UK could ask soldiers to deliver fuel as service stations run dry

With thousands of service stations running dry, the government announced a series of emergency measures over the weekend to address the fuel crisis, including issuing temporary work visas for up to 5,500 foreign truck drivers and suspending competition law to allow suppliers to deliver fuel to rival operators. UK media reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson would consider calling in the army on Monday if the situation shows no sign of improving.”We have no plans at the moment to bring in the army to actually do driving but we always have a civil contingencies section within the army that’s always on standby should they be needed,” Environment Minister George Eustice told reporters on Monday. “We don’t judge that’s necessary at the moment.”The Automobile Association (AA) appealed for calm on Friday after BP (BP) was forced to temporarily close some of its stations for the second time in as many months because of the driver shortage. Yet many Brits paid little heed, flocking to service stations in hopes of securing fuel for the week ahead.Johnson is preparing to deploy hundreds of soldiers to help address the fuel crisis, the Financial Times reported on Monday. The troops would be used to drive trucks, the newspaper said, under contingency planning known as “Operation Escalin.”Brian Madderson, chair of the Petrol Retailers Association, said that calling in the military alone won’t be enough to resolve the crisis because soldiers may not have the training needed to refill storage tanks at service stations.”It’s not an absolute panacea,” he told BBC Radio. “There is no one single lever which is going to be pulled by government and industry together which is going to sort this situation.”BP said in a statement on Sunday that it was seeing “intense demand” and that roughly 30% of the 1,200 sites its supplies across the UK did not have either of the main grades of fuel. The company said it was “working to resupply as rapidly as possible.”Shell welcomed the government’s action on Monday, saying it’s “been seeing a higher than normal demand across our network which is resulting in some sites running low on some grades. We are replenishing these quickly, usually within 24 hours.”Sainsbury’s (JSNSF), which operates service stations at some of its supermarkets, said “we’re experiencing high demand for fuel. We’re working closely with our supplier to maintain supply and all our sites continue to receive fuel.”Supermarket chains Morrisons and Tesco (TSCDF) said they were also working hard to keep customers supplied.— Anna Cooban, Chris Liakos and Hanna Ziady contributed reporting.