Petrol queues reported now on BBC news

Whitewavemark2

ayse

Whitewavemark2

As Richard Murphy would say, unfortunately the market is not working as the Tories expect.

It’s a free market economy! Let the market decide! I thought this was exactly what the government should expect. Absolute chaos! My tongue very firmly in cheek.

?. I suppose this assumption is what informs their actions.

INFORMS! ????

??????

There was an interview on "Today" this morning Professor Stephen Reicher, from School of Psychology and Neuroscience at St. Andrews University.

He was asked how we should understand the reaction to panic buying. He suggested that the first thing is that we shouldn't call it "panic buying". He pointed out, none of the people on the previously run report was panic buying "they were acting perfectly sensibly". This, he commented, is more a problem of "prevoked buying" than "panic buying".

If you are told everybody else is buying up fuel and is panicking then it makes perfect sense for you to act likewise. In fact, the irrational thing would be for you to do nothing because, by then, all the fuel would be bought up.

He went on to say that this is an issue of communication; an issue of messaging; an issue of what we are told about what other people are doing and how we react to this. He added that this reflects a wider fact. That our behavior is dominated as much by what we think others are thinking as by what we are thinking ourselves.

He was asked what we could do things differently from the point where the warning went out that fuel could be affected by the lorry driver shortage. He suggested three things.

First - don't use the term "panic buying" or use imagery that implies it. This applied particularly to the media.
Show more images of stations that are functioning well. This is difficult for the media as the mundane is not exciting but an accurate picture should be given as it is important.
Research has shown that generally, people help one another in a crisis rather than panic. We need to talk about this as a community issue rather than a consumer one.

He felt that throughout the pandemic the "people" had been treated as the problem. If you treat them in that way they become the problem. If you tell them that others are breaking the rules then they will begin to wonder what the point is in obeying them.

He saw trust as critical when the warning first went out. Central to any crisis is the government building trust with people and treating people with respect. Throughout the pandemic, the government has squandered trust. During the pandemic, there has been a sense of one law for us and another for them. That has led to a division and a loss of trust. With any information you give, your relationship to the source of that information is critical. This is another reason why government need to understand that central to the response to any crisis is trust and if government squander trust they lose their best tool for having people listen to them.

My view is that this agrees with what I have said. Shouting that it is the medias fault (they behaved in the character we would expect) would not have been needed if this government had no squandered its "trust capital".

We have a govenment that lies - like it's leader, blames anyone it sees as a threat to its power - like it's leader and has embued very little trust in the process of government - reflecting a lack of trush by the public in their leader.

Grannygravy: Not sure where Whitewavemark2 lives but we are in west Kent and haven't had garden waste collected for last 2 months due to shortage of HGV drivers. We made one trip to council tip to dispose of garden waste after cutting our 100 foot long hedge (both sides as we are on a corner plot) . I believe it is the same in many areas around the country, although strangely, our neighbouring council doesn't seem to be affected!

This morning one of the papers had the headline "Strictly Covid Chaos". Because one couple have tested positive and will miss one show.

But no, the media don't exaggerate or pretend things are worse that they are, of course not.

Reicher suggested showing pictures of petrol stations working as normal. Where are those pictures then? No, lets tell everyone it's a shambles. That'll help.

lemongrove

It would seem that a few posters are doing their best to add to the panic by the comments on these pages.That’s how it spreads, by doom laden posts on social media.Sometimes by people with anti- government agendas, or simple panicking for no reason.
The petrol queues wouldn’t have happened without media and social media hyping it all up in the first place.

I am sorry lemongrove- but this was a disaster waiting to happen- and was very clearly predicted, a long time ago. The Government knew it, Johnson knew it. And no, it will not just go away and back to normal soon - it will only get worse.

If you mistreat, insult, send packing a huge proportion of your key workers, this is what happens. The shortage will not improve in the next few days, weeks or months either. You don't have to be anti-Government, or 'remain' ... to see there is a REAL longterm problem here. The reality about water purifying chmicals is REAL, same for many medicines and isotopes.

If you believe it will- please do share how this will be done. Please. Makes no difference if you are Brexiter or Remain, or support Labour or Tories or the raving loony party.

granfromafar

Grannygravy: Not sure where Whitewavemark2 lives but we are in west Kent and haven't had garden waste collected for last 2 months due to shortage of HGV drivers. We made one trip to council tip to dispose of garden waste after cutting our 100 foot long hedge (both sides as we are on a corner plot) . I believe it is the same in many areas around the country, although strangely, our neighbouring council doesn't seem to be affected!

Thank you, we are in S E Essex and so far are still getting garden waste collected weekly, our rubbish and recycling collections are also unaffected.

It is a conundrum as to why some areas are suffering more than others. I know that two of our local petrol stations have had deliveries over the weekend, but I haven’t been out to see if they are open still. DD has to venture out as her car is on red and she has to go to work tomorrow, no public transport available as an alternative.

Himself has just been out to get petrol. No queue. No problem.
?

Alegrias1

This morning one of the papers had the headline "Strictly Covid Chaos". Because one couple have tested positive and will miss one show.

But no, the media don't exaggerate or pretend things are worse that they are, of course not.

Reicher suggested showing pictures of petrol stations working as normal. Where are those pictures then? No, lets tell everyone it's a shambles. That'll help.

I am beginning to feel a headache coming on with the repeated banging of my head against the wall…

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

DH back - no luck. Car will now sit.

Just having coffee and discussing cutting down autumn stuff in garden and decided to take it all to the tip ourselves as nothing is being collected

Then the light came on???

Are you saying that your household /garden waste is not being collected?

I would be ringing/emailing council offices repeatedly in your situation. What is their reasons for cancellation? Have all your bin men suddenly left, are they all isolating?

The collections have been dodgy for months and months.

Recycling got collected this week, but rubbish not collected for 3weeks now. Can’t remember the last time the garden rubbish was collected for which we pay £60 pa.

GrannyGravy13

granfromafar

Grannygravy: Not sure where Whitewavemark2 lives but we are in west Kent and haven't had garden waste collected for last 2 months due to shortage of HGV drivers. We made one trip to council tip to dispose of garden waste after cutting our 100 foot long hedge (both sides as we are on a corner plot) . I believe it is the same in many areas around the country, although strangely, our neighbouring council doesn't seem to be affected!

Thank you, we are in S E Essex and so far are still getting garden waste collected weekly, our rubbish and recycling collections are also unaffected.

It is a conundrum as to why some areas are suffering more than others. I know that two of our local petrol stations have had deliveries over the weekend, but I haven’t been out to see if they are open still. DD has to venture out as her car is on red and she has to go to work tomorrow, no public transport available as an alternative.

With the greatest respect, GG13, but when I read your posts about your individual experiences I begin to absolutely believe that parallel universes actually do exist.

Got to walk to the vets tomorrow. Still think how fit I’ll be!!

With the greatest respect, GG13, but when I read your posts about your individual experiences I begin to absolutely believe that parallel universes actually do exist.

Well that's the problem with individual experiences isn't it?

GG13's shops are full. Someone else's shops are empty.

We missed a couple of refuse collections at the start of the pandemic but since then its been fine. Someone else's collections are disrupted.

Let's all assume the worst and think the country is in meltdown, that would be best.

Or not?

Alegrias1

This morning one of the papers had the headline "Strictly Covid Chaos". Because one couple have tested positive and will miss one show.

But no, the media don't exaggerate or pretend things are worse that they are, of course not.

Reicher suggested showing pictures of petrol stations working as normal. Where are those pictures then? No, lets tell everyone it's a shambles. That'll help.

We know the media build up a story and exaggerate. That, like the scorpion in The Scorpion and The Frog, is its nature.

The nature of government changes. We currently, in the worst crises of our lifetime, have probably the least trusted government in that life-time too. That is the problem. If they could be trusted they could turn the tide of reporting.

Oh yes and vets?? it is beginning to get difficult because vets are getting like gold dust. Had to wait a week, whereas usually I can get an appointment the same day.

They were mostly young and European, so I guess that is where they are now.

MaizieD what are you insinuating?

Would you rather I lie? I know I am fortunate inasmuch as so far we are relatively unaffected by food shortages and waste collections.

I posted a couple of days ago regarding the chaos in my road due to queuing at local petrol station, which ended with the police controlling the traffic.

I have repeatedly posted that I do find the whole situation confusing as it appears to be in pockets round the Country as opposed to the same situation throughout.

When (and no doubt we will be subject to shortages at some point) I see empty shelves I will post to inform you all.

That is the problem. If they could be trusted they could turn the tide of reporting.

You think? You actually think that if the government were trustworthy the press would go, oh phew, yes we agree with them, let's report this positively.

Don't think so.

Our council cancelled garden waste collections. I will C&P the council statement for you to read.

Garden Waste Collections Update:
Unfortunately, garden waste collections remain suspended due to the ongoing national shortage of HGV drivers. At present time, we anticipate the suspension continuing throughout September, unless driver availability changes. We appreciate this is not ideal and we are sorry for the disruption to the usual service.
We are exploring all possibilities with our contractor to enable us to restart a garden waste collection service, even if it is less frequent as an interim measure.
Driver shortages are affecting many businesses that rely on HGV drivers. Whilst, we have needed to suspend our garden waste collections temporarily, we are continuing to prioritise the drivers we have to ensure we continue to collect your black bins, food waste and recycling from over 120,000 households every week.
We are also doing everything we can to recruit drivers and upskill existing staff where possible. Unfortunately, resolving the shortage of drivers is not a quick fix. Our ability to source qualified drivers, who are seeking employment, and agency staff has been dramatically reduced. Our contractor is offering increased hourly rates and fast-tracking new drivers through the training programme. However, a national backlog of driving tests and processing of driving licenses is impacting the duration of this process significantly.
We will update you as soon as possible to confirm when we can resume collections, via our 'waste disruption' webpage: You can also find information on this page about:
➡️ Applying to become an LGV2 waste vehicle driver
➡️ Recycled garden waste at any of the Council’s Household Waste Recycling Centres, which currently have good availability
➡️ Ordering a subsidised 220-litre compost bin to compost your waste

I ordered two compost bins fwiw through their scheme on BOGOHP

So here we have it.

The trade body that represents the hauliers, not the drivers, doesn't want to pay BRITISH drivers decent pay, or, more likely, wants to stop paying for decent meals, a bed for the night, etc. Instead they'd rather pay eastern Europeans a pittance and pocket the difference.

I’m with you GG13 !
We got petrol this morning. No problem, no queuing. Pockets of shortages in the UK it seems.

Whitewavemark2

Oh yes and vets?? it is beginning to get difficult because vets are getting like gold dust. Had to wait a week, whereas usually I can get an appointment the same day.

They were mostly young and European, so I guess that is where they are now.

Our Vet in France is from Slovenia- fantastic vet. He worked in the UK for 5 years and arrived in May. He told us why, but you won't believe me (yes, it begins with 'B').

Does that sound like an excuse JaneJudge?
If the Council employed garden waste vehicle drivers last week where have they disappeared to this week?
Our Council doesn't collect garden waste in the winter so presumably the drivers are employed in other areas eg driving gritting lorries in icy weather.

Urmstongran

So here we have it.

The trade body that represents the hauliers, not the drivers, doesn't want to pay BRITISH drivers decent pay, or, more likely, wants to stop paying for decent meals, a bed for the night, etc. Instead they'd rather pay eastern Europeans a pittance and pocket the difference.

I’m with you GG13 !
We got petrol this morning. No problem, no queuing. Pockets of shortages in the UK it seems.

So where does that leave us over the next few weeks and months then?

With utilities bills and food getting more expensive, and salaries being squeezed in real terms, and benefits cuts + furlough coming to an end - do you believe large sections of the population are going to be prepared to take on the extra cost on goods and utilities, that Hauliers will pass on to the Customer?

What happens in the meantime. like THIS winter? Could you please explain.

You're making stuff up UG.

BTW, of you think haulage companies ever paid for decent meals and a bed for the night you're a bit misguided.

The vet appointment situation is exacerbated by the fact that over 3 million households acquired a new pet (mainly dogs) during lockdown. That's a lot more animals to treat for the number of vets.
We use the vet help phone line which comes with our pet insurance. Great system, consultations available every 10 minutes with a choice of vet.

Boris needs to forget about temporary visas and just get the Army in. No one being exploited then or companies feathering their own nests.