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Original poster

All the people panic buying petrol

999 replies

Shitfuckcommaetc · 24/09/2021 16:45

Are fucking selfish, and will be the first to moan when they're takeaway can't be delivered, they can't get a taxi, or places are short staffed as people CAN'T GET TO WORK

god I'm pissed off

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
Xenia · 25/09/2021 15:27

Another local station is now totally out of petrol. I gave up first thing. My son has a friend starting his first job in London, whole move planned around someone driving a van, all kinds of expenses incurred including congestion charge (no refund obviously) - now stranded in London without any of his stuff, all those costs written off. We give £40m + to fraudsters for covid money and cannot even ensure hard working tax payers can buy petrol

BananaPB · 25/09/2021 15:45

@PizzaCrust

The media causes all these fucking disasters and it’s always us in the retail sector who have to deal with it. First it was the mass buying of toilet rolls and beans, now it’s fuel.

There isn’t a fuel shortage. There’s a shortage of drivers. This isn’t an issue where I live (in the UK but not England) because our fuel drivers work on a self employed basis and are all trained properly. They’ve been in these jobs for years and aren’t just going to pack them in now. Hence we have no shortages (in fact, one of our fuel suppliers (global name) actually overestimated how much fuel shops would need and had to go around to various different sites to empty the lorry because they had a technical issue with the monitoring system).

I also think a lot of people misunderstand how much fuel it actually takes to fill a vehicle. Capping fuel fills at £30 is fine for a car, but some HGVs take upwards of £500 worth for a fill. If you cap fuel it doesn’t fix issues. It just means more lorries can’t deliver other goods, so this has a lead on effect across all sectors.

The media have a lot to answer for.

How much does it take to fill an ambulance ?

Iirc in 2000 it was emergency vehicles only for a few days at some petrol stations

DressBitch · 25/09/2021 15:51

No queues at the two petrol stations closest to me.

Because they've both completely run out.

What a time to be heavily pregnant and unable to get fuel!

NotMyCat · 25/09/2021 15:51

I've just come back from the supermarket
BP one closed
Sainsburys was open, closed as I left and had a sign up about abuse not being tolerated
Tiny overpriced garage nobody goes in was rammed
Garage at the end of my road which is open every day (including Christmas Day, they even opened the day after a machete attack), closed

People are bonkers and really not helping. I went for food, not fuel! Just was nosy on the way home

TartanJumper · 25/09/2021 16:01

I just had occasion to get on a bus and go several towns away for an appointment.
First garage we passed was closed, no fuel. Next few had queues. Finally got to the last leg of the journey, took 45 minutes to do a route that normally takes 20 minutes because of the queues for one petrol station. (Luckily, I always aim to arrive anywhere on public transport an hour early to allow for delays etc).
Got the train back as couldn't be arsed with it in reverse.

CharleyMarley · 25/09/2021 16:05

This reply has been deleted

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DottyHarmer · 25/09/2021 16:12

Nice. Actually it is more important for people to get to work. The petrol will be back in a few days. Unless people are running very low there is no need to clog up the streets to panic buy.

pelosi · 25/09/2021 16:19

I’m starting to run low but dreading the queues.

Anyone know best time to try the petrol garage? I’m thinking 6am but then there might not be a delivery by then.

The closest garage has closed for the weekend.

pelosi · 25/09/2021 16:20

@DottyHarmer

Nice. Actually it is more important for people to get to work. The petrol will be back in a few days. Unless people are running very low there is no need to clog up the streets to panic buy.
Maybe the retired people need to do childcare for people who work?
Housewife2010 · 25/09/2021 16:21

@Zeal

The best option is to only half fill the tank. We never, ever need a full tank. Let me explain.

Whenever I go from A to B, I have noticed they are never at the same height above sea level. Therefore, logically half the journey is going to going down and the other half is going to be going up. When I am going downhill, gravity will allow the car to roll forward and I do not need the engine running to achieve that. When I need to go uphill, I can engage the engine and use that power to drive the car uphill against gravity.

It is that simple. I use the empty top part of the tank to go downhill and the bottom half, which contains the fuel of course, to go uphill. Because I never need to completely fill my tank, my fuel bills are only 50% of what they would otherwise be.

Do all your trips involve visiting Peppa Pig 🐽?
pelosi · 25/09/2021 16:23

@PizzaCrust

The media causes all these fucking disasters and it’s always us in the retail sector who have to deal with it. First it was the mass buying of toilet rolls and beans, now it’s fuel.

There isn’t a fuel shortage. There’s a shortage of drivers. This isn’t an issue where I live (in the UK but not England) because our fuel drivers work on a self employed basis and are all trained properly. They’ve been in these jobs for years and aren’t just going to pack them in now. Hence we have no shortages (in fact, one of our fuel suppliers (global name) actually overestimated how much fuel shops would need and had to go around to various different sites to empty the lorry because they had a technical issue with the monitoring system).

I also think a lot of people misunderstand how much fuel it actually takes to fill a vehicle. Capping fuel fills at £30 is fine for a car, but some HGVs take upwards of £500 worth for a fill. If you cap fuel it doesn’t fix issues. It just means more lorries can’t deliver other goods, so this has a lead on effect across all sectors.

The media have a lot to answer for.

Do you really think people think £30 is enough for a HGV? Confused
M4J4 · 25/09/2021 16:30

@Xenia

Mine is low and I got up early to get some but petrol station 1 - queues down to the round about and it was not even clear they had any so I turned around, no. 2 queues right back to the round about so I turned around and no. 3 no queues all so I drove in but signs al over that they had nothing.

If it is going to take several trips like that to 3 stations to fill it up I will have run out of petrol before I can get some. I will have to walk with a can I suppose in due course to get enough to fill it up to drive to a petrol station when and if there is petrol or there are no queues. Reminds me of the 1970s. I still have my parents' oil lamps from those days of power cuts, the 3 day week. 60% inflation over 3 years, 99% upper tax rate.

Surely the only people who would put in £10 of petrol stead of filling the tank are the not well off.

Are you seriously begrudging those people from filling up their tank for once?

CatRamsey · 25/09/2021 16:33

The last few days my petrol light has been on and I kept putting off going. Yesterday I knew I'd need to go and obviously this had to bloody happen! Wasted what little petrol I had driving around because the first two stations I went to were already closed as they'd ran out. And when I finally got to one... I completely ran out of petrol!! Had to get the guy behind me to help me push my car to the pump... So embarrassing!!

pelosi · 25/09/2021 16:37

@CatRamsey God that is a nightmare!

Hope you’ve filled up?

I’m dreading the petrol hunt.

cookingisoverrated · 25/09/2021 16:46

HGVs and emergency vehicles aren't being capped.

They should also be allowed to the front of any and all queues upon their arrival at any station going forward.

Everyone else panic buying needs to give their head a good wobble.

spottyteapots · 25/09/2021 16:46

I had to travel quite a bit to get some diesel, passing several empty stations today but really needed some last night
. I live rurally with only one car and it's worrying me quite a lot.

Very few places deliver to us so I'm hoping it all blows over soon. Am staying in all weekend now but because we are rural our rather long school run is not a choice and I'm planning to only drive to school and back until this is over just in case. I can't hear any traffic at all on the road by us so I think everyone else here is doing the same.

spottyteapots · 25/09/2021 16:47

Meant to say needed some last night but all the usual supermarkets were empty so had to go home! Even this morning going back to the more expensive rural ones were also empty

RedToothBrush · 25/09/2021 17:00

Do you really think people think £30 is enough for a HGV?

HGVs tend to fill up at different places to cars in a separate facility.

In theory emergency vehicles probably can use lorry parks if need be. Especially if they are diesel.

Phil McCann was reporting this morning that the garage he was at wasn't expecting another delivery for another 9 days. Others will be expecting deliveries sooner and in theory if people have a full tank they wont need to refill for a while. But it is going to take a while for every garage which has run out to be back to normal. Everyone trying to conserve as much petrol as they can, and foregoing trips they might not necessarily need for the next few days will help too.

But yeah, i definitely find it scary and I don't like being dependent on the local small supermarket here for a while as its hit and miss. Plus prices there are already higher than elsewhere and have gone up this week. For example chicken breast is normally about £5.25 per kg there (never much alternative to breast as a cut). On Friday it was £7 per kg.

MarshaBradyo · 25/09/2021 17:04

Reading about changes to help shortage hopefully won’t bring new issues

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/supply-crisis-why-is-there-a-hgv-driver-shortage-and-how-bad-could-the-problem-get-12417317

One thing is as someone said on radio people aren’t using more fuel so once people have what they need it should get better quite quickly - past this sharp demand that is

pelosi · 25/09/2021 17:07

@RedToothBrush

Do you really think people think £30 is enough for a HGV?

HGVs tend to fill up at different places to cars in a separate facility.

In theory emergency vehicles probably can use lorry parks if need be. Especially if they are diesel.

Phil McCann was reporting this morning that the garage he was at wasn't expecting another delivery for another 9 days. Others will be expecting deliveries sooner and in theory if people have a full tank they wont need to refill for a while. But it is going to take a while for every garage which has run out to be back to normal. Everyone trying to conserve as much petrol as they can, and foregoing trips they might not necessarily need for the next few days will help too.

But yeah, i definitely find it scary and I don't like being dependent on the local small supermarket here for a while as its hit and miss. Plus prices there are already higher than elsewhere and have gone up this week. For example chicken breast is normally about £5.25 per kg there (never much alternative to breast as a cut). On Friday it was £7 per kg.

That’s what I thought too. Even at motorway services, HGVs have a separate area.

I agree about conserving petrol and will be getting public transport on Monday rather than taking the car.

RedToothBrush · 25/09/2021 17:14

Pelosi the problem is in places without public transport (or reliable public transport).

Bus routes in my council area have been cut in the last few weeks due to a lack of drivers...

janj2301 · 25/09/2021 17:27

Big users of fuel have their own supplies, ie bus garages, council depots

Morgysmum · 25/09/2021 17:30

It is really frustrating, I work at a BP garage and according to my boss, the BP garages that were closed on the news, apparently have been closed for a while, but no one has noticed, then its been blown up out of proportion.
Now there could be problems as the fuel tankers are scheduled, when to deliver. So if there isn't a schedule delivery then they can run out.
But its affecting ambulances too, as there is a crew saying they are low on fuel, but struggling to find some where to fill up. So let's hope those who panic brought, don't need to go to hospital.

Lincslady53 · 25/09/2021 17:33

Normally, I try to keep at least a half tank as my mum is on a care home, 200 miles away and I need enough to be able to get to see her should an emergency arise. If there are shortages, I need enough to get there and back, so I will keep my tank topped up if I pass a garage and there is no queue. I think that BP have engineered the situation to put pressure on the gov to allow more foreign drivers in, rather than improve pay and conditions for their drivers.

Oreo78 · 25/09/2021 17:34

On Thursday morning my petrol warning light came on and so I filled up the tank. Not that £40 completely fills it up these days.
Now I am being really cautious and trying not to drive anywhere. I am cycling to the local shops and I will even request to WFH for most of next week, so I don't waste petrol going to the office.

I think anyone who has filled up their tank needs to really be careful and make it last.