Petrol queues reported now on BBC news

Rosie Do you want a paracetamol?

Maybe you should keep yourself up-to-date on the situation. There is a situation in some areas and finally some of the media and the suppliers are admitting it.

"BP said it had been forced to close a number of forecourts across the country because of the problem.
Tesco said two of the 500 petrol stations it operates are currently affected but said the impact is minimal.
Meanwhile Esso said a "small number" of its 200 Tesco Alliance retail sites - operated jointly with the supermarket chain and separate from the two run by Tesco itself – are affected.
…
Hoyer, one of the UK’s largest fuel logistics companies, revealed it was "struggling to meet deliveries".
It cannot find enough tanker drivers to make fuel deliveries and was said to be typically 20 short of the 400 to 450 a day needed.
Hofer said the petrol giant was down to two thirds of the "normal forecourt stock levels" needed to ensure "smooth operations."
She added this level of stock is "declining rapidly". It's currently unknown how long stations will be unable to operate.
Petrol stations on motorways and major roads are being prioritised for fuel deliveries.
BP will "very soon" stop supplying several stations with petrol for 36 hours each week.
The company's plan for the low stock involves providing 80% of normal service to 90% of stations.
Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers' Association - which represents independent forecourts across the UK, said the issue appeared to be "confined to London and the South-East and appear temporary by nature".
An official statement said: "We are experiencing fuel supply issues at some of our retail sites in the UK and unfortunately have therefore seen a handful of sites temporarily close due to a lack of both unleaded and diesel grades."

www.mirror.co.uk/money/asda-sainsburys-more-supermarkets-issue-25062790

PS.Your apology for being so dismissive will be graciously accepted.

We live in what I suppose could be called a commuter village not big enough to be a town. Petrol station had queues yesterday a delivery first thing and hey ho more queuing. I have had a home/base here for 50 years never seen panic like it, I am bloody furious at these greedy selfish people.

The Tesco’s on the A road had a delivery at midnight, it was put on local Facebook page and by 1 am the queues blocked the road.

Absolutely ridiculous, I agree with Alegrias1 this panic buying frenzy is 100% media driven. I am asking myself what is their hidden agenda ?

Alegrias1

OK PippaZ, I'm in the wrong.

Not those people in the media who saw a localised issue and decided to make people think it was a national one.

Not those people who don't understand JiT supply chains and think the way out of this situation is to buy as much petrol as they can, as often as they can.

Not those people who can't differentiate between a commoditised product that can be bought anywhere and specific products that need to be provided in supermarkets and other food stores.

Not those who think that it doesn't matter about anybody else, as long as they have their jerry can full of petrol.

Not those people who have blocked streets and prevented other people getting to where they need to be, and prevented businesses from trading because nobody can access them.

Not those people who are causing other people like Babsbada worry and concern for no reason whatsoever, except their own selfishness and lack of understanding.

Not those people who don't understand that this is indeed, by definition, panic buying.

No, of course, I'm in the wrong. Forgive me if I don't show those people much sympathy.

Alegrias1 It's like hitting your head against a brick wall isn't it? Throughout this thread you've said what I was thinking. There was no crisis until a localised shortage got turned into a countrywide one, by sensationalist headlines and fear mongering. Yes we have an incompetent government, but using this artificially created situation as a stick to beat them with is daft. Everybody has enough sticks, we didn't need one more.

We are south of south London and only have a quarter of a tank.
While visiting family today We passed 11 garages and they were mostly closed or had long long queues, so we are now on less than a quarter of a tank.
Have never panic bought anything, but rather wish we had been a bit quicker off the mark.

Forsythia

We are in South London. Some petrol stations are closed. Others had short queues. We managed to fill up both cars earlier which will keep us going for a quite while. The large petrol stations here seem to be worse than the smaller ones.

That's apparently because large petrol stations have a faster turnover. Most of them have daily or twice daily deliveries, which they sell very quickly, even in "normal" times. Once their stocks are gone, they can't restock and one missed delivery means that a lot of customers will be disappointed. Some independent petrol stations only have one or two pumps and have weekly or twice weekly deliveries. As they don't have so many pumps,they can't sell so quickly and even if they sell what they would normally, it will be a day or two before they run out and the companies who service them are different from those who deliver to the bigger companies.

We are in South London. Some petrol stations are closed. Others had short queues. We managed to fill up both cars earlier which will keep us going for a quite while. The large petrol stations here seem to be worse than the smaller ones.

OK PippaZ, I'm in the wrong.

Not those people in the media who saw a localised issue and decided to make people think it was a national one.

Not those people who don't understand JiT supply chains and think the way out of this situation is to buy as much petrol as they can, as often as they can.

Not those people who can't differentiate between a commoditised product that can be bought anywhere and specific products that need to be provided in supermarkets and other food stores.

Not those who think that it doesn't matter about anybody else, as long as they have their jerry can full of petrol.

Not those people who have blocked streets and prevented other people getting to where they need to be, and prevented businesses from trading because nobody can access them.

Not those people who are causing other people like Babsbada worry and concern for no reason whatsoever, except their own selfishness and lack of understanding.

Not those people who don't understand that this is indeed, by definition, panic buying.

No, of course, I'm in the wrong. Forgive me if I don't show those people much sympathy.

Total incompence by the government. Couldn't get any petrol today queues too long and local garages have run out. Empty tank and need to refill urgently by Monday lunch time.

You are not right how ever much you shout Alegrais. If we have a shortage now, it's cause is an ineffectual government. People have just acted in the best way they feel they can. They know what has happened previously when the government has said, "no problem here".

People will also be expecting goods not to get to other shops too. They don't trust the government to act. I have heard recently of one big supermarket expecting to have to fill their shelves with the leftover Christmas goods from last year as they empty.

This situation is not a figment of anyone's imagination. It is happening. The government are supposed to be in charge. Shouting "there isn't a shortage of fuel" at people is both useless, insulting and not helpful.

The real question should be "why do people believe that if it can go wrong under this government, it will?" Because that's what they are reacting to.

So yes, he admits that there are localised problems.

Well it's not localised any more, its it?

My garage just across the road has no fuel at all. They ran out last week as well. Panic buying is second nature to many people and maybe it is time for petrol stations to cap your spend to a maximum of £30 until some stability is resumed.
If I was 35 years younger I would definitely be planning to emigrate. I love my country but not what it has become . Populist, expensive, racist, not everyone I know but definitely a large majority.
Behaviour is back to pre pandemic . Getting off a train this week I was barged by somebody getting on not giving us time to empty the carriage. Traffic is horrendous, other half had an altercation in a supermarket car park as another driver opened their door onto his car.
I am a glass half full person but it is tough to stay that way.

So let's look a bit further at what the AA actually said:

"Edmund King, the president of the AA, the Automobile Association, told BBC Breakfast the problem should pass in a matter of days if drivers just stuck to filling up when they needed it, adding “there is plenty of fuel at source” and that a shortage of lorry drivers had only been a “localised problem” earlier in the week."

“Earlier in the week there were some problems with the supply chain, as we know, due to a shortage of some lorry drivers, but that was only a localised problem.”

So yes, he admits that there are localised problems. Maybe that's not much of an issue if there are a number of petrol stations in an area, but in this area there aren't. It's not much help to people in north west Essex if there is no petrol in their pumps, even if there's loads in Inverness or even Thorpe Bay. I would be surprised if I live in the only area affected like this.

Some petrol stations are now putting on a limit on how much people can buy, which could cause even more problems because people will have to buy fuel even more frequently.

Originally reported as a couple of suppliers had shut some forecourts due to problems with supplies, I think. It was stated that larger suppliers didn't have a problem ..... now many have. I have very little fuel left but there is no diesel in the town where I live. I am on a week's holiday from work this week so no daily journeys, however I have booked to take my mum away for a couple of days, thought it might do her good after losing her 89 year sister, won't happen if I can't get fuel and she is so looking forward to the break.

OK, got that off my chest.

My local Tesco petrol station is closing for a week in October for renovations, or something.

OH NO, THERE'S NO PETROL IN MY AREA. PLEASE EVERYONE CAN YOU RUN DOWN TO YOUR LOCAL PETROL STATIONS AND BUY ALL THE PETROL YOU CAN BECAUSE THERE IS A SHORTAGE IN CENTRAL FIFE!!!!

BUT NOW ITS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY WHEN IT DIDN'T NEED TO BE BECAUSE THERE ARE NO SEVERE PROBLEMS WITH DELIVERIES BUT PEOPLE JUST OVER REACT AND THINK THEY'LL CLEAR OUT THE LOCAL GARAGE AND FILL THEIR PETROL CANS, JUST IN CASE.

Sorry, was I shouting?

Alegrias1

Whitewavemark2

Yes but if there was no driver shortage and such severe problems with delivery, if the media announce that garages are closing because they’ve run out of petrol they would look rather foolish don’t you think. I know a lot of the population is sheeplike but not quite so stupid surely.

There are not severe problems with fuel delivery.

I do wonder about the sheep thing, to be honest.

Garages closed temporarily because there were interruptions to the supply. They'll be closed a lot longer now that all of the stations are being drained of fuel.

I don't know how often this needs to be said. So just carry on, exaggerate away to your heart's content. And when things settle down, I'll go out and buy petrol.

They might not be widespread, BUT YES, THERE ARE SEVERE PROBLEMS WITH DELIVERY IN SOME AREAS!

Well! Lucky you that you don't need fuel to go to work.

I don't know how many times I have to write this, but the only petrol station in my town of 15,000 people closed because it had no fuel. The problem started on Thursday morning (to my knowledge) and has persisted until now. Apparently, it currently only has super unleaded - no diesel.

Normally, it has two deliveries a day, but has only had two in total since Thursday morning. In other words, it's only received a third of its normal deliveries. It has twelve pumps and there are usually queues even on a "normal" day.

You don't need to be a brain surgeon to work out that two thirds of the fuel it normally sells has not been available, so what are the people who would normally have bought that fuel supposed to do? The next nearest petrol station is in the same situation, is open 24/7 and I have never known it not to have queues. Therefore, two petrol stations, covering quite a big geographical area, do not have enough fuel for their usual customers. Of course people who need to be at work on Monday morning are going to drive around to find fuel and will queue if they find some. They don't want to risk running out or having to queue or drive around when they're on their way to work.

It's true that the country as a whole has enough fuel, but less of it than usual is getting to where it's needed. Waiting until you're running on fumes is taking too much of a risk for anybody with half a brain. I would imagine most people who use their car for work fill up at least once a week, so delaying filling up is just putting off the problem for another day.

Ooh look, here's another one.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58678131

When the RHA, the AA and the Scottish Government say the same as the UK government, you have to be quite hard pushed to think its a conspiracy.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58689531

Guess they're all lying, eh?

Where I live there is a petrol station in the High Street and traffic was at a standstill for most of the day as people were queuing for petrol. It's apparently the same at other garages.

The knock on effects are that the local shops (with many small traders) lost trade on the busiest day of the week and buses are unable to run either.

kali I’d like to pick up your point about the JiT system. Yes I think that is absolutely correct.

The real issue with this system is that it does not allow for any meaningful stock storage, so a breakdown in the JiT of which we will begin to see many will almost immediately cause a crises, just as we are seeing with the huge chilled food supplier going into liquidation today.

Whitewavemark2

Yes but if there was no driver shortage and such severe problems with delivery, if the media announce that garages are closing because they’ve run out of petrol they would look rather foolish don’t you think. I know a lot of the population is sheeplike but not quite so stupid surely.

There are not severe problems with fuel delivery.

I do wonder about the sheep thing, to be honest.

Garages closed temporarily because there were interruptions to the supply. They'll be closed a lot longer now that all of the stations are being drained of fuel.

I don't know how often this needs to be said. So just carry on, exaggerate away to your heart's content. And when things settle down, I'll go out and buy petrol.

I remember the last time this happened - there were people filling cans and keeping them at home (!!) and footage of people squirting the last drop into their cars, slopping petrol down the side in their efforts to get as much as they could. Our town was gridlocked yesterday, and both Sainsbury's and Tesco shut their petrol stations, not because they were out of fuel but because the queues were making it impossible for people to get into the car park to shop, and ugly scenes were happening.

icanhandthemback

It's panic buying! Yes, people need petrol to get about but they don't need or usually have a full tank. We have plenty of fuel, deliveries were just slower which had we behaved as we normally do, very few people would have been affected. \No doubt many will blame Brexit, which may be part of the problem, but we haven't been able to train HGV drivers for quite a while due to Covid so the situation is exacerbated.

No! Deliveries at some petrol stations haven't just been slower! They've been non-existent.

If people are topping up their almost-full tanks of petrol, alongside those who are just refuelling as their normal routine, then the topper-uppers are draining the supply at each petrol station.

No! My nearest two petrol stations haven't had any supply to be drained. How difficult is that to understand?