A Penrith-based logistics firm has had to reroute its vehicles following the closure of the UK-France border which has seen thousands of lorry drivers stranded in Kent waiting to depart.
AW Jenkinson, one of the UK’s largest haulage firms, doesn’t have any drivers stuck in the chaos caused by more than 40 countries banning UK arrivals due to concerns about the new coronavirus variant, but with European nations continuing their discussions on how to co-ordinate a response to it, managers are keeping a close eye on the situation.
A spokesman for the logistics firm, which has trucks delivering biomass to Sandwich, in the Dover district of Kent, said: “We have managed to work around it by using different roads to get where we need to be.”
The UK-France border reopened this morning with French citizens, British nationals living in France and hauliers are among those now able to travel – if they have a recent negative test – and soldiers have joined NHS Test and Trace staff in Kent to carry out rapid tests on stranded lorry drivers.
In May, A W Jenkinson emblazoned two of its lorry trailers with the message to “stay at home” wherever possible, in order to help protect the NHS during the coronavirus crisis.
