Drive for Britain! UK scrambles for truckers amid supply woe

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain doesn’t have enough truck drivers. The shortage is contributing to scarcity of everything from McDonald’s milkshakes to supermarket produce. Now energy firms are rationing supplies of gasoline and closing some petrol pumps. The government is scrambling to lure more people into what has long been an underpaid and underappreciated job. The driver drought means wages are rising, and people laid off from other sectors are starting to retrain as truckers. But the head of a food industry group warns that the problems, caused by factors including the coronavirus pandemic, won’t be easily solved. He says occasionally empty shelves are going to be “the new normal.”