"Unless new drivers are found in the next ten days, it is inevitable that we will see significant disruption in the run-up to Christmas," Andrew Opie, director of food & sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, the retail industry's lobby group, told the government on Friday. 

"Heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers are the glue which hold our supply chains together," Opie said. "Without them, we are unable to move goods from farms to warehouses to shops."

He said the next ten days are crucial because retailers increase supplies in October to stock warehouses full of goods for the Christmas shopping season.