Road Haulage Association chief said HGV drivers are “appalled” at the Government’s plan to tackle the supply chain crisis this Christmas
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Emergency visa rules for foreign drivers aimed at tackling the supply chain crisis are leading to the “undercutting” of British lorry drivers, a haulage chief has claimed.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is preparing to relax ‘cabotage’ rules on the number of deliveries EU drivers can make to an unlimited amount over a 14-day period, as the Government bids to save Christmas from shop shortages.
Ministers announced earlier this month that overseas drivers can take up six-month visas and plan to have the two-week unlimited deliveries scheme in place for December.
Just 20 foreign drivers have so far been issued, the Government has said, as gaps remain in supermarkets and containers are left waiting at ports due to the staffing crisis.
But Rod McKenzie, managing director of policy and public affairs at the Road Haulage Association, accused the Government of “pulling the lever marked ‘uncontrolled immigration’” as he claimed the scheme will lead to EU drivers “undercutting” UK workers.
“The Government clearly wants to save Christmas and be seen to be saving Christmas, and extra drivers will clearly help Christmas deliveries, so, from a simple, populist point of view, you can see what they’re doing,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
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“But there are consequences for hardworking UK hauliers who are suffering under a weight of staff shortages, poor roadside facilities, ridiculous waiting times to load and unload, and this simply doesn’t help UK haulage.
“We don’t want cabotage to sabotage our industry.”
He added RHA members were “appalled” at the emergency scheme, adding that “ridiculous, pathetic, gobsmacked” had been “some of their more broadcastable comments”.
He said: “The Government has been talking about a high-wage, high-skill economy and not pulling the lever marked ‘uncontrolled immigration’, and to them this is exactly what it looks like.
“Allowing overseas companies and drivers to come over for perhaps up to six months on a fortnightly basis to do unlimited work at low rates, undercutting UK hauliers.
“So this is about taking work from British operators and drivers and giving it to Europeans who don’t pay tax here and pay peanuts to their drivers.”
The UK’s lorry driver shortage has been blamed on a combination of Covid, Brexit and other factors.
It has sparked a fuel crisis and empty supermarket shelves and retailers have warned there could be shortages of toys and foods this festive season.
Mr Shapps was pressed on the issue on ITV’s Good Morning Britain and asked if EU drivers could start working around the clock, potentially putting both the public and themselves at risk.
The minister said: “I’m sorry, I’ve got to completely, honestly, reject that. This is cabotage – something which actually already happens throughout Europe, with exactly the same drivers. It used to happen here. The difference is that, when we left the EU, we took control over how and when people could come and work here. These are drivers, to be clear, who are already here.”
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The Conservative MP insisted that working time directives are still in place, adding: “You can’t just go work around the clock. Exactly the same rules apply to them that would apply to anybody else driving domestically as an HGV driver.
“They’re already coming here; this is simply about what happens when they’re here, and it means that we get, effectively, the benefits that we want to get, a bit more resilience for a short period of time, whilst people are training and coming through the system.”
Groups representing EU drivers have also raised the alarm, with Edwin Atema, from the Dutch FNV union, saying changes to cabotage rules would be “legalising exploitation” in the UK road haulage markets.
“The first (comment) would be, is the UK even allowed to do this according to Brexit divorce documents?” he said, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“The second is, most importantly, will this remedy the situation? To remedy a situation you must have a clear vision and a strategy to implement it.
“This option of lifting cabotage rules will not remedy but is oil on the fire of an industry that is broken already.”
Mr Shapps, meanwhile, said that despite the new rules, he cannot guarantee that every line of every product will be available this Christmas.
He told ITV: “Let’s put it this way – we’ll all be able to be together, we’ll be able to buy things, there will be food on the table. I can’t guarantee that every line of every product will be available. We are in an international, you know, supply restrictive period.
“We’re coming out of coronavirus and no more so than this country, which is the fastest-growing of all the major economies, so there’s a lot of demand there, but I don’t think we want to sort of talk ourselves into a crisis either about it.”
He added: “Goods and food will be available, maybe a few lines that you normally want to get aren’t, but I think it’s at that level, rather than, you know, thinking Christmas will have to be cancelled and upsetting children everywhere across the country.”
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