Army on standby to stock Britain's shelves

The British army is on standby to cope with Britain's food shortages caused by a lack of qualified truck drivers which has left many supermarket shelves bare in recent weeks. 

Some 2,000 HGV drivers from the Royal Logistics Corps and other regiments are reported to be on a five-day notice to help distribute food and other essential supplies, including medicine. 

The Government is expected to make a formal request for assistance to the military 'imminently', Daily Mail reported.

It comes after the Road Haulage Association warned in late July that there was a shortage of 100,000 lorry drivers in the UK, which has been hampering deliveries of food from warehouses to supermarkets.

Thousands of prospective drivers are waiting for their HGV tests due to a backlog caused by lockdown, while many existing ones have left the UK after Brexit. 

The problem has been exacerbated by Covid, with drivers having to go into self-isolation amid the so-called 'pingdemic'. 

Industry leaders have been warning about driver shortages for months, branding it a 'crisis of national importance.' 

Empty supermarket shelves have been pictured across the country in recent weeks.