James Davey

LONDON, (Reuters) – Britain could experience a shortage this Christmas if the government does not intensify its efforts to combat a dearth of drivers for heavy vehicles (HGV), the wine and spirits sector warned Wednesday.

Fears about reducing alcohol supply are a result of panic buying at Britain’s petrol pumps and rising heating prices.

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) said 49 businesses including Moët Hennessy UK, Laurent-Perrier UK, Pernod Ricard (PA:) UK, C&C Group and Matthew Clark, had put their names to a letter to transport minister Grant Shapps calling on him to take urgent action over HGV driver shortages and freight disruption.

Miles Beale, CEO of WSTA, stated that there is growing concern from our members about the possibility of delivery chaos if we don’t take urgent action.

We are seeing significant delays in wine and spirit deliveries, which has pushed up prices and limited the choice of products for UK customers.

According to the WSTA members, importing products took up to five times longer this year than last year. Companies that used to be able fulfill orders in as little as two days now take around 15 days.

It was also reported that freight prices had increased by 7.7% as delivery firms had to raise the wages of HGV driver to maintain them.

The WSTA is asking Shapps that he extend a temporary visa for HGV driver drivers beginning February 28, 2022 to a minimum period of one year to reduce the industry’s burden and to allow domestic drivers to increase sufficiently.

The department wants to improve the routing of cargo from ports as well as smaller UK-based driver networks that can be used for shorter-haul travels.

However, although the UK government claimed that they did not anticipate disruptions in the supply of alcohol for Christmas this year,

“The government acted quickly to tackle the challenges to our supply chains, which were brought on by global pressures including the pandemic and the international shortage of HGV drivers,” said a government spokesperson, noting 32 steps taken to tackle the shortage.

The two largest UK supermarkets, Tesco and Sainsbury’s (OTC:), are offering huge wine discounts right now, suggesting that they don’t pose a threat to the supply of wine.