivers, London finally resolved on Saturday to amend its post-Brexit immigration policy and grant up to 10,500 work visas provisional.

These three-month permits, from October to December, should compensate for a glaring shortage of truck drivers but also of personnel in key sectors of the British economy, such as poultry farming.

The Minister of Business and Energy, Kwasi Kwarteng, for his part said in a statement on Sunday that he had temporarily exempted the fuel distributor sector from competition rules so that they could give priority to areas that need it most.

On Sky News, Brian Madderson attributed the panic effect to a "leak of a confidential BP report during a government meeting" that was "aired Wednesday" and followed "by panic buying Thursday, Friday, Saturday and yesterday".

Mr. Madderson qualified the improvement that army drivers could bring: "It is not as easy as you think because truck drivers are very specialized" and tankers carry a "very flammable liquid to across the country "which requires proper loading and unloading procedures.

On bringing back European drivers who returned to their countries with the pandemic and Brexit, he argued that there were also driver shortages in mainland Europe.

He noted the problem of heavy vehicle driving license arrears which could not be passed during confinement: "there are 40,000 pending applications for heavy vehicle licenses from the British".

Mr. Madderson, however, said he hoped the problem would be partially resolved "by the end of the week."

Less optimistic, BP welcomes the government's decision to grant more temporary visas to truck drivers, but believes that "it will take time for the sector to strengthen deliveries and replenish stocks at points of sale."

In the midst of the annual conference of the opposition Labor party, Rachel Reeves, head of finance for "Labor", lambasted the Conservative government of Boris Johnson for being "asleep at the wheel" in the face of the country's supply crisis.

© 2021 AFP