Panic Buying

[DavidDetroit]

There is no shortage.

Right, I get it. I should have said "created a false picture" or "instigated a confusing mess."

 

[Chippy_Tea]

My local Shell hasn't had any fuel for three days or so now...except for the hgv pumps...which they won't let "normal" drivers use...

I read earlier a guy in a fancy car and suit tried to use the HGV pump in the motorway services and covered himself in diesel, they are separate wagon pumps for a reason.

 

[DavidDetroit]

You couldn't make it up.

That's pretty crazy.
Just a word from the media around here and our Kroger's (Tesco equivalent I think) can get entire shelves and the whole fruit & vegetable section cleaned out for no good reason. It does create a shortage, at least temporarily.
Side note: I don't know why people would panic buy perishables.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Right, I get it. I should have said "created a false picture" or "instigated a confusing mess."

The press don't help but the selfish idiots are the real villains in all this, whatever happened to common decency if you have enough fuel to last you easily all week why fill your car just because you can.

 

[Covrich]

Side note: I don't know why people would panic buy perishables.

They do not think rationally. Nothing is rational but it just goes to show that society is full of greedy selfish people.

Things like this just make me feel like we are just prisoners in modern society

 

[jof]

They do not think rationally. Nothing is rational but it just goes to show that society is full of greedy selfish people.

Things like this just make me feel like we are just prisoners in modern society

It just goes to show how fragile society really is.

I'm sure someone can give the proper quote that says something like society is 2 hot dinners away from collapse (or that might be pay days - you get the gist...)

 

[Northern_Brewer]

An early version from pre-WWI is "There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy" but it's one of those ideas that's been restated in various forms over the years by everyone from Trotsky to Pratchett.

Although it gives a warm glow of smugness to criticise the people at the petrol stations, a lot of it is just ordinary people behaving completely rationally, very little of it is people filling up cars that are already 3/4 full. If you can't rely on a petrol station having petrol and you depend on the car to work/taxi kids etc, then it's completely rational to fill up at 1/4 tank if you have the opportunity rather than waiting until you're on fumes. You can't even assume that the people with lots of jerry cans are stockpiling, they could just eg be buying on behalf of a number of vans at a business, although it would obviously help supplies in general if the normal rules on jerry cans were actually enforced - normally it's no more than 10l in plastic and 20l in metal or something like that.

It just goes to show how fragile society really is.

Perhaps more than that, it shows how complex and inter-related things are - I doubt those changing the IR35 rules or voting for Brexit had any thought for the implications for our logistics industry, but this is the kind of area where everybody feels an impact.

 

[An Ankoù]

I, the cynic, have no doubt that the whole thing was seeded and planted by No 10 to take the heat out of energy price rises and forecasts of shortages. With the petrol panic, there are plenty of people to blame, plenty of causes to speculate on and everyone who "beats the system" and gets filled up is a winner and therefore happy. Who's to blame for running down gas storage and not ensuring continuity of supply?

The Smoke and Mirrors Party strikes again.

 

[Covrich]

It just goes to show how fragile society really is.

I'm sure someone can give the proper quote that says something like society is 2 hot dinners away from collapse (or that might be pay days - you get the gist...)

Yes something like a few meals away from the end of civilization.. extreme perhaps but at NB points out more a realisation of how complex and interweaved society is.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It feels kind of daft that there isn't some kind of system for automatically reporting fuel levels at petrol stations since presumably most of them have some kind of "internal" tracking system. But for now this is probably as good as we'll get, based on scouring social media etc for official announcements. motorwayservicesonline.co.uk are reporting that their page views are now way down and are cautiously suggesting that the worst is over - looking at their map the Kent-Yorkshire corridor seems worst hit, whereas eg areas served by Stanlow look relatively OK. Obviously they only cover service stations on trunk roads which get first dibs on any fuel, local stations will be further down the pecking order.


https://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Fuel_Shortage

 

[DavidDetroit]

The press don't help but the selfish idiots are the real villains in all this, whatever happened to common decency if you have enough fuel to last you easily all week why fill your car just because you can.

I agree. Also, I'm so not a fan of the press with their constant manipulations and scare tactics.
I don't know if I should have eased up on my calling the situation a shortage (which it is/was no matter how stupidly it came about). I was just pointing out that people caused it, not the lack of product.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Good news for us Shell have Diesel and E10 unleaded but are out of V-power which unfortunately i am running my car on now.

I asked the lass at the counter when they might have it and she said the tankers are getting to them regularly now.

Panic over.

 

[Clint]

Panic is not over!
Hazelwood can only just manage to "squeeze a pint in "this afternoon....he must be on his war bunker plastic wobbly glasses.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Petrol supply: Reserve fuel tankers on the road from Wednesday, says Kwarteng
By George Bowden & Mary O'Connor
BBC News
Published 16:30 - 29/9/2021


The government's reserve tanker fleet will be "on the road" on Wednesday afternoon to boost fuel deliveries, the business secretary has said.

Civilians will drive the trucks from their depots in Cambridgeshire and West Yorkshire, Kwasi Kwarteng said.

He has also said soldiers would be delivering fuel in the coming days.

There are signs the situation at petrol stations "has begun to improve with more stations getting fuel", he said, after days of long queues.

Mr Kwarteng admitted the situation had been "difficult" but denied there was a crisis in UK fuel supplies.

Ministers have decided to deploy troops to drive tankers in "the next couple of days", he said, in addition to the civilians driving them from Wednesday.

Some 150 military drivers are ready to drive the fuel tankers, with another 150 Army personnel ready to support them.

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) said there were "encouraging signs" the pressure was starting to ease at the pumps, with forecourts taking further fuel deliveries.

The PRA, which represents nearly 5,500 of the UK's 8,000 stations, said 27% of sites had run out of fuel on Wednesday - compared with two-thirds being without on Sunday.

Brian Madderson, PRA chairman, told BBC News that while there were "less queues [and] panic buying" there was still "unusually heavy demand". He said "one or two" petrol station groups were reporting fewer dry sites than on Tuesday.

It would take more than "a day or a few days" to fully replenish stocks at all UK forecourts, he said, but there was still "plenty to go round".

On Tuesday, speaking for the first time since issues began, Prime Minister Boris Johnson also sought to reassure drivers about supplies, saying that people should be "confident" to go about their business.

He said he was not seeking to prioritise essential workers at pumps because things were "stabilising".

Sir Keir Starmer used his first in-person conference speech as Labour leader on Wednesday to criticise the government's handling of fuel supply issues.

Referring to the government's flagship "levelling up" policy to lower regional inequalities, he said: "Level up, you can't even fill up."

He accused the government of ignoring the issues, blaming others and delivering "half-baked" solutions with "no plan in place". Mr Starmer urged the PM to "either get a grip or get out of the way and let us step up to clear up this mess".

Full article - Petrol supply: Reserve fuel tankers on the road from Wednesday, says Kwarteng

 

[chrissyr63]

So saw this

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/inew...mergency-fleet-tankers-government-1224009/amp
So the government had 80 tankers but took 4 days to deploy them!
We have too many drivers now!
They lease the tankers out - is this not scamming a problem them created!
And I think the army move is just a 'look how seriously we take this' but is a counter productive showboat!

Oh and an extra !

 

[Chippy_Tea]

So the government had 80 tankers but took 4 days to deploy them!we have too many drivers now?

The are using army drivers.

 

[Libigage]

We're OK now the army are in on the Shell contract

 

[Cheshire Cat]

We're OK now the army are in on the Shell contract View attachment 55023

If that had happened in the 1970's the T&GWU would have called the drivers out on strike.

 

[Justin Dean]

Filled up today. Tesco. 12 pumps. 1 other car. 1.30pm. Simples.

 

[Clint]

If that had happened in the 1970's the T&GWU would have called the drivers out on strike.

And rightly so! They don't like it up 'em!