Bristol: Man pushes car to Brislington petrol station as panic-buying continues
Video credit: Ben Birchall/PA
A man has been spotted pushing a vehicle into a petrol station in Bristol as panic-buying across the West Country continues.
Some garages are experiencing a shortage of supply caused by issues with transporting fuel from distribution terminals to forecourts, which is worsening due to panic buying.
The issue stems from a lack of HGV drivers - something the government is looking to tackle, by potentially relaxing visa rules to allow more foreign workers into the country.
Though unconfirmed, ministers have stressed any fix would be "strictly time limited".
Automotive expert at the University of Bath Andrew Graves has criticised the government's handling of the driver shortages.
He told ITV News: "In the short term they've got to get some drivers. And they've got to get some drivers whether they use military drivers, which is pretty doubtful I would think because not many people in the military are trained to drive gasoline petrol tankers.
"The second thing they have to do is bring some drivers back from Europe. We've had 14,000 or 15,000 drivers from Europe who've disappeared.
"We have a crisis on our hands and people are panicking because they are running out of fuel."
On Saturday there were further scenes of queuing vehicles across the region prompting garages to take matters into their own hands.
AA boss Edmund King said: "Some petrol stations are rationing the amount of fuel and only allowing £30 to be purchased and that means it does go further so that essential workers can get fuel."
He added: "Some garages are giving priority to essential workers, some delivery vehicles have been given priority."
What action is the government taking?
It's expected a temporary visa scheme will be brought in to help fix the lorry driver shortage, allowing drivers from overseas to come and work in the UK.
With an announcement expected over the weekend, Downing Street sources said the scheme, which reports suggest will temporarily lift visa restrictions for foreign drivers, is to be a “short-term solution” to ease pressure on deliveries in the run-up to Christmas.
The Financial Times and the Telegraph reported up to 5,000 temporary visas could be granted for HGV drivers, while the FT also said a similar number would be approved for food processing workers, especially in the poultry industry.
And although Downing Street would not confirm whether any decisions had been made, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps earlier promised to “move heaven and earth” to get the situation solved.
On Friday 24 September, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “We have ample fuel stocks in this country and the public should be reassured there are no shortages.
“But like countries around the world we are suffering from a temporary Covid-related shortage of drivers needed to move supplies around the country.“
"We’re looking at temporary measures to avoid any immediate problems, but any measures we introduce will be very strictly time-limited.
“We are moving to a high-wage, high-skilled economy and businesses will need to adapt with more investment in recruitment and training to provide long-term resilience.”
Labour has said it would back the introduction of short term visas for foreign lorry drivers but said the government has already been too slow to react.