By Guy Faulconbridge and Ben Makori

TATSFIELD, England (Reuters) – Truck drivers have a cautionary message for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson: an acute shortage of drivers is ratcheting up their wages and that will have a knock-on effect on prices for food and gifts in the run-up to Christmas.

An air of chaos has gripped the world’s fifth-largest economy in recent days as a deficit of truckers left fuel pumps dry across the land, and a spike in European wholesale prices tipped energy companies into bankruptcy.

Following the Brexit chaos, thousands fled to the European Union and the UK is now short around 100,000 truckers. The COVID-19 lockdowns saw 40,000 drivers fail their tests.

After their journeys across Europe, many drivers, including those from Britain and France, Germany as well Poland, Lithuanian, Portugal (Rumän), Russia, Russia and Turkey, sat down at Clacket Lane, a service station near London’s M25 orbital road.

Reuters heard dozens of drivers tell Reuters that their wages will rise over the faint whiffs of sewage, cigarette smoke, and diesel fumes from the truck park.

The drivers described a difficult and lonely road life: high parking fees and filthy showers. They also spoke about the terror of illegal migrants and thieves seeking out a ride.

Craig Holness (51-year-old British trucker, 27-years-of-experience) said that wages will need to rise so the prices of everything we deliver and everything you purchase on the shelves will also have to increase. He was stopped for a rest.

The rising trucker wages may provide insight into an investor problem: Is the world on the verge of price increases after the COVID crisis’s splurge from central banks and governments?

Sterling dropped due to concerns that the trucker shortage will impede economic growth. This is forecast at 7.7% for this year. Amid the trucker shortage, the Bank of England said last week that CPI inflation was projected to rise temporarily in the near term to 4% in the last quarter of the year “owing largely to developments in energy and goods prices.”

Haulier companies and recruitment agencies are battling to fill trucker jobs: One was advertising for a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) Class 1 driver for 75,000 pounds ($102,500) per annum, the highest level the recruiter had ever heard of.

Jordan Francis, ProDrive’s commercial director, said that HGV driver drivers are now being paid 40% more than they were four months ago.

His memory brought back a driver who was earning 22.50 per hour, up from 14.00 in March. There are also 1,000 sign-on bonuses.

‘MARRIAGE KILLER’

Holness said the shortage of drivers would not ease any time soon because conditions were so poor that many young people refused to do it.

He was trying to get some sleep near West Bromwich, central England when thieves cut an 11-foot gap in his canvas, causing him hours of stress and delay.

Who wants to drive a truck? It’s not worth it. Holness said that children these days do not want to learn. Holness said, “I want out.”

Johnson, who attended Eton in Britain, the most exclusive school and Oxford as its highest university, suggested that Johnson spend several days on the road trucking to better understand these issues.

Phil, a British 52-year old truck driver hailing from Malvern, in central England, said that he was being treated as “the scum on the earth”. He had just received what he called a major pay raise. Prices will go up.

“Prices will rise,” he said. He claimed that many truck stops smelled like urine and faeces, and his job left him with little time to visit family.

He said, “It is a marital killer.”

The Sunday announcement by the government was that temporary visas would be issued to 5 000 foreign truck drivers. Reuters did not interview truck drivers to find out if they thought the offer would be accepted by many.

Anton Pogodin (37-year-old truck driver from Omsk in Siberia who drives now from Portugal) said, “It’s hard work and young people don’t want to it.”

However, in Bucharest some Romanian truckers fell for the deal.

‘BREXIT CHAOS’

British ministers have repeatedly denied that Brexit has caused the trucker shortage but many EU drivers blamed just that for prompting so many eastern European drivers to head for the exit.

“No one else has these kind of problems that you’re finding here,” said Belgian driver Patrice Rese, 65. “It’s because of Brexit.”

“Best wishes to Monsieur Johnson,” he said.

Miguel Brunel was a driver in Bethune (northern France), who questioned the logic behind replacing many British drivers by drivers from eastern Europe. He then said that this would essentially cause these drivers to quit.

“If they had maintained a market of English drivers rather than replacing them from drivers from Eastern Europe, they wouldn’t be in this position,” said Brunel in French.

He said, “This is chaos.”

($1 = 0.7311 pounds)