London, UK: The fuel shortage triggered by a tanker driver shortage is still affecting the southeast with Asda the latest business to report problems.
Asda has cancelled home deliveries today in parts of Kent citing lack of fuel for its vans. Other supermarkts in the region are believed to be in a similar position.
About 200 military personnel – half of them drivers – are being deployed as part of Operation Escalin in an effort to increase the number of tanker drivers.
Most of the troops, who have been on standby since last week, are working in London and the southeast, where the worst shortages remain.
While London and the southeast remain hardest hit, the Petrol Retailers Association said problems were “virtually at an end” in Scotland, the North and the Midlands, where only 6% of filling stations were empty on Sunday.
In London and the South East, 22% of filling stations were dry, and 60% had both grades of fuel available.
Overall, 17% of petrol stations were empty in the UK on Sunday, while 67% had both grades of fuel available, the group said.
Operation Escalin was originally drawn up in preparation for possible fuel shortages following Britain’s final withdrawal from the EU single market at the start of the year.
The government has said 300 fuel tanker drivers will be able to come to the UK from overseas “immediately” under a bespoke visa which will last until March.
Some 4,700 other visas intended for foreign food haulage drivers will be extended beyond the three months initially announced and will last from late October to the end of February.
There have also been calls for the visa programme to be extended to HGV drivers in all sectors of the retail industry.
