Fuel panic!

[Mincey]

16 minutes ago, doog442 said:

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.   

 

As an ex-cyclist myself, I really hate cyclists. Self-righteous bunch of expletives. Worse than vegans. 

[Malc]

ho hum ..........  never thought I'd be singing the praises of the EV 

saving our petrol tonight ...  14 y/olds birthday party being brought to us, well, local eatery, by the parents in their EV ........  rather than us all traipsing along a 60 mile round trip to our favourite Chinese restaurant in Canterbury

........... we're saving that for end of next week if the fuel situation normalises by then and I can get petrol without Q'ing

Malc

[paulrnx]

6 hours ago, Mincey said:

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.

Way to go!!! 😀

[DBIZO]

4 hours ago, Malc said:

ho hum ..........  never thought I'd be singing the praises of the EV 

saving our petrol tonight ...  14 y/olds birthday party being brought to us, well, local eatery, by the parents in their EV ........  rather than us all traipsing along a 60 mile round trip to our favourite Chinese restaurant in Canterbury

........... we're saving that for end of next week if the fuel situation normalises by then and I can get petrol without Q'ing

Malc

Likely sooner, possibly later, but inevitably: there will be brownouts and blackouts when many EVs won't be able to charge up, possibly for days during a cold spell coinciding some failure or maintenance in interconnects and major thermoelectric plants. The UK grid is approaching the edge already as is. It won't be able to take the millions of EVs many foresee, at least not always.

[flotsam]

WE'RE BEING PLAYED!

I've seen petrol stations closed but no queues.

petrolprices.com has stopped reporting prices. Usually it takes a short time but I posted prices yesterday and the pages haven't changed in days.

Meanwhile the government has suspended anti-competition rules banning collusion between petrol retailers. In other words, it's authorised a cartel.

[jumbojake]

if you find the one petrol station in town with fuel, there will be a massive queue.... and for sure they will see their sales up by 400 or 500% are reported here before... if you can get it, you will sell it for sure!

I noticed waze routed me a different way to work yesterday (160mile round trip) ... didn't pass a single petrol station with fuel ... it occurred to me that's because the ones with fuel will be backing up and blocking the roads

Prices are all over the place.... seems like the smaller ones are really taking advantage of charging what they want.. so long as they advertise the price, they are breaking any rules... just taking advantage.

[PCM]

... after 6 days I finally got petrol. Two petrol stations open. Queues, but nothing amazing.

Prices higher though!

And a 30 litre limit - which seemed fair. 

[NeilS]

Hi All,

the filling station situation seems to have stabilised somewhat around where I live, at least as far as the supermarkets are concerned, however the local independent in the village has decided to sell fuel to emergency / key workers only. Prices remain the same as they were two weeks ago.

Something I have noticed though, is that there aren't many drivers of all types and sizes of vehicle driving at more than about 60mph, presumably to save fuel. This is on the M4 (daily commute) and a few other dual carriageways that I've been on. Anyone else noticed this phenomena?

I find it slightly amusing to see thrusting, young bearded male professionals with their crisp shirts in their un-badged BM's and Audi whatevers pootling along at 50 - 55.

[jumbojake]

yes, I have noticed the roads much quieter than normal, and people in less of a hurry, even on the M25 near Heathrow.. a relaxed drive which is nice ... there is always an upside.

[Malc]

2 hours ago, flotsam said:

WE'RE BEING PLAYED!

I've seen petrol stations closed but no queues.

I'm thinking a petrol station with no fuel would be closed and heaven forbid ..  no queues either ..... there's no fuel to Q for maybe ! 

Malc

[Boxbrownie]

3 hours ago, flotsam said:

WE'RE BEING PLAYED!

I've seen petrol stations closed but no queues.

petrolprices.com has stopped reporting prices. Usually it takes a short time but I posted prices yesterday and the pages haven't changed in days.

Meanwhile the government has suspended anti-competition rules banning collusion between petrol retailers. In other words, it's authorised a cartel.

.

[Spacewagon52]

On 9/28/2021 at 4:39 PM, Malc said:

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

i have another layer to add to this........................................... it is the government's way of increasing the sale of electric cars!

[Malc]

58 minutes ago, Spacewagon52 said:

it is the government's way of increasing the sale of electric cars!

but wot's going to 'appen when that electric shortfall kicks in coz the French power cable went pop over here somewhere the other day taking out 50% of the gracious benefaction of the French Power Station people to grateful GB ( or is it UK ) until next spring  ...........  metered homes with EV charging might just be " cut off " at a stroke 

oh dear 

Malc

[jumbojake]

one of the features the new smart meter rollout across the UK, will be a capability to control the new breed of smart chargers (and perhaps other smart devices in the future) ... this means the decision to charge a car will be in part made by a central control ... the idea is to control spikes into the network, making more efficient use of generation ... but of course might also have more drastic measure should generation get into trouble for whatever reason

[Mincey]

2 hours ago, jumbojake said:

one of the features the new smart meter rollout across the UK, will be a capability to control the new breed of smart chargers (and perhaps other smart devices in the future) ... this means the decision to charge a car will be in part made by a central control ... the idea is to control spikes into the network, making more efficient use of generation ... but of course might also have more drastic measure should generation get into trouble for whatever reason

I received another email from British Gas yesterday telling me that my world would cave in unless I allowed them to fit a Smart Meter. I immediately deleted it.

[First_Lexus]

13 minutes ago, Mincey said:

I received another email from British Gas yesterday telling me that my world would cave in unless I allowed them to fit a Smart Meter. I immediately deleted it.

^^ TBH I was more concerned when I heard about this asteroid on the radio news the other day! Fuel shortages? Pah, call that a crisis…😆

https://www.cnet.com/news/warehouse-sized-asteroid-sneaks-up-on-earth-by-hiding-near-the-sun/

[Mincey]

36 minutes ago, First_Lexus said:

^^ TBH I was more concerned when I heard about this asteroid on the radio news the other day! Fuel shortages? Pah, call that a crisis…😆

https://www.cnet.com/news/warehouse-sized-asteroid-sneaks-up-on-earth-by-hiding-near-the-sun/

Those asteroids - they just don't play fair do they? Sneaking up from behind the Sun. It's just not cricket...

[Initial P]

No easing up around my way:

 

[Las Palmas]

21 minutes ago, Initial P said:

No easing up around my way:

 

Better luck tomorrow.

[doog442]

9 hours ago, NeilS said:

I find it slightly amusing to see thrusting, young bearded male professionals with their crisp shirts in their un-badged BM's and Audi whatevers pootling along at 50 - 55.

It's the first time I've ever used eco mode in my bimmer (forgive me father for I have sinned ).....I'll be back though. 

Despite it being a very nice turbo 6 pot,  eco mode feels similar to normal mode in an RC / IS300h....bloody relaxing. It rarely gets above 1200 rpm and you just float around. 

I'm not the young bearded thrusting type, more the complete opposite by the way but yes without doubt everyone is driving slower....apart from school run mums.  😈...who will always be flat out up your arse no matter what. 

[Boxbrownie]

19 hours ago, jumbojake said:

one of the features the new smart meter rollout across the UK, will be a capability to control the new breed of smart chargers (and perhaps other smart devices in the future) ... this means the decision to charge a car will be in part made by a central control ... the idea is to control spikes into the network, making more efficient use of generation ... but of course might also have more drastic measure should generation get into trouble for whatever reason

And another reason not to get one fitted indeed, which is why so far we have refused all the “the bottom of your world will fall out if you don’t let us fit one” emails, eventually they will be a legal requirement for everyone but until then.

We just use the “granny charger” to charge our EV as ours will get a full to “brim” 130 miles overnight easily, and our mileage is meagre nowadays, so even when a SMART meter become inevitable they still won’t know if we are charging the car or heating the home 🤣

[jumbojake]

I agree, there is little benefit to the user at the moment, it is all about national management... currently they are really wasteful with generating based on a guess of the load, this will allow them to tune it and smooth out the demand, making power generation more efficient... but will only work if enough people have it. 

The only benefit to the user is quicker switching to profiled tariffs, but they don't really exist yet and the switching market is dead for a while anyway.

There is talk to use the car batteries as spare capacity for the grid... so when you get home at night and plug in, it might take some power from you, to cope with evening demand, then charge you up in the small hours when there is excess power in the grid .. all pretty smart and could even make you money if you sell power at peak and buy it at the low, but it's clear to see the potential shortcomings .... glitches, change in behaviour etc...  feels like 10yrs off to me

[Mincey]

Coming back from Leicester just now in my loaner ES. It had 30 miles of petrol in it. All the stations in Leicester appeared dry. It was almost Squeaky Bum Time when I approached the filling station at Morcott. There was one unleaded pump open. "I'll have some of that" I thought to myself. There were about 20 miles left until I got home. I've never let a car get that low.

[Mincey]

In case any of you were wondering, after putting £15 worth of fuel in, the remainder of my journey was done at slightly more than 48mph. I think I have enough left to have an entertaining return journey later.

[Malc]

15 minutes ago, Mincey said:

There were about 20 miles left until I got home. I've never let a car get that low.

I usually just refill when the orange light appears on the fuel gauge .....  there's often about 100 miles left ...........  I'm reckoning eeking it out I've still got 150 miles left in her ......  there's no way I'm wanting to join a Q for anything anywhere at any time ...... let alone petrol Q'ing ........,  saving on the card useage too right now ....  maybe this imaginary fuel shortage is making at least me think how better I can use these fossil supplies in a better more useful manner ......... not visiting here there and everywhere at a whim, having brunch, lunch, coffees out and about .........  it's probably saving me a small ( very small ) fortune 

Malc