All the people panic buying petrol

[Shitfuckcommaetc]

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

[quote bozzabollix]@Beapot our local petrol station hasn’t had petrol for many days, way before these headlines. It is a supply issue, we’ve got a good few supply issues at the moment because we had to send all those incredibly hardworking people back to the EU.[/quote]
That's not the case across a lot of the country though, people queueing for ages when there's plenty of fuel is ridiculous.

Jesus am I selfish (again)? I've jsut come back from a 200 miles trip from my 4 day holiday (UK) and I was forewarned that the garages in my area were either shut or with stupid queues. So I filled up on the way - at £1.50 a ltr, because one of us will need the car to get to work,from tomorrow. .

I',m one of those sitting here with a full tank of petrol in my car. I'm selfish selfish selfish. Again.

DP is a NHS worker, if that makes it any better

@BluebellsGreenbells

What did you expect?

People need fuel and are worried there won’t be any left?

I bet the police force etc were first in the queue - or the garages keep a supply for them

I hope the emergency services do have priority. If not they definitely should.

@vera99

Let's not forget this is a function of this government's incompetence and confused messaging and an over active media highlighting some BP supply issues. Turns out that Brexit wasn't done by a long shot and is the gift that keeps on taking.

The panic today is down to stupid individuals The driver shortage is way more complex but you can't blame anyone but the drivers themselves for the queues today

All garages should introduce a £30 minimum charge to put a stop to it now

@MidlifeMel

Utterly selfish- I work in social care and couldn’t get near the pump today to fill up and make an essential visit. Nothing but a bunch of self obsessed idiots.

Lots of those "self obsessed idiots" had essential visits too. I bet some were looking at you in the queue and thinking the same.

Totally ridiculous. DH couldn’t get any from the only petrol station near his work because the queue was 30 cars long and he had to get home basically on fumes.

IfImLying - It was some BP and Tesco garages that were originally affected. There was no need to panic at all, but as usual the media exaggerates and makes everyone panic and buy fuel. We never learn

I'm low on petrol, tried to get some today but no luck. Probably got enough for work tomorrow and one more day but don't know what I'll do after that
No public transport at that time of day and presumably taxi drivers will be in the same boat as everyone and unable to get petrol.

I'm worried sick as I am lucky enough to have half a tank of fuel but and it's huge but. DS has life changing surgery booked for Friday and it's a 120 mile return journey. I have an elderly frail parent who I daren't visit as I can't risk my DS's future. I will top up if I can selfish or not.

@Beapot you’re right there’s plenty of fuel but there’s issues with supply and transportation.

@Window1

I agree my petrol light is on and I wait till Payday to fill up again. Not sure there will be any left by then.

Same here and my payday is today but its still ridiculous here with rumours of garages running out. Might have to go out to try and get some in the middle of the night

I wonder if there’s still fuel in the Brexit bus?

Panic buyers are knobs, but let’s not forget the root cause of all this.

This is dreadful, and I feel for you all.

Where I live we have an excellent public transport system. I think UK needs this too in order to stop car reliance.

This may show that the lack of public services, buses etc. has been a fiasco.
Helps the environment too. Electric public transport etc.

It is difficult. I don't want a panic buy but I just checked today and I don't have much petrol left so I don't have much choice but to go out tomorrow (probably at 7am when most people are asleep) to see if the local garages have petrol or not. I only fill up about every 6 weeks but I cannot see any reason to hold off until the tank is so low I cannot drive anywhere.

I filled up yesterday about 4pm as I thought I'd better do it before the 6pm news aired!

If 3 lockdowns haven't taught people how wide and varied "essential workers" are and how many 'cogs in the wheel' there are in society then nothing will (and I say this as a paramedic).

This is my opinion too. Your average hospital requires fuel to get to work, which may be in a bus driven by a person who drives their car to the depot. They may have children who go to nursery, staffed be drivers. Etc.

nothing to do with Brexit - for the hard of understanding.

BP and tesco had a short term problem.
Each garage has limited storage on their forecourts - usually it is fine between fill ups from the refinery can cope with normal demand.

For example if they get 1000 customers a day normally. They are not BP or Tesco - but suddenly they have 5/10 times the number of customers because someone heard there was 'rationing' and everyone and his dog rush out to top up their tanks even though they don't need to.
Of course there will be shortages - mostly caused by people not thinking I have enough for next week so will leave it a week
I remember the fuel refinery blockades 20 years ago - panic buying helps no-one and is selfish ignorant over-entitled behaviour.

Supply or supply chain?

Is there actually a shortage of fuel?

@Generallystruggling

Totally ridiculous. DH couldn’t get any from the only petrol station near his work because the queue was 30 cars long and he had to get home basically on fumes.

Were there no petrol stations on the way home? If not, he's in trouble the next time he needs to use the car.

Why didn't he just queue if he was desperate?

There is no shortage of fuel! It’s just arriving slightly slower .what is going through peoples heads ?

But there is actually a problem… to be honest, I’ve not seen any media outlet that I follow exaggerating. There is actually a problem, we’re agreed and we also don’t if this problem is going to get worse.

I also agree that panic buying is not the solution but I can totally see where it’s come from. Like I said upthread, we’ve had a pandemic (media also “scaremongering” remember…..), warnings of shortages, actual shortages, huge inflation, more shortages, gas and electricity prices soar, then get short, then energy suppliers go bust… then people get wind that there’s fuel shortages.

People are on the bones of their arse right noe. I totally get it.

But whilst you’re all calling each others selfish fuckers and arguing who’s jobs most important, the real culprits of this shit show are getting away with it and you’re falling for it hook line and sinker.

@girlmom21 Good idea!

If we struggle I'm thinking of a back up plan. I'm having a look at Trainline and seeing if there's an early enough train considering we have to be at hospital at 7.45am. So that'll have to be 4 taxi rides and 2 train rides every Monday. It's going to be a long long day!!

I filled up today, as I always would every friday as I need the car for school runs as we're rural with no buses. It was fine this morning, DH filled me up as he was on the school run. By this evening all our petrol stations were closed and pictures of SM were circulating of people filling up loads of Jerry cans!

@Brindle88

The lack of training and hgv tests is more to do with covid not brexit.

And I am sure there are some unemployed people who would take training to get a job , but they are months behind with tests

That's the thing isn't it @XenoBitch you're right, I had no idea what reason the people around me in the queues had to visit the pumps today any more than they did mine (well, apart from the ones that saw me try to squeeze a 37 week baby bump down the side of car, they might have guessed 😂).

If the idea hadn't been put out there that there could be an emerging issue, against a backdrop of everything else that's going wrong in the country at the moment, some of those people wouldn't have been there today, sure. But I can see why this has happened far more than I understood the toilet rolls situation last year, personally!

@Autumngoldleaf

I'm not sure what people are supposed to do though? They may need petrol? We all moan about how in thrall we are to places like Saudi and yet look at how everything relies on petrol. Roll on electric cars!!

If they need petrol anyway then that’s fine. It’s all the idiots panicking and filling up their cars when they don’t need to, and wouldn’t normally, that are causing the problem.