London, UK: The Road Haulage Association has branded today “Disaster Day – instead of “Freedom Day” – due to the “pingdemic” which is making the driver shortage crisis even worse and threatening supply chains.
RHA policy director Rod McKenzie told the Financial Times that supply chains could face chaos as the industry was already short of 100,000 drivers and the “pingdemic” – where anyone “pinged” by the NHS Track and Trace phone app has to self isolate for 10 days – was making the situation even worse.
He said that the association was calling on transport minister, Charlotte Vere to “let fully vaccinated logistics staff back to work if healthy instead of self-isolating – this is a low-risk measure to keep people working”.
The RHA’s policy director for Scotland and Northern Ireland, Martin Reid, has also written to Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon to let fully vaccinated logistics staff come back to work with negative lateral flow results if they have been told to self-isolate.
The RHA argues that drivers spend the greatest proportion of their day alone in their cabs and only 0.02% test positive for Covid, according to the Department for Transport.
Reid’s letter said: “I am sure you are aware that the industry is suffering from a driver shortage that is hampering deliveries, endangering supply chains, and risking contracts that were hard fought for. The current driver shortage felt in Scotland is being exacerbated by the requirement for fully vaccinated healthy drivers having to isolate after potentially coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid 19. This is putting additional strain on hauliers and the already reduced numbers of overstretched drivers who have to cover for those isolating.”
“What the Council ask is that for fully vaccinated logistics employees, (just like “Test and Release” proposals for NHS staff), isolation be replaced by daily lateral flow tests, and that as long as the test remains negative, that they be allowed to work. In the case of a positive test, normal protocols would be observed. Although many of the issues surrounding the driver shortages will need intervention from Westminster this is one solution that we hope is within the gift of the Scottish Government to grant and that you will give this request due consideration.”
