UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has told MPs in Westminster that there will be delivery delays this Christmas because of a 90,000 HGV driver shortfall. The haulage industry estimates the shortage of drivers to be 100,000.
The UK government is scrambling to increase the number of people who can become HGV drivers in the face of the mounting supply chain pressures. New customs controls on EU imports into the UK will also be delayed , just weeks before they were due to be implemented. Is it all Brexit fall-out? To be sure the pandemic has had deleterious effects and the knock on problems have perhaps magnified the Brexit quandaries.
Less choice on supermarket and shop shelves is perhaps here to stay according to Ian Wright, head of the Food and Drink Federation in the UK.
Ireland meanwhile has an estimated shortage of 10,000 drivers - the same problems that are in the UK exist for Ireland and most of Europe too.
