Bad tempered people and petrol queues.

This is a Giles cartoon from 1953. Hope it makes you smile! Nothing really changes! ?

Catterygirl only by acting as a submerged life ring for her long enough for a lifeguard to pull her off me and get her to the side...

So sort of? Lol

I didn’t like (dare?) to comment, but listening to friends who are couples and retired and have two cars, it occurred to me that when they said how they had “topped up”,or filled up “his” car, usually the larger and with a bigger tank, that was two cars worth, whereas those of us on our own have to do all our driving - whether to shops or travel - in one car.

AIBU to believe that two people do not necessarily cover twice as many miles as one?

Violet Sky. Well done for saving the girl. When I attended life saving classes, they stressed the importance of not helping strangers unless throwing them a towel and hauling them in. A family member should relax and listen to your instructions. Unless it was a toddler, I am afraid I wouldn’t risk life saving swimming but would do all possible to call professional assistance.

It’s a sad world

We were very lucky this afternoon, in E Kent. We went to Tesco to fill up and we’re the last car allowed in. There had been no queue. But earlier in our journey, we saw queues of up to 1 mile on the opposite side of the dual carriageway.

I know English is a living language but it sadddens me the number of times people say "sat" instead of sitting. .... just saying!

Clearly it’s not correct to say that nowhere has fuel! I filled up our little car yesterday at Sainsbury’s, all very well organised with everyone queuing patiently.
My husband filled up his larger car today on his way to work at the same place and again managed ok after a fifteen minute queue.

I do feel for people in parts of the country which have very limited outlets open but things do seem to be improving.

usuallyright

Has no one noticed that the general way of life now is the word SELF.
One usually puts oneself first before others.
Witness the use of Me when quite a lot of people speak, for instance, you often hear people say such things as, say for example, "me and my mum went to town yesterday" which is not only putting self first, but, is not good English language. If that statement is split into separate entities, it would be as though saying "my mother went to town yesterday" and "me went with her"' Is this good English Language, and how has it been allowed to happen?

If you are talking about me I didn't panic buy petrol as we were told it would be ok by today, now I hardly have any left and nowhere has any.

Fair enough Alegrias. I suppose that ties in with pay rates then too. 5th reason on chart

There has always been a shortage of drivers even pre Brexit. Poland actually has a bigger shortage then UK! There is not a shortage of ADR drivers there is however a shortage of common sense. The man who let slip what was said in a private meeting kicked off this melee I hope did not go so deliberately. There was no problem getting fuel last week only when headlines screamed of a fuel shortage then the idiots came out. One of my colleagues spoke to the cashier at a petrol station snd she said the problem is people are coming in daily and tipping up £25/20 instead they would have filled up then let the tank run low before coming in again. If the 20,000 drivers that left the UK hardly any would have had ADR licenses

I called at our local Tesco this morning ( 8am), on the way to an appointment. At first I thought it was closed, as there were no cars there, not one! I fully expected to see cones across the entrance to the pumps, but no, I drove straight to a pump.

I did look around to check for" closed " signs, but it seemed all ok, so I filled up. As I drove out, one other car arrived.

The Shell garage near us was closed over the weekend, as it was dry, but is open again now and it seems to be business as usual, no queues.

So it appears depend on which part of the country you are in. We are in West Yorkshire.

I do feel sorry for those who depend on their cars for work, or for caring for others. I appreciate the fact that because I'm retired, I don't "have" to do many journeys. However if I was still caring for my Mum ( she sadly died in June), I would have needed my car every day to get to her.

Let's hope the situation is soon resolved. Take care everyone.

Apparently HGV drivers over a certain age have to get relicensed and they can't just do it online but have to send all their forms and paperwork in to the DVLC. There was a fully qualified, experienced HGV driver on the radio this morning saying that he sent his paperwork in July and has not had his license returned. From tomorrow he cannot legally drive an HGV.

I've been lucky to have filled up before this all started, because I needed to. First time with the new petrol, only to read that this goes off within a month, and people. Should only be filling half up, well I should need more before a month. But wonder if anyone who is stockpiling petrol ( rather than taking it for carers) knows that. Son in law who needs diesel as he travels for a living, he has been having problems
Well being a long distance lorry driver is not for everyone, recently read a description by one and it is a really unpleasant job, expensive to park at motorway services, very few places where they can park up for the night with facilities, and a good meal, lots of time away from their family too.there needs to be a lot more available to make life reasonable for drivers. I'd not want to do it myself.
The government are desperate, my daughter that has an hgv licence has had a letter begging her to take up a driving job. She needs one as a minor part of her job, and honestly wouldn't want to give up her job to become a driver.
To get a licence is expensive and takes a long time to get sorted.

Has no one noticed that the general way of life now is the word SELF.
One usually puts oneself first before others.
Witness the use of Me when quite a lot of people speak, for instance, you often hear people say such things as, say for example, "me and my mum went to town yesterday" which is not only putting self first, but, is not good English language. If that statement is split into separate entities, it would be as though saying "my mother went to town yesterday" and "me went with her"' Is this good English Language, and how has it been allowed to happen?

IR35 is to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of the tax they owe.

I don't think abandoning that is a good idea. Its already been put back by a year, I believe.

I mean the changes to IR35 have only just been introduced

There is no fuel within 20 miles either side of me, some unleaded at some apparently but no diesel at all. I'd call that a shortage. Most petrol stations have just closed completely as presumably if they only have a small shop, they are working at a loss. Great there are no shortages by some of you but I'm fed up of with people just denying things are happening.

IR35 would be easily solved wouldn't it as it has only just been introduced and it's number 3 on that chart

I know it's not funny, but honestly....I did laugh.

Derbyshire drivers queue for hours at closed petrol station

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-58721650

Milliedog

@GagaJo
Actually this has nothing to do with Brexit. I did some research (No. Not the Daily Mail). There are 54,000 HGV licences held up at the DVLA. Also, I went on a German transport website. Lorry driver shortages in Germany. Lorry driver shortages in Poland. Our media is not reporting this....Lorry drivers in Britain and the continent are retiring (age and other less stressful jobs, wages etc) but trainee lorry drivers can't get the training they need because of Covid. And I also heard ( reliable source but haven't had time to verify this yet) that lorries / HGV vehicles arrive at the warehouses to collect goods but because of Covid (isolation knock on effect as well as actual cases) there aren't enough warehouse staff to load the lorries and HGV vehicles so the lorries and HGV are held in long queues. It's easy to automatically blame Brexit, but it's more complicated than that. But don't expect to see this in our media. Much of the media is headquartered in London - and guess what? London was heavily anti Brexit!

posted the wrong quote ,sorry

I see the denial brigade are out in force today.

The actual industry say that Brexit is the second biggest reason for the lack of drivers. But they're probably lying

Maggiemaybe

One of our local garage managers has just been interviewed and asked why none of his seven sites has had to close or has seen any of the disgraceful scenes reported elsewhere. He said that as soon as the news of possible shortages broke on Thursday he brought in extra employees so that there were two people directing traffic and speaking to drivers at each garage. They'd received their normal deliveries of fuel last Wednesday, an amount which would usually last a week. The majority of this went within two days, despite a spending cap being imposed, but he had no trouble getting extra deliveries on Friday. And his usual Wednesday deliveries have arrived today. In the interview he stated that there are as many tanker drivers now as there were pre-pandemic.

He worked on one of the forecourts himself, reassuring people that there was no need to panic. The only customers allowed to fill jerry cans were those who had broken down within walking distance of the garage.

A bit of good management and common sense goes an awful long way.

Actually this has alot to do with Brexit because many of the European HGV drivers have returned home and as Veganrock said at 13.26 there maybe a shortage of drivers in Europe but there aren't shortages of anything and no panics.

The British media do seem to look for one disaster after the other but maybe the demand is there from the public, afterall bad news sells better than good.

I see the "blame Brexit" brigade are out in force today. There is no fuel shortage, some idiot leaked something to the media and they did what they do best and blew it all out of proportion - just like last year's toilet roll debacle. The fuel companies have been stressing for days that there is plenty of fuel in UK refineries and storage facilities - but of course the sheep listen to the media and ignore good sense. There are several issues that are contributing to the lack of HGV drivers of all kinds: first around 20,000 European drivers returned home during covid to be near their families; second DVLA have a huge backlog of licences waiting to be issued; third there are thousands of potential drivers waiting to take their tests (also down to covid); and yes Brexit has had a small impact - but its a minor factor compared to the others. This hysteria should never have happened - the media have a lot to answer for!

GagaJo

An ex student of mine, now a nurse, has been driving around this morning after coming off night-shift, looking for petrol. I feel sorry for her having to do this, after working a 12 hour shift. And if she can't get petrol, she won't be able to get to work tonight.

Own goal, Brexit.

What exactly has Brexit got to do with this? More than enough fuel at depots. Someone idiot leaked a memo from BP that they were limiting a very few petrol deliveries and the media hyped it up causing panic. Not only is the UK short of HGV drivers so are Germany, Spain, France, Poland to name just a few. Brexit caused shortages there??

WoodLane7

A friend who works at a fuel station says there have been shortages of drivers for many months and years. These have been managed to date; the turning point has been Bp having a supply issue at a small handful of outlets and leaking it to the media who have hyped it up way beyond the scope of the problem at that time. The inevitable result - a rush on fuel courtesy of a panicked public.
The media has a great deal to answer for

But why did BP mention there small problem to the media.
Was it to force the Government to get foreign drivers on the list of essential workers.
The minute BP made their announcement last Thursday this was always going to be the result.

After the announcement I told my son who has a plant hire and ground works company, so heavily relies on fuel, dont panic, then i said I'm panicking I'm trying not to but I am.. It is human nature to panic.

I have been very lucky living near a motorway. I went at 5.30 this morning as I do every Wednesday and got shouted at by the assistant in the shop over the loud speaker for going over £30.
I didn't know there was a limit on there weren't any signs. I put£33 in usually takes £90 to fill up.
That was at a BP garage. I'm fine with the rations but if there had been a sign I wouldn't have needed shouting at.
I don't blame the man serving for shouting at me. But I resent being made to feel I'm an entitled grabber for trying to fill up something I do every week as a car driver it's like breathing for humans.
I feel we are quite an angry society. A lot of angry men about. My gd aged 5 says she is going to lead the army when she is older and sort out all the angry men! There are a few women too who like to join in.
I don't blame drivers for filling up. But emptying water bottles that's just idiocy.
I'm dreading filling our green bottle for the lawn mower for work we will probs get judged.
I hope everyone who needs and wants fuel can get it and avoidz unpleasantness. Its maybe worth trying early in the morning.

HurdyGurdy

Well if you think they're all bad . . .

HurdyGurdy Thanks for giving us something to laugh at.

Can some people stop telling others what to think or say?
You know who you are????