Fuel panic!

[Boxbrownie]

5 minutes ago, Spacewagon52 said:

Yes, that is true but................ the average fuel delivery is £25. I presume many people NEVER completely fill their tanks. Now they are! Once everyone's tank is full the queues will die down. But............ how long will that take?

I suppose a lot of people just fill with what they need or can afford, I do wonder what that proportion would be though as when we had a fossil fuel vehicle we only ever waited until it was on or almost “reserve” and then just brim the bugger, which often hurt especially on the Ranger Rover with a long range tank! 😁

 

[jumbojake]

I agree, I think a few people filling up on Friday when they don't normally was enough to break the system .. now  they are limiting to £30 per fill but despite that there is no sign of the problem easing, just people more desperate as they cannot get to work.  

Yes, I'm in the red-light to full camp, always have been... going forward looks like that is now limited to red-light to half tank... and hope there is available fuel pump somewhere on the way! 

The green's should be using this as an opportunity to push electric... I'm surprised their voice is so quiet.

[Boxbrownie]

I wonder if the minimum amount should be changed to a true minimum, if you only put ten or fifteen quid in you still HAVE to pay thirty quid, might make filling the mower up expensive but hey it’s autumn now and it’ll stop the dribblers topping up 😁

[Malc]

4 hours ago, Spacewagon52 said:

But............ how long will that take?

generally about 10 mins from pulling alongside the pump to pulling away ...  assuming it's a " pay at pump " one

UNLESS you're one of the many the RAC are reporting as so infrequently visiting a petrol station they are mis-fuelling ......  putting in diesel instead of petrol and vice versa .......... and clogging the escape routes from the petrol station

BUT let me now explain my simple conspiracy theory 

if anyone's reading    

Rishi Sunak has a big big hole to fill ..  so Govt creates a fuel panic and woweee ...  suddenly, all that 80% of pump price in cash / cards gets paid to the Exchequer anytime quite soon ....... bumper bumper Fuel Duty arrives at the Exchequer and NI people and HMRC are so pleased at the results, our Income Tax rate can come down by next April 

Good in theory eh !

Seriously tho', the Govts in no rush to stop people spending all their ££££ on fuel stocks in their little used cars etc and the cashflow to the refineries and shippers must be good too  ......  big sudden increase in GDP no doubt 

Malc

[jumbojake]

that is interesting... I paid £1.74  for diesel today ... I have to go to work, so with limited options, I had no choice.... clearly profiteering from the petrol station, but think of all that extra tax for the government.

[J Henderson]

Wow 😬

Please tell me you at least got the premium grade for that price, not regular diesel?

[Las Palmas]

8 hours ago, Spacewagon52 said:

Yes, that is true but................ the average fuel delivery is £25. I presume many people NEVER completely fill their tanks. Now they are! Once everyone's tank is full the queues will die down. But............ how long will that take?

Lazy me. Always filled the tank. Usually when light came on the panel.

[Initial P]

I was getting some fuel today at Shell on the A414 North Orbital St Albans and I think it ran out half way through about £57 worth of V Power the display just said error or something still better than nothing when I was down to less than 20 miles.

[doog442]

Tentative signs its easing. Last night on the way home I passed nine garages and all closed. Today there was availability quite close to home and no queues. 

I'm not a Facebook user but you can still view posts. My town has a group and within a few minutes of reading someone stating there were no queues at Tesco, I was there like a ferret up a drainpipe simply because I have a long trip next week . No diesel however which appears to be 'a theme' across several forums. 

[DBIZO]

Checked out 3 garages in Portsmouth area, there were small queues at all of them, but all served fuel.  A BP station just had a tanker in. Not sure about fuel types. They were all out every day for the past three days, so it's a clear improvement. Will refuel once things stabilize, some 180 miles left in the tank according to the computer.

[Illogan]

 

[Sundance]

12 hours ago, jumbojake said:

managed to get some diesel for my IS200d today .. taken 4days to find some ... 8 petrol stations in my town, only one has fuel at any time, so have to be lucky before they run out .. absolute disgrace and the government / BBC continue to blame the public...   people have not started consuming more fuel, clearly the delivery infrastructure has been on the brink of failure for some time.. just took a nudge to break it, it's not as if you can buy more than you tank will take and people are not consuming more.  All the local supermarkets have some empty shelves... seems like there is no sign it will improve anytime soon 

You're right in one respect John, the public are certainly not consuming more fuel ... they're buying it and storing it! 🙄

Make not the mistake of directly associating fuel pump shortages with HGV driver shortages for they are two completely different issues. 

The shortage at the pumps is entirely due to outright selfishness amongst the general public born out of the alarmist media who seem to revel in publishing misleading and provocative headlines. 😡

If the unthinking general public had been a tad more thoughtful and rational there would be no need for queues at the pumps and the vast majority of fuel stations would still be open and functioning normally.

There will be many vehicles now sitting on driveways full to the brim with fuel that will not be used for weeks, so thankfully the rest of us and the fuel pumps can soon get back to the normality that should never have left us in the first place. 

[jumbojake]

I’m afraid I disagree… sure there was a small spike in fuel purchase, but that should not have caused the impact we have seen…. Empty pumps for days..  People don’t queue if they already have a full tank, the queues are due to limited stations with fuel, as most are closed.

Many empty shelves at supermarkets for weeks now, and the fuel spike was triggered after BP sent a memo to the government warning they are on the edge due to lack of HGV … this is 100% due to limited supply, which was predicted before brexit vote, but ignored …and ignored again this year as many parts of the economy have been complaining as demand has been returning since COVID… it’s been in the news every week for a long time.   They said they wanted control, but are not taking control and for sure not taking responsibility… absolute disgrace.

[PCM]

Drove past 5 petrol stations this morning - all closed. No petrol 😞

[Spacewagon52]

[Boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, jumbojake said:

I’m afraid I disagree… sure there was a small spike in fuel purchase, but that should not have caused the impact we have seen…. Empty pumps for days..  People don’t queue if they already have a full tank, the queues are due to limited stations with fuel, as most are closed.

Many empty shelves at supermarkets for weeks now, and the fuel spike was triggered after BP sent a memo to the government warning they are on the edge due to lack of HGV … this is 100% due to limited supply, which was predicted before brexit vote, but ignored …and ignored again this year as many parts of the economy have been complaining as demand has been returning since COVID… it’s been in the news every week for a long time.   They said they wanted control, but are not taking control and for sure not taking responsibility… absolute disgrace.

I see that the Office for National Statistics have released some figures...

 

Despite varied press reports of 14,000, 15,000, 20,000 and 30,000, the ONS says that fewer than 10,000 European lorry drivers have left the UK following Brexit, representing just one in five of all those who left the profession since the referendum.

That's still a lot though, on top of the large number of UK drivers who have left the job in that time.
 

So not such a massive exodus as some would want us to believe.

[Sundance]

3 hours ago, jumbojake said:

I’m afraid I disagree… sure there was a small spike in fuel purchase, but that should not have caused the impact we have seen…. Empty pumps for days..  People don’t queue if they already have a full tank, the queues are due to limited stations with fuel, as most are closed.

Many empty shelves at supermarkets for weeks now, and the fuel spike was triggered after BP sent a memo to the government warning they are on the edge due to lack of HGV … this is 100% due to limited supply, which was predicted before brexit vote, but ignored …and ignored again this year as many parts of the economy have been complaining as demand has been returning since COVID… it’s been in the news every week for a long time.   They said they wanted control, but are not taking control and for sure not taking responsibility… absolute disgrace.

I seem to remember reading that one garage manager reported a 400% increase in fuel purchases!  Please don't try and tell me that's a "small spike"!! 😳  And of course people don't queue if they have a full tank, or they shouldn't, but by then the damage is done which is why, hopefully, as I explained, normality will soon be resumed. 

So rather than driving off onto a Government bashing tangent into the realms of Brexit and Covid we'll just have to agree to disagree John. 😉

[Boxbrownie]

Last night on a news report some bod from the fuel retailers association (or some such) said 500%

 

What ever it is it ain’t a small spike!

 

😉

[Malc]

I'm pretty sure that by the weekend there'll be zero Qs at the pumps and petrol stations brimming with fuel which they'll not be selling out of for many many days ...............  I can then refill our cars at leisure, fill to the brim as usual of course .......... just had to re-organise my days recently to just stop at home and not go out and about shopping, lunching and whatever else we oldies do when we have the time .........  catching-up on some household stuff instead and NOT stressing about refuelling 

The world's short of HGV drivers NOT fuel .......... and the HGV driver shortage will somehow resolve itself I'm sure ..  it's usually money that solves a problem like this ......  pay 'em right, conditions too, and there will soon be a surplus of 'em no doubt ........ it's private industry that's not paying them right, NOT the Govt. fault that one eh !

Malc

[dutchie01]

34 minutes ago, Boxbrownie said:

I see that the Office for National Statistics have released some figures...

 

Despite varied press reports of 14,000, 15,000, 20,000 and 30,000, the ONS says that fewer than 10,000 European lorry drivers have left the UK following Brexit, representing just one in five of all those who left the profession since the referendum.

That's still a lot though, on top of the large number of UK drivers who have left the job in that time.
 

So not such a massive exodus as some would want us to believe.

And i wonder how many of those 10,000 have been driving a fuel tanker?

[First_Lexus]

8 minutes ago, dutchie01 said:

And i wonder how many of those 10,000 have been driving a fuel tanker?

^^ My understanding is that they are between 100-200 tanker drivers short, a situation that has been similar and stable without any issues for a good few years. It’s getting gradually worse (as is the situation with HGV drivers in general) as drivers leave the industry either through changing careers or retirement. The c20,000 drivers from the EU who chose to leave during the pandemic and after the UK departure from the EU is a significant factor, but isn’t the structural cause.

The medium term solution - as has already been discussed on this thread and by industry experts in the media - is to improve pay and conditions rather than bringing in cheap labour from abroad and exploiting their willingness to work with the current poor pay and conditions. 

[paulrnx]

The media and those who didn’t want to leave the EU can normally put the blame for everything on Brexit. Maybe the shortage of HGV drivers in Italy, France and Germany can also be blamed on Brexit…..

I read a report that stated that 2,000 HGV drivers leave the industry every year with only 1,000 new HGV drivers joining every year. Apparently it’s been the case for many many years. Pretty sure this is the main reason. Sure, Brexit and the pandemic will have had an impact too but the underlying reason is twice as many leaving the profession as joining the profession over a period of many years.

[Mincey]

I rang Lexus Leicester this morning to check whether my replacement fuel pump was in. I wasn't told that it wasn't, so I guess there's a chance of a call coming to cancel Friday's visit again. Whilst I had the young lady on the line, I asked what the situation was in Leicester. "Oh I can't tell you that - I'm not in Leicester". It then dawned on me that I had been put through to Inchcape Servicing Central and not the dealership. I'm going to nip out mid-afternoon to see if I can get 10 litres and then risk it.

[doog442]

Wow. Being a part time cyclist I read some cycling specific forums. According to one this is wholly down to Brexit, panic buying is totally justified across the country and its the all the fault of those who voted in 2016 and the current Government. Dare to even question them and you have a cyber mob queuing up to beat the living daylights out of you. It's quite hilarious how a car hating fraternity (not all but many on there) are suddenly using a fossil fuel as a political lever when up until now it was a dirty word.   

Politics aside I've found some social media posts from real living UK tanker drivers. Apparently its one of the better paid HGV jobs, with little staff turnover, few foreign workers and more importantly very few advertised vacancies.

Prior to Fridays mass panic deliveries were taking place as normal, on time as they have done for the last few months and years. A simple shortage at a small number of service stations and suddenly the system is broken due to the media and a reactionary public. 

If this is the case (with few advertised tanker driver vacancies) then surely the Industry itself must shoulder some of the blame. I'm not absolving the current Govt of any blame, they really should have their fingers on the pulse and a contingency for panic buying across the sector. 

[Mincey]

Managed to get £25 worth just now - 10 litres in two cans, the rest in the car. Two local Shell stations were closed, Morrisons had some but the queues were bonkers, but a Jet station in a local village had a small queue which I felt compelled to join. I can now enjoy a spirited drive (as spirited as you can get in an IS300h obviously) to Leicester without worrying about being stranded. Woo, and indeed yay.