Fuel panic!

[malcolmw]

Just filled up the NX in Tesco in Salisbury. Minimal queuing, no limit on amount of fuel purchased and 133.9 per litre.

[Boxbrownie]

AFAIK our local BP station in town has been open all along, we’ve passed it four times since Monday and there were no queues but seemed the normal amount, but word of the stations on the main roads across the Tamar seemed to be like everywhere else, crazy……..

[jumbojake]

we've got 8 stations in town, at the most there has been 3 with fuel, always with queues... this morning it was Asda and Morrisons... no doubt it will be different ones by now.  to be fair, at 6:30 this morning, the queues are not that long, but did reach onto the main road.

Before this 'event', it seems like there is always some pumps at a local station dry at any time, more noticeable this year ... similar to lack of milk in supermartets... it use to be rare, now it's quite normal to a shortage

[doog442]

Where the hell is all this fuel suddenly going ? A multitude of garages here were sold out today and we're now a week in. Are we seeing the non panic buyers now heading out and where allowed, brimming their tanks like a ripple effect or if they can't brim the tank popping somewhere else to top up.  If people are changing their buying habits due to future worries then it may take some time to sort out I guess. 

[NeilS]

One morning this week, they were interviewing some rep from the Petrol Retailers Association on the Today Show and he said that if everyone purchased their fuel 'as normal' as from right now, it would still take a week to two weeks for the situation to stabilise because of the disruption. 

 

[Arnett]

14 minutes ago, NeilS said:

One morning this week, they were interviewing some rep from the Petrol Retailers Association on the Today Show and he said that if everyone purchased their fuel 'as normal' as from right now, it would still take a week to two weeks for the situation to stabilise because of the disruption. 

 

Im not a religious man, but god helps us all in the event of a true emergency situation. 

[Arnett]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-58747297 

 

On a positive note 🙂 East of England Co-Op have been smart. 

[cidersteve]

plenty of petrol in Sainsbury's in Ferndown ,no queues, however no cling film , can't figure that one out 🙂

[First_Lexus]

3 hours ago, jumbojake said:

Before this 'event', it seems like there is always some pumps at a local station dry at any time, more noticeable this year ... similar to lack of milk in supermartets... it use to be rare, now it's quite normal to a shortage

^^ Chap on the radio earlier said that petrol and diesel supply had been running at about 40% of capacity at filling stations - by design - for years, as they prefer the bulk fuel to be ready to despatch rather than tied up at specific locations. That makes sense until the great British public go crackers!

Sounds like there’s a lot of regional variations. In West Berkshire where I am the fuel situation seems to have been pretty much fine all the way through apart from last Saturday. In terms of food at supermarkets I’ve not experienced any issues at all at any point. Seemingly neither has anybody else, regardless of some media reports…

https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/reading-tesco-shoppers-food-shortages-21671862

[doog442]

58 minutes ago, cidersteve said:

plenty of petrol in Sainsbury's in Ferndown ,no queues, however no cling film , can't figure that one out 🙂

I'm playing golf at Moors Valley on Monday, I'll pop in and see if I can squeeze an extra couple of quid in the tank ...luckily we're okay for cling film 

Actually I'm good for a Gatwick trip later in the week and a couple of weeks in the Caribbean. ☀️...please let this be history when we get back. Also agree with the post above, few gaps on the shelves but I daresay there'll be another drama happening somewhere soon as the press seem to thrive on it.  

[flotsam]

On 9/30/2021 at 12:13 PM, Boxbrownie said:

.

They always play these tricks.

The last time, it was Francis Maude who told everyone to store petrol in their shed, until everyone pointed out it was a hazard.

Before that Shrub told everyone in America to only buy as much as they needed, which resulted in panic buying.

There have been protests by lorry drivers over fuel prices, except they ran a convoy blocking the motorway, which caused more fuel consumption. One blocked the exit of a refinery. After workers at Total got everything they demanded THEN they went on strike.

[flotsam]

On 9/30/2021 at 10:31 AM, Malc said:

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

Obviously. There are plenty of petrol stations I've seen which are open but no queues and I live in a city.

[Malc]

14 hours ago, doog442 said:

Where the hell is all this fuel suddenly going ?

chatting with my plumber yesterday he was saying that larger vehicles, builders vans and the like, whilst normally just running on a £60 refill are now topping-up AND that means a £190 refill at the pumps 

Maybe that's where a big extra volume of the supplies have been going in single " hits " and depleting the " norm "

I refuse to Q .  hoping I have enuf to see me thru till the Qs really have vanished in a day or few 

Malc

[flotsam]

petrolprices.com seems to have kicked back into life.

Unfortunately, prices of super-unleaded from Tesco is the only one I could find nearby reporting both unleaded and super-unleaded prices and it's over 5% more expensive for super-unleaded, which is a big jump from earlier this year.

[flotsam]

The panic comes as gas (not petrol) prices have tripled, lorry drivers have disappeared and Covid-19 will probably cause another lockdown around the Christmas shopping period; the busiest time of all.

What next, a 230,000 ton ship blown off course by a gust of wind and getting stuck in the Suez Canal, or an electricity connector to France catching fire?!?!

[jumbojake]

yes, just spotted the same regarding petrol prices... if the availability of a price relates to being open, then we now have 3 of 8 stations open, the independent one that stung me £1.74 has dropped their prices to £1.45 .. so clearly things are improving.  Surprising the BP, esso and shell  stations seem to be closed most of the time.. supermarkets seem to be open the most

[mikey2001]

Passed 3 Shell and 1 Texaco fuel stations this morning. The first Shell I stopped at had no queues, but also no fuel 🙂 The 2nd Shell had standard unleaded and diesel, but no super unleaded. I stopped here and put £30's worth of petrol in at £139.9 (they had a sign requesting £35 be the maximum anyone should put in for now), so the prices have definitely gone up a few pence in the last week or so.

The Texaco and other Shell station both seemed to have fuel too. No queues this morning, so the situation seems to be improving here.

[Boxbrownie]

52 minutes ago, Malc said:

chatting with my plumber yesterday he was saying that larger vehicles, builders vans and the like, whilst normally just running on a £60 refill are now topping-up AND that means a £190 refill at the pumps 

Maybe that's where a big extra volume of the supplies have been going in single " hits " and depleting the " norm "

I refuse to Q .  hoping I have enuf to see me thru till the Qs really have vanished in a day or few 

Malc

Exactly this, those that normally run around locally with just a smidge over the red because they never go far will be storing a full tank “just in case”…….just in case all the other idiots choose to top up for no reason at all!

[Boxbrownie]

48 minutes ago, flotsam said:

The panic comes as gas (not petrol) prices have tripled, lorry drivers have disappeared and Covid-19 will probably cause another lockdown around the Christmas shopping period; the busiest time of all.

What next, a 230,000 ton ship blown off course by a gust of wind and getting stuck in the Suez Canal, or an electricity connector to France catching fire?!?!

LOOK OUT…..THEY’RE BEHIND YOU 🤪

[Boxbrownie]

14 hours ago, cidersteve said:

plenty of petrol in Sainsbury's in Ferndown ,no queues, however no cling film , can't figure that one out 🙂

I wouldn’t put it past some of the panicked storers to be lining cardboard boxes with cling film to store fuel, then again I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t even bother with the cling film such is the intellect apparent with many.

[PCM]

As long as I can buy these...

 

[First_Lexus]

A friend was telling about a colleague who is a qualified HGV driver, not working in the industry currently. I trust the friend - this is true, rather than apocryphal.

His colleague now works in a big warehouse. He contacted eight big organisations who - supposedly - are desperate for drivers (not tankers). Most didn’t even reply…

It rather begs the question, are we short of 100k HGV drivers, or are we actually short of 100k cheap HGV drivers recruited from the poorer members of the EU? Answers on a postcard…

[PCM]

I read... the DVLA has a backlog of HGV licence approvals...

1000's

[Brian R]

Let's hope the same storage mentality doesn't prevail should all those wonderfully green electric car owners decide to charge up (just in case) and overload the UK generating capacity. Oh, dear, I think I may have inadvertently given the main stream media their next doomsday headline!

[dutchie01]

2 hours ago, flotsam said:

The panic comes as gas (not petrol) prices have tripled, lorry drivers have disappeared and Covid-19 will probably cause another lockdown around the Christmas shopping period; the busiest time of all.

What next, a 230,000 ton ship blown off course by a gust of wind and getting stuck in the Suez Canal, or an electricity connector to France catching fire?!?!

A meteor the size of a small country hiding behind the sun and coming near a petrolstation near you maybe?