Tesco extends zero-waste shopping service to 10 stores<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nThe Road Haulage Association has warned that there is a shortage of around 100,000 drivers across the UK, which has particularly impacted the food and drink supply chain.<\/p>\n
Woolfenden said the problem was industry-wide and described attempts by companies to recruit from the same, limited pool of drivers like \u201cmoving deck chairs around\u201d.<\/p>\n
On the call, he added: \u201cOur concern is that the pictures of empty shelves will get ten times worse by Christmas and then we\u2019ll get panic-buying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Amazon\u2019s public policy manager for the UK and Ireland, Katherine Mercer, told the meeting that recruitment efforts were \u201cback at square one\u201d and that Christmas will be \u201ca real challenge\u201d.<\/p>\n
A Tesco spokesperson said: \u201cWe have good availability, with deliveries arriving at our stores and distribution centres across the UK every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the industry-wide shortage of HGV drivers has led to some distribution challenges, we\u2019re working hard to address these and to plan for the months ahead, so that customers can get everything they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Amazon said: \u201cThe festive season is always our busiest time of the year and, as we do every year, we\u2019ll be working to provide the best possible service for our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson added: \u201cWe recognise business is facing a range of challenges and we are taking steps to support them, including streamlining the process for new HGV drivers and increasing the number of driving tests.<\/p>\n
\u201cProgress has already been made in testing and hiring, with improving pay, working conditions and diversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are closely monitoring labour supply and working with sector leaders to understand how we can best ease particular pinch points.\u201d<\/p>\n
with PA Wires<\/em><\/p>\nClick here to sign up to Grocery Gazette\u2019s free daily email newsletter<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tesco has warned the government that it has a shortfall of 800 drivers and is concerned about panic buying in the run-up to Christmas if the nationwide HGV crisis is not addressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":17483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3928],"tags":[64,2770,1922,4992,816,4524,4958,1760,4804,948,579],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21147"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21149,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21147\/revisions\/21149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}