Military to deliver petrol to UK garages from Monday

(FASTNEWS |  UK) – Armed forces personnel will begin delivering petrol to garages across the UK from Monday, the government says.

Almost 200 servicemen and women, 100 of them drivers, will provide “temporary” support to ease pressure on stations.

Ministers have also announced that up to 300 overseas fuel tanker drivers will be able to work in the UK immediately until the end of March.

There have been long queues at petrol stations this week after a shortage of drivers disrupted fuel deliveries.

Ministers – who have maintained there is enough fuel if people buy at their normal rates – say the situation at petrol station forecourts is improving, with more fuel now being delivered than sold.

But they acknowledge some parts of the country are worse affected than others.

Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association, which represents nearly 5,500 of the UK’s 8,300 petrol stations said Scotland, the north of England and parts of the Midlands had seen a “distinct improvement” with fewer dry sites.

But he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it remained a “big problem” in London and south-east England, where “if anything it had got worse.”

He said the military drivers will be a “large help” but a “prioritisation of deliveries to filling stations, particularly the independent ones, which are the neighbourhood sites” was needed “immediately”.

Mr Madderson warned drivers would see a rise in fuel prices next week, but because of “global factors” not because of profiteering.