Petrol running low

Marvel1

That explains why I tried to pass a petrol station and there was a bit of traffic - typical bloody panic buyers!!!

I have a 1/2 tank left, I ain't worried - well I should be when I do need to fill up (my guess around Sunday) as I always leave it to the bottom and can't due to stupid panic buyers. I ain't driving around looking and queueing for petrol - not how I want to spend a day off work.

molerat

My local Asda had long queues at the pumps this morning.

Hopefully there will be no problems round here as the fuel comes from the local depot and is delivered mainly by small local contractors, even the posties don't strike

I bet Stobart are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of a big strike and all those contracts that will be coming up for renewal, lemmings spring to mind.

marlot

It was so annoying last time. I was doing 500 miles a week for work and spent hours queuing to buy fuel, just to find that the 10 cars in front of me were just topping up their cars with £5-10 of fuel. And often there was a £20-40 maximum spend.

The best way to beat the panic buying is to put a MINIMUM spend of around £50. That forces people to only fill up when they really need to.

bob_a_builder

Use of petrol cans 'sanctioned' by muppet !

LINK

Blackjack_Davy

It's started here too. The local esso and the other garage nearby have already closed the pumps and blocked access, Sainsburys has a queue a hundred yard long, the Texaco I managed to get in and fill up the tank and a 5 litre can. The queue was starting to pile up as I left.

I do hundreds of miles a week for work and just can't afford not to fill up... I've even seen people walking down the street towards the filling station carrying empty fuel cans.

I'm supposed to leaving on holiday this weekend, thats if I can find any petrol by the end of the week. Looks like it could be a staycation.

Great information on the news today Mr Cameron, telling people to "keep filled up and carry an extra fuel can" - yeah, that'll be sure not to make people panic.

molerat

Blackjack_Davy wrote: »

Great information on the news today Mr Cameron, telling people to "keep filled up and carry an extra fuel can" - yeah, that'll be sure not to make people panic.

Or is he carefully engineering the downfall of the union ?

Blackjack_Davy

Itismehonest wrote: »

They have to give 7 days notice of a strike. Not much point panic-buying when there's not even a date yet.

When has common sense ever applied in a situation like this?

Itismehonest wrote: »

The military will be brought in long before the country grinds to a halt because of some politically motivated union arm-twisting. There may be shortages in certain areas but if you have more than one petrol station in your area I'm sure they will have some between them somewhere. What will probably happen is they will start to ration how much each customer can buy & even take opening in turns. That's what happened when the last shortage happened.

The army has 300 drivers to replace 2000+ tanker drivers? Can't be done. It's likely the government is drawing up plans to protect vital supplies to hospitals, doctors, fire stations and other emergency services so they won't be at risk of running dry like last time and the ordinary motorist will be left to hang out to dry, as usual.

molerat wrote: »

Or is he carefully engineering the downfall of the union ?

Judging by his rhetoric he's up for a fight to be sure. Can't say I blame him, 45K for a 37 hour week ain't exactly poor pay, but I wonder if he remembers what political damage it did to Blair. The trouble is it's a bit like the Tube drivers, they can effectively demand whatever ridiculous pay they want because they can't be allowed to go on strike and the tanker drivers are likely the same and Cameron will be forced to capitulate.

Lum

molerat wrote: »

Or is he carefully engineering the downfall of the union ?

That is the kind of thing Cameron does. See also: The demonisation of disabled and chronically ill people that's been going on for the last year.

Itismehonest

bob_a_builder wrote: »

Use of petrol cans 'sanctioned' by muppet !

LINK

He probably forgot that common sense seems to be a thing of the past in this country.
If people will go storing petrol in their baths & next to the fireplace/cooker then there's not much hope they'll make it to old age with or without a politicians help.

If you live in the country, or have land which requires petrol-mowing, then storing fuel in small amounts is par for the course. Some of us even have tanks with more than 1000 litres of fuel in our gardens but we tend to use a bit of common sense where we light bonfires

molerat

I am sure the military will come up with more than 300, they have loads of ADR and tanker drivers already. If the government play this one correctly it will be miners strike mkII.