UK businesses have warned that delays at Felixstowe will amount to millions of pounds in lost income over the Christmas period.
Jack Griffiths, founder of fashion company Snuggy, says his business is heading for a loss of at least half a million pounds during its busiest season.
Felixstowe, which is the UK's biggest commercial port, currently has 50,000 containers which are waiting to be collected, due to a shortage of HGV lorry drivers.
“All five of our deliveries – amounting to £1million worth of stock - are currently at sea or stuck at the port,” Jack told The Mirror. “We’ve been told it could take up to six weeks for products to reach our warehouses.
“We have more than 500 pre-orders and a huge waiting list of customers,” the 26-year-old added, “but our stock is stuck on the other side of the country.”
“The freight drivers that we use have said we can’t get anything booked in for at least four weeks.
“As we get closer to Christmas and the busy period, we can only see it getting worse.
“The issue is that containers that arrive into England are just sitting idle at the port because there are no drivers to get them to our warehouse in Teeside.
“One of our five deliveries from China has arrived, but we’ve been told it will just sit in Felixstowe until a lorry becomes available. The earliest we’ll receive it is November 8.”
Jack – who found out about the delays on social media - is also concerned about four other shipments that are arriving in the coming weeks.
“If they don’t get to our warehouse by Black Friday, it could completely write Christmas off for us.
“That’s £1million worth of stock and £500,000 lost. It also means we won’t be able to offer any Christmas jobs which would have really supported our local area.”
Jack says it’s been one hurdle after the next since the UK walked away from the European Union.
In April, £400,000 worth of Snuggy’s stock was delayed when it got stuck on the Ever Given ship which blocked the Suez Canal.
“We were expecting that order to arrive in April but in fact it arrived in mid-September.
“We also now pay higher customs duties. That means if a customer buys an item in Europe, we have to complete huge volumes of paperwork and the customer then has to pay a tax on delivery. As a result, we’ve had to stop advertising this service altogether.”
Griffiths says the government needs to improve working conditions for lorry drivers.
“Many drivers have moved to Europe this year and I have friends that work in the industry that refuse to go back because they say it’s a toxic place to work.
“He says the working conditions are awful and despite helping the world turn, they receive no respect.
“We need to protect them and make sure they are getting a fair deal.”
Peter Wilson, the boss of global shipping agent Cory Brothers, today warned shoppers to plan ahead due to port delays.
He said people should order items in a "timely fashion" to ensure they arrive in time.
Shop shelves would stay stocked, but there may be less choice, he said.
A shortage of HGV lorry drivers in the UK means that shipment containers are being offloaded but left stacked on the quayside waiting for collection.
Gary Grant, boss of one of the biggest toy sellers in the UK, The Entertainer, said his 170 shops are looking "very full right now" but added that demand "will outstrip availability" because there aren't enough drivers to move the company's stock.
The popular Paw Patrol toys and Barbie dolls are "prime candidates for being short in the Christmas season," Mr Grant added.
Including Felixstowe, several ports in the UK could be impacted by the supply chain crisis and shortage of HGV drivers in the coming weeks.
Home to the second-largest container terminal in the UK, the Port of Southampton, is the country's number one vehicle handling port, handling 820,000 vehicles a year, and is Europe's leading turnaround cruise port and the UK's most productive container port.
It handles over 1.5 million containers every year and clears around 23 containers daily to be dispatched to and from primary cargo-generating regions including the Midlands, Scotland, East Coast and North West.
The third-largest port in the UK, Teesport, handles over 56 million tonnes of domestic and international cargo per year.
Located in North Yorkshire, it mainly handles steel, petrochemical, manufacturing, engineering, and retail.
In London, the Port of London, which handles containers, timber, paper, vehicles, aggregates, crude oil, petroleum products, liquefied, could also be affected.
It has more than 70 independently owned terminals and port facilities and directly employs over 30,000 people.
What is being done to solve the problem?
The government is writing to nearly one million drivers who hold a HGV licence to encourage them to return to the industry, however just a few dozen from Europe have allegedly applied so far. Some say the working conditions are just not good enough.
Some employers have increased their pay to lure staff back in - and Ministry of Defence examiners have been brought in to increase the number of HGV driving tests.
There will be free intensive 'boot camps' to train 5,000 people to become HGV drivers, with another 1,000 to be trained through courses funded by the adult education budget.
The government has also slightly relaxed the Drivers' Hours rules, which means drivers will be able to increase their daily driving limit from nine hours to 11 hours twice a week.
Lastly, there is now a £7,000 per person funding for the Large Goods Vehicle Driver apprenticeship scheme.
