Report here that army has not been asked and its capacity would not cover the gap. Plus bin deliveries could be problematical as drivers move from rubbish collection to driving lorries. The Winter could be memorable for the wrong reasons.
Quote:
Bringing in army 'will not scratch the surface' of HGV driver shortage
The head of the Road Haulage Association tells Sky News he can see problems with refuse collection adding to the deteriorating consequences of the UK's HGV driver shortage.
..But Mr Burnett Head of Road Haulage Association] warned that even with any military assistance, the UK was still heading for a winter of worsening disruption as the busy Christmas season loomed.
He said: "This really isn't going to scratch the surface at all or give any reassurance that as things get worse during the summer, as drivers take more holidays and we've got no drivers to backfill, that this is really a resolution to the problem at all."
He added: "We're seeing the impact in the supermarkets, drivers that drive refuse vehicles are being attracted away by higher wages in many sectors, that's going to mean difficulties in terms of collecting waste."
Mr Burnett pointed to containers "stacking up" at ports as evidence the backlog was getting worse.
"We really need government to wake up and realise that the only short term solution here is to address this through the Home Office shortage occupation list and with temporary visas to allow us in the short-term additional labour in while we train a UK based workforce which is going to take at least 18 months to tackle."
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https://news.sky.com/story/bringing-...rtage-12377823