Britain’s gasoline crisis continues: Johnson plans to deploy army for refueling
“Operation Escalin” is the name of the crisis plan Boris Johnson is considering today. Johnson has called on key members of his government to consider deploying several hundred troops to supply the exhausted gas pumps.
In addition to BP, Shell is also seeing gasoline stocks at its service stations decrease. The Gasoline Retailers Association reports that 50 to 90 percent of its 5,500 stations are sold out.
There has been a gasoline rush in Britain for several days now. There are long lines in front of gas stations with motorists who want to quickly fill their fuel tank or canister, before it becomes impossible. The reason behind the rush is not an actual fuel shortage, but a distribution problem. Due to Brexit, many truck drivers have left the country, making supplies difficult. The British Transport Association specifies that there are no less than 100,000 positions to be filled.
This is reason enough for Boris Johnson to issue 5,000 temporary emergency visas to European truck drivers. According to the transport sector, this is very little. FNV representative Edwin Attima told the BBC today that he did not expect to bite many truckers. According to the FNV member, working conditions in Britain are very bad for this.
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Meanwhile, the UK government is doing everything in its power to avoid panic. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps called on British motorists this weekend to be “reasonable”. “It’s not that we don’t have gasoline in the country,” the minister said. Sky News. “The most important thing is that people refuel as they normally do. Then there are no queues and no pump shortage.
At the moment, the British are not really listening to this message. Reason why Johnson is now considering deploying the military. The military is currently being deployed to speed up the training of people to become truck drivers.
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