Petrol queues reported now on BBC news

lemongrove

Of course you are right tanith there will be people who need it for journeys and those who just worry about not being able to get any...so yes, panic buying.

Every person who has ever bought fuel has done it in anticipation of journeys they will need to make.

That's prudent, not panic buying.

felice

Perhaps if the news channels were not splashing it on TV people would not be panic buying. Just saying.

I don't watch TV. I experienced it myself. It's not just panic buying. It's simple: there is currently not enough fuel stored in forecourts for the people who need it on a daily basis and the petrol stations aren't getting deliveries to top up.

It doesn't help does it felice. On BBC breakfast this morning at least they were emphasising it was a handful of garages with a supply problem.

I don’t follow the logic of it being panic buying. A petrol tank only holds a fixed amount of fuel, so if everybody tops up their tank but does the same journeys as normal, equilibrium will be reached within a few days. It’s not like toilet rolls where you can stockpile, is it?

I'm not disputing that people need to get fuel for their cars.

But just now on Jeremy Vine they had some representative of the industry saying that although some garages are temporarily shut, there was no shortage of fuel and people were going to have to go to another petrol station, which is not ideal, but there is no shortage.

Then JV started interviewing the Great British Public, including one petrol station owner who said it was bedlam in her garage but no, there weren't any queues. (No queues? Bedlam?) Now they're talking about petrol stations deciding who deserves fuel and who doesn't and should all us private drivers just park up our cars and leave the petrol for those who need it.

You might not call it panic, but I beg to differ.

Smileless2012

It doesn't help does it felice. On BBC breakfast this morning at least they were emphasising it was a handful of garages with a supply problem.

Ah! So it's only a handful. It doesn't matter. If you happen to be somebody who relies on a car and a particular petrol station, it's no consolation to know that the majority aren't affected.

Some busy petrol stations have daily deliveries and can't store more than they sell in a day, so it's obvious they're going to run out very quickly if there'seven a minor disruption to supply.

I hope they don't allow anyone to fill up jerry cans.

Casdon

I don’t follow the logic of it being panic buying. A petrol tank only holds a fixed amount of fuel, so if everybody tops up their tank but does the same journeys as normal, equilibrium will be reached within a few days. It’s not like toilet rolls where you can stockpile, is it?

I tried to make that point earlier in the thread Casdon.

I'm not disputing that people need to get fuel for their cars.

But just now on Jeremy Vine they had some representative of the industry saying that although some garages are temporarily shut, there was no shortage of fuel and people were going to have to go to another petrol station, which is not ideal, but there is no shortage.

Then JV started interviewing the Great British Public, including one petrol station owner who said it was bedlam in her garage but no, there weren't any queues. (No queues? Bedlam?) Now they're talking about petrol stations deciding who deserves fuel and who doesn't and should all us private drivers just park up our cars and leave the petrol for those who need it.

Some might not call it panic, but I beg to differ.

What it all boils down to is abysmal leadership.

I didn't day it didn't matter growstuff so if you're going to respond directly to a post of mine, respond to what I actually wrote.

say not day

Alegrias1

I'm not disputing that people need to get fuel for their cars.

But just now on Jeremy Vine they had some representative of the industry saying that although some garages are temporarily shut, there was no shortage of fuel and people were going to have to go to another petrol station, which is not ideal, but there is no shortage.

Then JV started interviewing the Great British Public, including one petrol station owner who said it was bedlam in her garage but no, there weren't any queues. (No queues? Bedlam?) Now they're talking about petrol stations deciding who deserves fuel and who doesn't and should all us private drivers just park up our cars and leave the petrol for those who need it.

You might not call it panic, but I beg to differ.

Nobody has claimed that there is an overall shortage! However, there is a shortage in some petrol stations, where it's needed.

In my area, which is relatively sparsely populated, there are few petrol stations. In a town of 15,000, there is only one petrol station - a Tesco one, which has been closed for most of the last two days. The next nearest is five miles away - a BP one, which is always very busy and was closed yesterday. There are two more within about ten miles.One of them was closed yesterday. It's no fun, time wasting (and totally unnecessary) to have to drive around looking for petrol on a nearly empty tank.

Smileless2012

I didn't day it didn't matter growstuff so if you're going to respond directly to a post of mine, respond to what I actually wrote.

Did I say you did? If you going to accuse me of something I wrote, at least check that I wrote it!

The point I was making is that it doesn't matter if it's only a handful.

I don't disagree growstuff.

But panicked-sounding people on the radio telling us their livelihoods are at risk and that it's carnage out there just makes it worse and people like Vine should know better. But there's nothing like a good scare story for getting the listeners excited.

There's one petrol station in my town, a Tesco one, and the queues this morning were right round the car park. For nothing. There's no shortages in Scotland. Well there will be now that people have started filling up when they don't need to. I'm really quite annoyed

We have acute lorry driver shortages here too (Belgium), but no food shortages or fuel for that matter.
I am speaking from experience as my SIL is a partner in a specialist food buying and delivery company. Also an HGV driver.
They are desperate for fully qualified drivers, both white van and double rigged lorries.
A young man came to the business for a job interview a couple of months ago, he was driven there and his 'driving licence' was a sealed envelope with a stamp on the front and his name printed on it.
He swore black was white that it was legal in his Country. When asked for his normal driving licence he left and said he would report them ?,,,
It seems a bit like Chinese Whispers and I will say that I would probably be in a queue too if I kept seeing it on the news with panicking presenters.

Do you need a special licence to drive a white van? I'm sure my driving licence says I can drive up so many tons

Alegrias1

I don't disagree growstuff.

But panicked-sounding people on the radio telling us their livelihoods are at risk and that it's carnage out there just makes it worse and people like Vine should know better. But there's nothing like a good scare story for getting the listeners excited.

There's one petrol station in my town, a Tesco one, and the queues this morning were right round the car park. For nothing. There's no shortages in Scotland. Well there will be now that people have started filling up when they don't need to. I'm really quite annoyed

How do people fill up their cars with petrol they don't need? If they fill up today, they won't need to fill up tomorrow or next week. There's a limit to how much petrol tanks hold. It's really not at all like toilet rolls.

There is no shortage of fuel, just of drivers to get it to the garages for us to buy it - at the moment, anyway.

I still have, somewhere, the petrol ration book I was issued with back in the 70s (?) when there really was a fuel shortage.

JaneJudge

Do you need a special licence to drive a white van? I'm sure my driving licence says I can drive up so many tons

No, you don't - not in the UK, at least. I've driven one a few times when I've done my own removals.

Septimia

There is no shortage of fuel, just of drivers to get it to the garages for us to buy it - at the moment, anyway.

I still have, somewhere, the petrol ration book I was issued with back in the 70s (?) when there really was a fuel shortage.

I'm not disputing that and I don't think anybody is seriously claiming there is. However, it doesn't matter to a driver who can't buy fuel when the petrol stations are empty.

The argument about "no shortages" is a deflection from the real issue.

The reality is though Alegrias1 that it’s very temporary, there’s a finite demand unless people travel more. So they top up their car to full today, which causes a very short term supply issue, but then when the deliveries next come in nobody needs as much fuel because they have already topped up - so provided there really is only a delivery problem the issue will only last a few days (unlike toilet rolls where some people are probably still using their supplies from March 2020).

Again, agreed. But there are rarely any queues at our local Tesco garage. So the rational assumption is that people who would not normally be filling up, have decided they better do it just in case. So the petrol in the garage's tanks gets used up much more quickly that it usually does.

Most garages work on Just in Time deliveries I expect, for which they plan ahead. So they might normally expect to run out of petrol on a Monday, say. But instead, they run out on the Saturday and people who want to fill up as normal are inconvenienced by the panic buyers who are filling up "just in case". Or filling their petrol cans "as a back up".

But the fact that a car can only hold so much petrol at one time should be the limiting factor, I expect.

Obviously not for White, actually Green vans but for double rigged lorries of course.