AIBU to think there's more to the petrol "crisis" than meets the eye?

[tartantroosers]

AIBU to think there's something very weird going on with the fuel "shortages"!
Big caveat- I'm not a conspiracy theorist but it's so bad where we are (Just inside M25) that many people I know won't be able to get to work this week. Garages have queues which are blocking all main routes and they're not even open! Is this a novel way of ensuring that we all "STAY AT HOME" ?!

[MargosKaftan]

I dont think its a conspiracy. However, I think its a good sign that whatever the polls say, trust for the government has dropped dramatically. "You don't need to stock up fuel" = everyone thinking "we need to stock up".



The public dont believe them anymore on mass. Not just a few cranks or people who'd rather lick a razor blade than vote Tory, the majority don't trust them. People don't believe they have control or are able to fix a problem.

[SerendipityJane]

I think there is something odd going on as according to the news, apparently there is a worldwide shortage of HGV drivers and this is what’s to blame for the fuel and shop shortages.

If that's the case why aren't we being distracted with reports of shortages, empty shelves and panic buying from all over the world ?

[tartantroosers]

As I said. I'm not trying to light a fire here, but it's like the fucking plagues of Egypt atm. One thing after another. Gaaaahhh.

[safariboot]

The last two years has shown that if our government wants us to stay at home, they just have to tell us to, on pain of a fine.

[Jammysod]

It's only a crisis because selfish people turned it into one.
If everyone just bought what they needed (instead of filling their tanks & numerous Jerry cans) then we wouldn't be in this position.
One local petrol station made it very clear that they had a delivery booked for tomorrow & there was plenty to go around if people were sensible. They closed yesterday, despite having a £30 limit in place.
It's toilet roll all over again.

[Dreamstate]

@SerendipityJane

I think there is something odd going on as according to the news, apparently there is a worldwide shortage of HGV drivers and this is what’s to blame for the fuel and shop shortages.

If that's the case why aren't we being distracted with reports of shortages, empty shelves and panic buying from all over the world ?

Because its doesn't suit the agenda to let people.know it's not just us. Look around on here and threads balming brexit still look these shortages i mean ffs.

It helps to keep divisions going, fear in people

[mpsw]

@SerendipityJane

I think there is something odd going on as according to the news, apparently there is a worldwide shortage of HGV drivers and this is what’s to blame for the fuel and shop shortages.

If that's the case why aren't we being distracted with reports of shortages, empty shelves and panic buying from all over the world ?

Then WTAF aren't they using the pool of well qualified military HGV drivers?

Not for everything, perhaps, but for critical supplies like fuel.

It just doesn't add up.

• so either it's not availability of drivers,
  
• or if it is the government is eIther/both staggeringly incompetent or following a different agenda

[Blossomtoes]

@tartantroosers

As I said. I'm not trying to light a fire here, but it's like the fucking plagues of Egypt atm. One thing after another. Gaaaahhh.

You ain’t seen nothing yet. Some of us lived through the 70s.

[NoSquirrels]

@SerendipityJane

I think there is something odd going on as according to the news, apparently there is a worldwide shortage of HGV drivers and this is what’s to blame for the fuel and shop shortages.

If that's the case why aren't we being distracted with reports of shortages, empty shelves and panic buying from all over the world ?

We’re in a much more vulnerable position than a lot of the rest of the developed world.

We’re a tiny island. Mainland Europe or USA are much bigger, and thus import less proportionally/have easier access to goods. Then we voted ourselves out of the advantages of being in Europe and introduced loads more bureaucratic nightmares.

Everywhere has a shortage of HGV drivers but we’re proportionally more screwed.

[NoSquirrels]

Then WTAF aren't they using the pool of well qualified military HGV drivers?

Not for everything, perhaps, but for critical supplies like fuel.

This is one weekend’s worth of panic buying which will be mostly resolved by next week. There’s no shortage of fuel itself.

We don’t need the military yet.

[sst1234]

Agree OP, something bigger is going on. But I have a slightly different theory to yours and something which I suspect happens quite a lot - price fixing and artificial demand generation.
The refineries are probably sitting on quite a lot of supply and wanted to get cash flow going. A handful of BP garages had supply issues on Thursday, absolutely no reason that it needed to make the news. Yet, it was a BBC headline, as was on every other network. By Friday demand goes through the roof. Suspicious, much.

[Staffy1]

@AFuturisticalSound, no, not kidding, I certainly hadn’t heard anything about it and there were no petrol or food shortages until very recently, which are being blamed on the HGV driver shortage. If there has been a shortage all along, that can’t be the reason.

[tigger1001]

@LemonCake79

I don't think it has anything to do with covid.

I do wonder if BP intended to force the government's hands on visas. After all, this all started with just six filling stations closed. The rest is all media hype.

I do wonder this too.

I got fuel today (needed it and only put enough in to get to work this week). Garage was quite quiet and had fuel. No queues but said Friday and yesterday were mental. The guy in the garage also said theve had no issues with deliveries and suspects it's driven to cause people to behave in certain ways.

I wonder what news is being buried due to this.

[LaurieFairyCake]

Dh is just about to go out to find petrol

No choice - he says the light is going to come on tomorrow 🤷‍♀️

[Staffy1]

Last week we had the same number of H.G.V drivers, yet no panic regarding fuel at Petrol stations

Exactly.

[sst1234]

@Staffy1

Last week we had the same number of H.G.V drivers, yet no panic regarding fuel at Petrol stations

Exactly.

There was no panic this week either, until news channels decided to make it news. That’s the suspect thing here. Why make something news that isn’t? I guess you just follow the money and see why.

[goingbacktothecaves]

daft neighbour took his 3 cars to the petrol station to fill them up as he is so concerned about being stuck, also filled up a couple of jerrycans. Him and his wife have no kids and both work from home and only seem to drive to the takeaway shop.
Personally i think the government wanted to boost take up of E10 fuel and grab a few extra million in tax while at it, and the haulage companies have managed to avoid having to pay proper wages for their drivers but getting a getoutofjailcard of Euro Visas

[SpacemanDad]

Overthinking this one a little I think.
The whole situation is down to people being dicks.
DS’s girlfriend’s mum works in a petrol station and has spent the last four days putting up with them. We sent him Round there with a bottle of wine tonight

[HideousKinky]

Just now on Radio 4 news bulletin they said the panic buying means that two-thirds of petrol stations are now dry

[sst1234]

@goingbacktothecaves

daft neighbour took his 3 cars to the petrol station to fill them up as he is so concerned about being stuck, also filled up a couple of jerrycans. Him and his wife have no kids and both work from home and only seem to drive to the takeaway shop.
Personally i think the government wanted to boost take up of E10 fuel and grab a few extra million in tax while at it, and the haulage companies have managed to avoid having to pay proper wages for their drivers but getting a getoutofjailcard of Euro Visas

Completely agree about the EU visas thing. This way everyone will clap the govt and say well done, because they make it look like they are saving the supply chain. They would have got bad press otherwise for u turning on this.

[sst1234]

@SpacemanDad

Overthinking this one a little I think.
The whole situation is down to people being dicks.
DS’s girlfriend’s mum works in a petrol station and has spent the last four days putting up with them. We sent him Round there with a bottle of wine tonight

Really? You really cannot see the anomalies here?

[Blossomtoes]

@SpacemanDad

Overthinking this one a little I think.
The whole situation is down to people being dicks.
DS’s girlfriend’s mum works in a petrol station and has spent the last four days putting up with them. We sent him Round there with a bottle of wine tonight

I agree. Human greed and stupidity at its finest.

[Gimlisaxe]

I think its either one of two things (there is a third option, which is basically the Public are stupid, but that one is not as much fun)

1. The government are starting to see that the public are really not with them with regards to this Brexit. So they are trying to get as much of the shit happening because of it out now, so they can blame covid.
2. Something massive is going to break in the next week or so, that could devestate the government, I mean really big and they have though we need to try and bury that under a ton of other shit, we have no royals that can announce a pregnancy (I am still look at Kate) marry or kill to distract people, next best thing, get people to panic about fuel, food and gas prices.

[Summerbubbles]

@PicsInRed

so what’s supposed to have happened to all the HGV drivers suddenly?

At a guess...covid caused a lot of expat people to repatriate themselves and their families to ride it out back home, and HGV driver tend to be older and male, so sadly possibly more susceptible to covid.

There are a few things really, first over the years we have relied on drivers from other parts of Europe, we used to be attractive to them because our pay was good compared to other countries, however pay here has stagnated while in other countries it increased so we are no longer as attractive.
Many self employed drivers used to use the ir35 tax loophole and now have to be employed as PAYE and so again financially they lose out.
The hours are long and unsociable and the working conditions are poor.
There has been nothing to encourage a new younger generation of drivers for decades because the government were happy to rely on the cheap foreign labor.
The government should have seen this all coming years ago and had a plan ready but as always they wait for things to go badly wrong before acting.

[Staffy1]

What I don’t like is the way the government is going on about these shortages probably lasting for the foreseeable future. If it’s all due to panic buying (which it seems to be, I don’t see how the driver shortage is a problem this week when it wasn’t last week but could be wrong), why should it be a problem forever?