Daily Archives: August 28, 2021

(Reuters) British ministers will consider easing post-Brexit immigration rules to help end a shortage of truck drivers amid mounting pressure from supermarket chains, The Times newspaper reported.

A review of the shortage occupation list, which gives employers more flexibility to hire overseas recruits, could be brought forward to tackle an estimated shortfall of 100,000 drivers, the newspaper said, citing an unnamed government source.

The review was due next year but may be fast-tracked to add heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers to the list, the report added.

The Financial Times newspaper reported earlier on Friday that ministers have told businesses to hire UK-based workers to address the countrys chronic shortage of lorry drivers.

British retailers, cafes and restaurants are struggling to cope with a shortage https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-could-face-food-shortages-due-lorry-driver-crisis-2021-06-25 of drivers and food processing staff after COVID-19.

The problem is not unique to Britain the United States and other European countries also have truck driver shortages but Brexit has made matters worse, industry groups say https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/fast-food-chain-nandos-temporarily-shuts-over-40-uk-outlets-2021-08-17.

McDonalds, KFC, bakery chain Greggs and chicken restaurant chain Nandos have all recently faced disruptions in their supplies.

Unprecedented shortages of both staff and materials are hampering Britains post-lockdown economic rebound, a closely watched economic survey showed on Monday.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)

Excerpt from:

UK mulls easing post-Brexit immigration rules to end truck driver shortage -The Times - KFGO News

A post-Brexit data-sharing agreement between the European Union and Britain that underpins cross-border businesses and services could be immediately terminated if London diverges too much from privacy standards, the European Commission has warned.

It follows an announcement of plans by the UK government to reform its data laws and reduce unnecessary barriers and burdens to sharing data with non-EU countries including the United States and South Korea.

British newspapers that were briefed on the plans reported that the reforms would involve scrapping aspects of EU data protection standards, called GDPR. However, the UK government said it intended to achieve its reforms while maintaining equivalence with the EUs data standards, in a press release.

The EUs stamp of approval of Britains data standards is vital for many Irish businesses that operate cross-Border as well as North-South healthcare provision, which rely on the seamless sending of personal data into the UK.

The European Commission announced just two months ago that it had reached so-called data adequacy decisions regarding the UK, meaning the data flows could continue as it judged British data protection standards to be essentially equivalent to those of the EU.

A European Commission spokesman said the executive would monitor very closely any developments related to UK data protection rules.

When adopting the UK adequacy decisions, the Commission was fully aware of the risk of possible further divergence of the UK system from the EU system, said spokesman Christian Wigand.

In case of problematic developments that negatively affect the level of protection found adequate, the adequacy decision can be suspended terminated or amended, at any time by the commission, he added.

This can be done immediately in case of justified urgency. So we will continue to ensure that Europeans data will be protected by strong safeguards when crossing the channel.

When the commission announced its adequacy decision in June it acknowledged concerns raised by the European Parliament, member states, and the European Data Protection Board that Britain could diverge from EU standards in the future, putting EU citizens data at risk.

If Britain signed data-sharing agreements with non-EU countries, these would have to be continually monitored to ensure that they do not undermine the level of protection of personal data provided for in the EU by exposing EU citizens data, the European Data Protection Board warned in April.

The UK government has said it hopes to make its data laws more ambitious and innovation-friendly and aims to sign data adequacy arrangements allowing for the free transfer of data with the US, Australia, Korea, Singapore, the Dubai International Finance Centre and Colombia.

EU member states have long harboured concerns about whether the UKs approach to data protection could expose EU citizens to surveillance by overseas intelligence services.

In the absence of a data adequacy decision, companies must use standard contractual clauses to send data, a contract that commits the organisation receiving the data to observing EU standards, and gives the individuals who the data relates to the ability to pursue legal complaints.

Alternatively, binding corporate rules can be used by large firms or company groups to transfer data internally and externally but either approach adds cost and complexity to businesses.

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EU warns over post-Brexit data agreement with UK - The Irish Times

I have seen an early draft of the leader of the oppositions speech to his party conference. This is the paragraph that caught my eye: Instead of talking about the things that most people care about, we talked about what we cared about most. While parents worried about childcare, getting the kids to school, balancing work and family life, we were banging on about Brexit.

Yes, that was David Camerons speech to the Conservative conference in 2006 about why his party kept losing elections, only he didnt say Brexit, he said Europe. But it is a good starting point for Keir Starmer as he writes his big speech to the Labour conference in Brighton next month.

The Labour leader is in receipt of advice from Andrew Adonis, the former cabinet minister who is now chair of the European Movement. The noble lord said this morning: It is clearer and clearer that Brexit has to be reversed, step by step, to prevent a social and economic calamity in Britain.

There will be many activists at Labour conference who agree with him, and think that Starmer ought to be more forceful in pointing out the disastrous effects that leaving the EU is already having. Lord Adonis went on: Our politicians, Labour as much as Tory, are refusing to talk about the real cause of the empty supermarket shelves Brexit. In a democracy you cant escape from the truth for long.

Starmer stands accused of being so embarrassed by his attempt as shadow Brexit secretary to stop Britain leaving the EU that he is muffling his criticism of Boris Johnsons hard Brexit now that it has happened.

He is, I think, right to be embarrassed. The Labour position at the last election, for which he was largely responsible, was absurd. It was that a Labour government would renegotiate the terms of our withdrawal from the EU and put the deal to the people in another referendum, in which Starmer would be urging the voters to reject the deal he had just negotiated and stay in the EU.

You can see why he and his shadow ministers are cautious about suggesting they want to reopen the withdrawal agreement and the trade deal, let alone to go the whole Adonis and seek to rejoin the EU. When not even the Liberal Democrats dare to exploit the large but definitely limited minority devoted to rejoining the EU, it would take a reckless Labour leader to do so.

And you can see why Starmer is reluctant even to suggest that Brexit is the real cause of empty supermarket shelves. We told you and we were right is an unattractive message to people who voted Conservative last time and whose support Labour needs next time. As someone who wore a Dont blame me, I voted Labour badge after the 1983 election, I can confirm that its persuasive power was less than zero.

But there is a more important reason Labour should avoid blaming Brexit for shortages of everything from milkshakes to medical equipment which is that its not really true. The increased checks at the border may have had a slight effect, and it may be that Brexit has made continental lorry drivers feel less welcome here, but the shortage of lorry drivers seems to be overwhelmingly a result of the disruption of the pandemic.

Many British drivers have retired, central European ones have often decided to stay local, and staff absences have slowed the issue of HGV licences. The main non-pandemic cause, which is coincidentally unique to Britain, is a change in the tax treatment of drivers who set themselves up as limited companies, further reducing the already squeezed earnings of the job.

But the main cause is the shock of migrant workers returning home and sectors of the economy shutting down because of the pandemic. As Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at Kings College London, said: It would frankly have been astonishing if this hadnt resulted in major disruption to both the supply and demand of workers in the affected sectors, and hence labour shortages.

Lorry driver shortages are a problem all over Europe and in the US. The disruption of the labour market in the US has been in some ways even greater than here because we had furlough. As Bloomberg reported drily, the pandemic has reduced the appeal of in-person employment in the US.

Portes, who is no Brexiteer, concluded that labour shortages in the UK have little to do with Brexit. Indeed, he goes further, to disagree with the Brexiteers counter-argument, which is that labour shortages are a good thing and that part of the point of leaving the EU was to push up wages, especially for the lower-paid. If we look at the actual data, rather than anecdote, we dont see much to suggest a wage explosion, he wrote. Real wages in the accommodation and food services sector are still below their pre-pandemic levels.

Portes argues, with most economists, that Brexit will damage the British economy; that it will make us poorer than we would otherwise be (although not poorer than we were before Brexit); and that it is unlikely to do much to equalise wages. But these are long-term effects, not to be confused with short-term disruption, which is almost all the result of the pandemic.

Starmer is quite right to ignore the advice of Lord Adonis, and to listen to David Cameron instead, by not banging on about Brexit. After all, Cameron did get to be prime minister, albeit in a hung parliament, which is about the best that Starmer can hope for.

More here:

Why Keir Starmer is right not to bang on about Brexit - The Independent

The UK withdrew from the European trading bloc last year after a majority of the British public voted to leave in the 2016 referendum on EU membership. Since Brexit became reality last year, the Government has signed a string of trade deals with other non-EU nations. The country is also getting used to the effects that some experts say Brexit is having on food supply chains.

One person who warned about the impact of Brexit on the UK was Donald Tusk, former President of the European Council, the EUs political wing.

The former politician spoke for the 2019 BBC documentary, Inside Europe: 10 Years of Turmoil, which charted the UKs journey out of the EU.

Speaking for the show, Mr Tusk recalled a conversation he had with then-Prime Minister David Cameron.

The pair spoke as the results of the referendum showed that 52 percent of the British public had voted to leave the EU.

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Mr Tusk said: David Cameron called me, and he informed me that he was ready to resign.

I said yes David, it would be very difficult even to imagine that a prime minister who was the leader of the Remain campaign would be just two days later the prime minister negotiating Brexit.

It was like his day of reckoning was coming, reckoning for his biggest mistake in his life.

Mr Cameron backed Remain in a bid to see off Euroscepticism among some Tory MPs and provide an answer to the Conservative Partys decades-old questions of EU membership.

He claimed that the EUs failure to grant him concessions, including on immigration, had swung the vote in favour of leaving the bloc.

Many are so-called rollover deals with nations that the UK already had agreements with when it was part of the EU.

However, the UK has also inked new deals, including a huge free-trade agreement with Australia the first the Government has negotiated from scratch since Brexit.

The agreement means British products such as Scotch whisky and cars will be cheaper to sell in Australia.

In recent weeks however, some industry bosses have claimed that Brexit has disrupted supply chains to the UK.

Some supermarkets and trade associations have warned that there could be food shortages unless the Government eases post-Brexit visa rules for EU workers.

The chairman of Tesco, the UKs biggest supermarket, has said that more HGV drivers are needed to meet a shortfall of almost 100,000.

However, the Government has so far stood firm on the situation and its will to honour the result of the Brexit vote.

A Home Office spokesperson said: The British people repeatedly voted to end free movement and take back control of our immigration system.

Employers should invest in our domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad.

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EU chiefs Brexit warning: UKs day of reckoning for biggest ever mistake - Daily Express

Related video: Nandos temporarily closes stores across UK due to supply issues

The UK and the European Union can still find sensible solutions to issues over Northern Irelands post-Brexit trading arrangements with the right political will,IrishPrime Minister Micheal Martin has said.

A positive and constructive future partnership is in everyones interests but it will only be delivered if there is a relationship of trust and a willingness to deliver on commitments entered into, Mr Martin said after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The EU had demonstrated commitment, patience and creativity in its work to implement the withdrawal agreement and the protocol, he added.

It comes as supermarkets and hauliers have issued a warning to shoppers that supply struggles could mean they face long-term higher food prices.

A shortfall of around 100,000 drivers, which has been driven by thousands of European drivers leaving during the pandemic and not returning, as well as high numbers of workers retiring, is being blamed for the trouble, hauliers told PA.

Good morning, and welcome to The Independents rolling Brexit coverage. Stay tuned as we delve into the food shortages affecting Britains fat food chains and supermarkets.

Sam Hancock26 August 2021 07:58

Britains post-Brexit supply chain crisis could cancel Christmas and continue to cause food shortages well into 2022, industry leaders have warned.

Boris Johnsons government has been urged to ease immigration rules so some EU citizens who left the UK during Brexit can return and help fill major gaps in the workforce, report Adam Forrest and Holly Bancroft.

The head of the Co-op supermarket said on Wednesday that current food shortages were the worst he had ever seen, while Icelands boss warned that supply disruption could see Christmas cancelled for some families this year.

Sam Hancock26 August 2021 08:04

Coral Rose, managing director of the Country Group foodservice group, spoke to BBC R4s Today programme this morning.

She explained how food shortages were impacting their customers, which include care homes and schools, and what was being done to try and remedy the situation.

We have two problems: supply of products into our warehouses and supply from our warehouses to customers, Coral Rose, managing director of the Country Group foodservice group, told BBC R4s Today programme earlier. When we are having trouble getting the supply of a particular product, well then speak to someone else and try and source it from elsewhere. So, we might not be able to get the customer the brand they like but we do everything to ensure they can supply their customers.

It isnt easy, though, Ms Rose warned. Were working incredibly hard and we have to ensure, for example, that for every substituted product, there is no change to allergens , because thats very important to take note of. So were trying our very best.

She added: Were taking drastic action, such as buying smaller delivery vehicles to ensure drivers dont need special HGV licenses, because there is going to be increased pressure as schools reopen and people continue to holiday in the UK.

Asked if this was bad for the environment, due to the risk of increasing the number of cars on the road, Ms Rose admitted it wasnt the ideal situation but said it was all we can do to service our clients properly.

Sam Hancock26 August 2021 08:12

Ministers are under pressure to relax post-Brexit migration rules to unblock Britains worst supply-chain crisis since the 1970s, with business leaders warning that continued disruption could ruin Christmas, according to a report.

Industry bosses said urgent changes to the visa system were required as retailers struggle to keep shelves stocked, and restaurants run out of food and drink in the meltdown triggered by Covid and Brexit, according to The Guardian.

Estimates put the shortage of workers needed to drive lorries, handle goods in warehouses and pick fruit and vegetables at hundreds of thousands. Company bosses and trade groups are now warning that if ministers refuse to allow more EU workers into the UK, they risk a deeper crisis this winter.

An analysis of ONS labour market figures by the newspaper confirms the extent of the fall in eastern Europeans in the UK workforce since the start of the pandemic, and after Britain left the EU earlier this year.

The number of Romanian and Bulgarian workers in the UK, who would typically fill food production roles, has plunged by almost 90,000 since the end of 2019, the investigation found. Employees from eight eastern European countries, including Poland and the Czech Republic, have fallen by more than 100,000, or 12 per cent too.

Meanwhile, industry sources told the paper that in addition to lorry driver shortages, there was a lack of tens of thousands of seasonal agricultural workers, and 14,000 needed in meat-processing plants.

Supermarkets are concerned about the demands expected from schools reopening and the holiday season

(PA Wire)

Sam Hancock26 August 2021 08:31

Social media users have begun reacting to the news that Brexit-caused food shortages are taking Britain by storm.

Having worked in food logistics until recently, I can assure you that the primary reason for acute driver shortage is that drivers from the EU have returned home due to poorer / exchange post referendum, one man wrote.

Another said the government was trying to blame the pandemic for what was clearly a Brexit issue.

Elsewhere, someone criticised ministers for attempting to take our country back, which we hadnt lost in the first place via the divorce deal.

Sam Hancock26 August 2021 08:35

While the country is hardly on the brink of famine, it is clear that the UK has a problem getting food to where it needs to be and the situation looks set to worsen.

Icelands boss is among those to have raised the prospect of empty supermarket shelves at Christmas thanks to an ongoing shortage of lorry drivers, writes Ben Chapman.

However, the causes of empty shelves are also more complicated than just a shortage of lorry drivers, Ed Sweeney, professor of logistics at Aston Business School, told The Independent.

Sam Hancock26 August 2021 09:01

The government will scrap pointless web cookie requests as part of a move to replace the EUs data laws with a new post-Brexit regime, a Cabinet minister has said.

Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, unveiled a string of new measures designed to harness the power of data to drive growth and create jobs.

The move will see large parts of the EUs General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) scrapped in a bid to cut down on red tape and deliver a so-called Brexit dividend.

Mr Dowden told The Telegraph he planned to get rid of pointless bureaucracy such as cookie requests while also upholding privacy.

Theres an opportunity for us to set world-leading, gold standard data regulation which protects privacy, but does so in as light touch a way as possible, he said.

A consultation into the future of the UKs data regime will be launched in the coming weeks.

As part of the reforms, the government also named New Zealand privacy commissioner John Edwards as its preferred candidate to lead the UK data watchdog.

Sam Hancock26 August 2021 09:42

It isnt just Greggs experiencing shortages. McDonalds have not been able to put a time frame on when their signature milkshakes will be back on the menu, but simply said they were working to return them as soon as possible.

The fast-food chain has run out of milkshakes and bottled drinks in all its 1,250 British outlets after being hit by supply chain shortages, reports Holly Bancroft.

A spokesperson for the retailer told The Independent in a statement: We are currently experiencing some supply chain issues, impacting the availability of a small number of products. Bottled drinks and milkshakes are temporarily unavailable in restaurants across England, Scotland and Wales.

Read the full piece here:

Sam Hancock26 August 2021 09:55

Channel 4s Ciaran Jenkins reports the following:

Sam Hancock26 August 2021 10:10

Sam Hancock26 August 2021 10:22

Read the original here:

Brexit news: Irish PM says still possible to find sensible solutions to NI Protocol issues - The Independent

The French president visited Ireland on his first visit to the country earlier this week.Discussions focused on Dublins refusal to sign up to a global 15 percent corporation tax rate.

This is being recommended by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as the core of a major new tax treaty.

Irelands ultra-low corporation tax rate, of 12.5 percent, has attracted many multi-national giants to base their headquarters in the country.

France, which has a 30 percent corporation tax rate, is a big supporter of the new treaty.

Paris fears the low corporation tax rate in Ireland is luring away American investment.

According to German publication Technik, Mr Macron planned to court the Irish by pointing out the hard-line he took on Britain during Brexit negotiations.

EU leaders refused to accept any hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Instead there is now a trade border down the Irish Sea, separating Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

This has infuriated unionists in the province, who argue it undermines British sovereignty.

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Taoiseach [Irish prime minister] and the Treasury Department have signalled to us that they are ready to work on this and look into the details of the deal.

Overall, there is talk of taxation in Irish business circles.

However, speaking to Politico, an Irish government source said the country would continue defending its 12.5 percent tax rate.

They added: We cannot prevent other jurisdictions from levying additional corporate taxes on profits above the Irish state rate of 12.5 percent.

During his visit Mr Macron also toured Trinity College Dublin, the Guinness Foundation and met Irish president Michael Higgins.

In July G20 finance ministers approved a plan to create a minimum global corporation tax of 15 percent.

It has since been backed by more than 130 countries, including the UK.

French finance minister Bruno Le Maire described the move as a victory.

He added: We are putting an end to tax optimisation and the digital giants will finally pay their fair share of tax. This is the biggest tax revolution in a century.

US treasury secretary Janet Yellen commented: The world is ready to end the global race to the bottom on corporate taxation.

The world should now move quickly to finalise the deal.

Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg.

Continued here:

Emmanuel Macron accused of using 'Brexit hatred' to twist Ireland's arm in tax dispute - Daily Express

Across Britain, a slow-burning problem has ignited into a supply chain crisis in recent weeks as restaurants, supermarkets and food manufacturers warned customers that some popular products may be temporarily unavailable because of a shortage of truck drivers.

McDonalds milkshakes, Nandos chicken, Haribo sweets and supermarket milk are among the items that have become scarce in Britain over the summer. But it goes far beyond food: Nearly every industry is complaining about delivery problems. And already organizations are warning that logistics issues could upend the arrival of Christmas toys and the trimmings crucial to family holiday meals.

A long-running shortage of truck drivers has been exacerbated by a post-Brexit exodus of European Union workers. Adding to the problem are disruptions to training for new drivers because of the pandemic. And for years, the trucking industry has struggled to attract new workers to a job that has traditionally been low paid and required long, grueling hours.

Ninety-five percent of everything we get in Britain comes on the back of a truck, said Rod McKenzie, the director of policy at Road Haulage Association, which represents the British road transport industry, and estimates that there is a shortfall of 100,000 drivers. So if there are not enough trucks to go around and weve got reports of big companies with a hundred trucks parked up at any one time there simply is less stuff being delivered.

Earlier in the summer, the German candy company Haribo said it was struggling to get its sweets into British shops. Arla, a large dairy producer, said it was having to skip up to a quarter of its deliveries. Last week, Nandos, the popular restaurant chain, had to close about 50 of its restaurants because of a shortage of its famed peri-peri chicken. This week, Greggs, a grab-and-go coffee and lunch cafe, and Costa, a coffee chain, were the latest to suffer product shortages because of supply chain disruptions.

The delivery problems are forcing other companies to triage what they sell. McDonalds took milkshakes and bottled drinks off the menu this week, allowing it to focus on serving burgers and fries.

British shoppers should expect to see even more companies reduce their product options and prioritize their best-selling items, Mr. McKenzie said.

In some cases, the disruption has been worsened by staff shortages. A major British poultry producer, 2 Sisters Food Group, said Brexit had contributed to a 15 percent reduction in its work force this year. The British Meat Processors Association recently warned that companies were six weeks behind their Christmas production schedules, almost guaranteeing shortages of popular items over the holidays.

The group also said its problems had been made more severe by retailers poaching their truck drivers with pay bonuses.

Iceland, a large supermarket chain, is raising the alarm about Christmas. It said retailers should be building up their inventory beginning in September, but instead, shelves are now emptying out. Richard Walker, the managing director, said the company was missing 100 full-time drivers.

That is impacting the food supply chain on a daily basis, Mr. Walker told the BBC. Weve had deliveries canceled for the first time since the pandemic began about 30 to 40 deliveries a day.

The United States also faces a shortage of truck drivers; the crisis is similar in that its been years in the making, as trucking companies have failed to attract younger workers. In Britain, the average age of a truck driver is nearly 50. Six years ago, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport said that just 2 percent of drivers were under the age of 25 and that by 2022, the industry would need 1.2 million more workers.

Daily Business Briefing

Aug. 27, 2021, 8:54 p.m. ET

Then, after the 2016 Brexit referendum, the value of the British pound plummeted, making it less lucrative for continental Europeans truck drivers included to work in Britain, prompting some to return to their home countries. That trend was exacerbated by the pandemic, when many wanted to be closer to their families.

When Britain took the final step of leaving the European Union at the end of last year, it meant drivers from continental Europe could no longer be employed at short notice and with ease in Britain.

Until December, there was never going to be a labor shortage because, as soon as there was a sign of one, a company could talk to their agency in Poland or elsewhere and get them to send some people over, said David Henig, a trade expert at the European Center for International Political Economy, a research institute.

Similarly, Brexit has complicated the job for British drivers who make international journeys because of the new paperwork needed to take loads to countries including France, the Netherlands and Ireland.

And more roadblocks are coming when Britain phases in the introduction of checks on foods and other goods coming into the country from continental Europe later in the year (so far, these checks have been performed only on items exported to the European Union).

The haulage and logistics industries in Britain have pleaded with the government to ease restrictions on visas for E.U. drivers. Logistics U.K., a trade group, is asking the government to create 10,000 seasonal visas (similar to a program for farm workers) for drivers.

To ease the shortage, the government has increased the number of hours drivers can work each day, and it has proposed initiatives to recruit new drivers, but it has resisted pressure to ease visa rules for European truck drivers.

I dont think the government wants to go there: if they give concessions on lorry drivers, there are other requests that will follow, Mr. Henig said. Nor is there significant political pressure to concede because the opposition Labour Party, which is trying to woo back pro-Brexit voters, is cautious of criticizing Britains withdrawal from the European Union.

Efforts to fill those jobs with new British drivers have been stymied because over much of the last year, pandemic lockdowns prevented driving exams from taking place. The Road Haulage Association estimates that as many as 40,000 tests were not conducted. Training a new driver takes up to six months.

Employers have responded by raising pay and offering signing bonuses. Tesco, Britains largest supermarket chain, is offering 1,000 bonuses to drivers who join before the end of September and further pay increases for six more months.

Its definitely an undervalued profession, said Alex Veitch, the general manager of public policy at Logistics U.K., in both pay and the appreciation for its crucial role in supplying necessities and the pressure of performing the job safely. Thats bound to change.

Working conditions, too, have been the focus of complaints among drivers. The job involves long, sometimes lonely hours, andsafe parking spaces and rest stops for truckers can be hard to find. The challenges of truckers was stark last year when thousands of drivers in southern England spent Christmas camping in the front of their trucks after the French government closed the border in a vain attempt to stop the further spread of the coronavirus. It then took days to clear the backlog.

Mr. McKenzie at the Road Haulage Association joined others in predicting the problems would still disrupting deliveries come Christmas. The problem isnt showing signs of abating.

Its getting worse, Mr. McKenzie said. No doubt, no question. Its getting worse week on week.

Read more:

Chicken, Milkshakes, Candy: Scarce in Britains Truck Driver Shortage - The New York Times