Logistics workers celebrate first anniversary as ‘key workers’

In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the UK, Logistics UK was making urgent appeals to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps MP and his ministerial team to classify logistics workers as ‘key workers’ in the government’s COVID-19 response plans.

By 20 March 2020, with logistics workers operating under extreme pressure to ensure the resilience of the UK supply chain, their ‘key worker’ status was confirmed in the government’s publication of the key worker list. In practical terms, this meant that logistics workers’ children could apply for access to schooling during the COVID-19 lockdown periods, offering much needed respite for those working around the clock to keep the supply chain moving and ensuring all sectors of the UK economy were provisioned with goods.

“The government’s decision to categorise those employed in moving freight by air, road, water and rail as ‘key workers’ last year, has meant that shops, schools and hospitals, as well as manufacturing and our homes have been able to receive the products and services they need throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Alex Veitch, General Manager – Public Policy at Logistics UK, “This very welcome recognition by government of the vital importance of logistics has helped the industry support continued economic activity in the UK, even in the face of the most difficult and challenging of circumstances.”

*www.logistics.org.uk/coronavirus

Published On: 01/04/2021 14:00:32

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