London (AFP)
Gasoline shortages in the UK are due to "outright panic buying," the chairman of the Association of British Petrol Stations (PRA) told the BBC on Monday, while according to the report local press, the government plans to use the army to deliver fuel.
"One of our members received a container at noon and by the end of the afternoon it was totally missing" in people's cars, added Brian Madderson, a PRA official.
Stations were mainly out of gasoline in urban areas of the country while Northern Ireland seemed so far spared from the problem, he detailed.
The surge in gasoline demand led the PRA to warn that up to two-thirds of its members at nearly 5,500 independent sites 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.
Faced with worsening shortages, mainly due to a lack of truck drivers, London finally resolved on Saturday to amend its post-Brexit immigration policy and grant up to 10,500 temporary work visas.
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.
According to the British press, the government is studying the possibility of calling on the army to alleviate these shortages in the short term.
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 can deliver priority to areas that have it. most needed.
© 2021 AFP