Friday October 15, 2021
Lack of truck drivers
Great Britain wants to relax working rules
There is a chronic shortage of freight forwarders in England. The country now wants to counteract this with the help of simplified delivery rules for foreign workers. However, the project is receiving criticism from many sides: is the kingdom sabotaging state-owned companies?
In the fight against the blatant shortage of truck drivers, the British government wants to relax the working rules for foreign workers and expand so-called cabotage. In the future, foreign freight forwarders in Great Britain will be allowed to pick up and unload goods within two weeks, as Transport Minister Grant Shapps announced on Friday. “That’s about 1,000 additional truck drivers on the roads, but we don’t have to issue visas to do that,” Shapps told Sky News.
So far, only two domestic stops per week are allowed. Both the British freight forwarders association RHA and the European trade union FNV reacted indignantly. RHA manager Rod McKenzie called the idea populist. “The government wants to save Christmas and wants it to be seen as a Christmas saver,” McKenzie told BBC Radio 4. But in return, British entrepreneurs would be weakened. “We don’t want cabotage to sabotage our industry,” McKenzie said.
Edwin Atema from FNV, which represents truck drivers in the EU, told the broadcaster that with the move the government legalized the exploitation of truckers. “Lifting the cabotage rules will not help, it will only pour more fuel into the fire of an industry that is already broken,” said Atema. According to the RHA, there is a shortage of around 100,000 truck drivers in Great Britain. There are many reasons: As in Germany, the jobs are usually poorly paid, but exhausting. The infrastructure is bad, many young people and many women see no incentives.
In Great Britain, however, a further complicating factor is that new, strict Brexit immigration rules are making the influx of skilled workers more difficult. The British government insists that it wants to stop the unchecked immigration of cheap workers and build a high-wage country. However, under the impression of empty supermarket shelves and petrol stations as well as container jams at ports, the government promised up to 5,000 work visas for foreign drivers.