Empty petrol pumps, desolateVery sad, or a place that is bleak and empty. supermarket shelves, queues stretching for miles out of ordinary roadside petrol stations, fights breaking out over the last few drops of diesel, the army being called out to ferry fuel around, medical appointments delayed - Britain is the picture of a country in crisis.

The last week has witnessed scenes unknown in the UK since 2000, when a strike by lorry operators closed down 3,000 petrol stations. And it has kicked off a blame game. At its heart, the word that has haunted UK politics since 2016: Brexit.

The problem is not that there is not enough petrol, but that it cannot be transported. Petrol, along with most of the goods that you see in your supermarket, is carried to petrol stations in huge lorries known as heavy goods vehiclesVehicles with a mass of over 3,500kg. (HGVs). But there are not enough people to drive these vehicles. It is estimated that the UK has a shortage of 100,000 qualified HGV drivers.

The immediate cause of this is the pandemic. When governments across Europe closed borders and shut down parts of the economy last year, there was a drop in demand for goods to be transported. As such, many HGV drivers simply went home.

Now that the economy has reopened, it is proving difficult to persuade them to return to their jobs.

This is where Brexit enters the picture. Countries across Europe are suffering their own shortages of HGV drivers: Germany needs at least 45,000 drivers, while Poland has a shortfall of 124,000. But thanks to free movementUnder EU law, all citizens of EU countries, along with some other European countries in the single market, can move freely between all participating states. Across much of Europe, in an area known as the Schengen Area, even passports are not required to cross borders. in the EU, these countries have been able to recruit drivers from neighbouring countries and avoid the empty shelves and petrol pumps that have been plaguing Britain.

However, others think blaming Brexit is too simplistic. They argue that the bigger problem is the way HGV drivers are treated.

They point out that the government has tried recruiting HGV drivers from its neighbours, issuing 10,500 temporary visasA visa is a document that a person usually needs to work in another country. These can be long-term, lasting years, or temporary, intended to allow a short period of work or travel. to bring in new drivers from the continent. They warn that these positions are going unfilled because working conditions in the UK are worse than they are in Europe.

Long-distance HGV drivers can spend weeks away from home. Often this means sleeping in their vehicles on the side of a motorway. Most British service stations do not have parking for HGVs, and those that do charge the drivers around £30 per night.

Meanwhile, in Europe, HGV drivers are not charged for parking. Drivers in France can call upon a chain of bars and restaurants, known as RoutierA chain of around 1,200 restaurants across France aimed at HGV drivers., where they have access to food and showers. So given the choice, most drivers would rather work in the EU.

Moreover, driving a huge lorry over a long distance is a stressful, tiring task. Yet under the usual rules, HGV drivers are expected to do it for 56 hours per week, for up to 10 hours at a time. 

Now the government has lifted this limit to 11 hours in a bid to solve the crisis. Some worry this will only cause more people to leave the sector.

Clearly, say some. There is an HGV driver shortage across Europe, yet Britain's neighbours have been spared the panic and humiliation of empty supermarket shelves and dry petrol pumps. If it were not for Brexit creating customs red tapeOne consequence of Brexit is that the UK left the Customs Union, which meant goods could flow between the UK and the EU without special quality checks on the border. These checks make it a longer and more difficult process to import goods. and deterring EU drivers, there would be no crisis.

Not at all, say others. Lots of factors are at play, from the failure to train enough new HGV drivers, to the prohibitive costs of taking an HGV driving testHGVs have their own special driving test. Driving these vehicles is strictly regulated because their huge size and weight makes them disproportionately likely to cause fatal accidents., to the abysmal working conditions that keep potential recruits from entering the sector. This is a long-term crisis with multiple causes.