Petrol panic buying

[XAM2175]

My local Shell garage on Friday.

Would you care to explain how a photograph exactly the same as yours appears in this Tweet by an American journalist that was posted on the 11th of May?

https://twitter.com/PaolaSNews/status/1392244374654828546

 

[Trackman]

My local Shell garage on Friday.

Highly illegal, I think the storage limit is 25L and secondly if it was legal you must be ADR trained and have the appropriate hazard signs and licence and must be carried in a correct container.

 

[GALLANTON]

Would you care to explain how a photograph exactly the same as yours appears in this Tweet by an American journalist that was posted on the 11th of May?

https://twitter.com/PaolaSNews/status/1392244374654828546

Highly illegal, I think the storage limit is 25L and secondly if it was legal you must be ADR trained and have the appropriate hazard signs and licence and must be carried in a correct container.

Haven't you heard of humour?

 

[Trackman]

Haven't you heard of humour?

They missed out the and there was nothing to hint it was untrue.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Haven't you heard of humour?

Quite

 

[XAM2175]

Haven't you heard of humour?

I usually rely on it being funny in order to recognise it

 

[GALLANTON]

They missed out the and there was nothing to hint it was untrue.

I don't think it takes silly wee faces on a forum to work out it was intended as a joke.

 

[py_megapixel]

I don't think it takes silly wee faces on a forum to work out it was intended as a joke.

Not for you it might not. But not everyone is good at working out the intended tone of a sentence, especially in an entirely text-based medium such as this.

I'm not sure what the point of people whinging about this is anyway. It's not exactly loads of effort to add an emoticon in the appropriate place.

 

[Bob figgis]

I took it as scare mongering / trolling

 

[Cowley]

Ok think that’ll do for that thanks (smiley faced emoji).

Back on topic, it seems to have calmed down a bit at our local garage but they haven’t had petrol for a couple days now. Luckily for us both our vehicles are diesel but Mrs C has a long work trip tomorrow so I’m going to put a bit in for her in a minute (I’m not filling it for the sake of filling it though).

 

[telstarbox]

Maybe it should be a minimum spend of £30 rather than a maximum, to ensure people are only filling up when they need it

On the M25 yesterday three adjacent services had run out of all fuel.

 

[HST274]

Petrol station near my house has just had a new delivery and has queuing for miles. I popped down to see some morons misled people filling jerry cans WITHOUT FILLING THEIR CAR and that the only fuels available is E10 and standard diesel with supreme and the other one out. In the petrol station nearest me the guy said a week's worth of petrol was sold in 2 days and it's fully empty, useful only for a very expensive packet of skittles.

 

[brad465]

Here's a graph showing what opinion polls did from 1997-2001, with the fuel protests of Autumn 2000 very clearly marked:

UK Polling Report

Looking at this, it's easy to see why the Government are concerned about the current situation and getting involved, even if some of it is counterproductive (like telling people not to panic buy only making them panic buy).

 

[Trackman]

Maybe it should be a minimum spend of £30 rather than a maximum, to ensure people are only filling up when they need it

On the M25 yesterday three adjacent services had run out of all fuel.

I was thinking that, how many days would it be until we reached a saturation point if supply and demand were met?

 

[DarloRich]

things have improved at my local tesco: they now have petrol but still have no diesel.

 

[brad465]

Maybe it should be a minimum spend of £30 rather than a maximum, to ensure people are only filling up when they need it

On the M25 yesterday three adjacent services had run out of all fuel.

A good idea in principle, but what happens if someone fills up the remainder of their tank and it comes to less than £30? They've got nowhere else to put fuel to get it up to £30, unless the mandate also included bringing a sufficiently sized empty can along, and it's not easy/quick to remove the fuel loaded in.

 

[DelayRepay]

A good idea in principle, but what happens if someone fills up the remainder of their tank and it comes to less than £30? They've got nowhere else to put fuel to get it up to £30, unless the mandate also included bringing a sufficiently sized empty can along, and it's not easy/quick to remove the fuel loaded in.

They pay £30 anyway. The next person to use the pump gets lucky.

Maybe not, but it would discourage the frequent, very small top ups. I spoke to a guy working in a petrol station this morning (buying a bottle of milk, he didn't have any petrol left!) and he said a lot of the people who'd been queueing only ended up buying £10 worth.

 

[Busaholic]

The first thing I'd do is ban fuel going into jerry cans without prior approval, such as for the A.A. Why don't police/ambulances etc have their own fuel facilities, as they used to? Oh, sorry, got the answer to that, the usual one, a combination of costcutting/rationalisation combined with the arrogance of assuming nothing can ever go wrong with the running of the country by those who consider themselves born to it, whereas the exact opposite is the truth, as we are finding bigtime now.

 

[py_megapixel]

BBC have (finally) started clarifying that there is actually no overall shortage of fuel; it's just issues with the supply chain meaning it's in the wrong place. A positive move in my view.

 

[Starmill]

BBC have (finally) started clarifying that there is actually no overall shortage of fuel; it's just issues with the supply chain meaning it's in the wrong place. A positive move in my view.

It was already pretty clear if you opened the articles from the first three paragraphs that there was no shortage of fuel.

 

[py_megapixel]

It was already pretty clear if you opened the articles from the first three paragraphs that there was no shortage of fuel.

Yes, but people were still whinging about the BBC being wrong (even though they were actually providing the correct information). Now it's right there in the headlines which should strike down that argument.

 

[Busaholic]

BBC have (finally) started clarifying that there is actually no overall shortage of fuel; it's just issues with the supply chain meaning it's in the wrong place. A positive move in my view.

That's semantics, though. There's plenty of fuel lying beneath the ground in Saudi Arabia too, but it's totally irrelevant. The issues are with the government in totally ignoring the information laid at their door with increasing urgency by all the relevant bodies over past weeks, if not months. Imagine if a Corbyn, or even Starmer, government was responsible for this fiasco, the media as a whole, including the BBC I suspect, would be calling for the Tower of London to be reopened in preparation.

 

[Gloster]

But most people only see a shortage in local terms. As the shortage of truck drivers has made headlines recently they will think that this means that there will be no delivery to their town, so they better fill up. Even if they haven’t jumped straight to this conclusion, they go out and see a garage with a queue or a notice saying ‘No Fuel’ (or get a tweet) and then think they had better find somewhere to fill up.

There are reports in the Grauniad that Stanlow, the UK’s second biggest refinery, may collapse because of an unpaid tax bill. The report is quite reasonable and makes it clear that the Official Receiver would step in and keep it operating, but less measured reports reports might cause panic.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

This had better end soon

My wife is a domiciliary care worker and needs the car. We live over 40 miles away from her area of work and she has enough petrol to see her through tomorrow and Tuesday. If the fuel deliveries don't get through by then, she won't be able to work. This goes for many for her colleagues meaning that much-needed home care won't be available to those that need/rely on it.

 

[Horizon22]

BBC have (finally) started clarifying that there is actually no overall shortage of fuel; it's just issues with the supply chain meaning it's in the wrong place. A positive move in my view.

Of course not but if it's not anywhere useful to a consumer, its still going to be a shortage for them. If you can't move things around the country (HGV crisis), you end up having shortages. Items (including petrol) are no use sitting in some warehouse / terminal / refinery.

Times like this (and some local roadworks that have begun in earnest) make me rather glad I don't have a car right now.

 

[Acey]

Typical media .creating a story rather than reporting one !

 

[RT4038]

The first thing I'd do is ban fuel going into jerry cans without prior approval, such as for the A.A. Why don't police/ambulances etc have their own fuel facilities, as they used to? Oh, sorry, got the answer to that, the usual one, a combination of costcutting/rationalisation combined with the arrogance of assuming nothing can ever go wrong with the running of the country by those who consider themselves born to it, whereas the exact opposite is the truth, as we are finding bigtime now.

I think you are being a little unfair. It is not reasonable to expect otherwise unnecessary facilities to be maintained for only occasional use, especially as H&S regulations have considerably tightened up on the storage of fuel and fuel companies charge extra for small deliveries.
At times like this there are complaints about this 'costcutting', but when everything is running smoothly moan about the profligacy of having own tanks. They cannot win.

 

[Starmill]

As ever, the Financial Times reports well:

Many UK petrol stations run dry amid panic buying

At least half of UK petrol stations outside the motorway network have run out of fuel after Britons engaged in panic buying in response to disruption to fuel supplies caused by a lack of tanker drivers.

Madderson said what had been a “manageable issue” of localised shortages at a small number of retail sites last week had quickly spiralled after media reports of supply problems had set off panic buying by motorists, with some members stating demand had surged “500 per cent above the normal level” on Saturday, quickly draining forecourt fuel tanks.

https://on.ft.com/3i5Ktxl via @FT

 

[brad465]

Competition law has been suspended in an attempt to get this sorted out:

Fuel supply: UK suspends competition law to get petrol to forecourts

It comes as the Petrol Retailers Association warns that up to two-thirds of its members are out of fuel.

www.bbc.co.uk

The government is to suspend competition law to allow oil firms to target fuel deliveries at petrol stations following recent panic buying.
Officials said the move would make it easier for companies to share information and prioritise parts of the country most at need.
It follows days of long queues at the pumps after fears of disruption to the fuel supply sparked panic buying.
Ministers are also considering deploying the Army to deliver fuel.
The Petrol Retailers Association has warned that as many as two-thirds of its membership of nearly 5,500 independent outlets are out of fuel, with the rest of them "partly dry and running out soon".
Announcing the measure to exempt the oil industry from the Competition Act 1998, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: "We have long-standing contingency plans in place to work with industry so that fuel supplies can be maintained and deliveries can still be made in the event of serious disruption.
"While there has always been and continues to be plenty of fuel at refineries and terminals, we are aware that there have been some issues with supply chains.
"This is why we will enact the Downstream Oil Protocol to ensure industry can share vital information and work together more effectively to ensure disruption is minimised.
"We thank HGV drivers and all forecourt staff for their tireless work during this period."

 

[dakta]

Decided to stay away from petrol stations when it all started to kick off as I thought it'd blow over quite quickly, that said I do trot about and fuel gauge is slowly getting towards the 'you need to do something area'

But really don't want to join the queue and be 'one of them'