Why are people scrambling for petrol?

Jonathan_Powell

Just went to Tesco and had to take the back entrance because there was so much traffic for the petrol station 

motorguy

Because the newspapers have spun up a petrol shortage when there isnt one and induced panic buying.

Totally no need.  

oh_really

Jonathan_Powell said:

Just went to Tesco and had to take the back entrance because there was so much traffic for the petrol station 

What was the diesel station situation?

JGB1955

Next week there will be a glut of petrol at the pumps - it's all currently stored in thousands of cars.....

troffasky

Hopefully someone can come up with a way to panic-buy electricity when we're all driving electric cars.

elsien

Because I need to get a couple of hundred miles to get home tomorrow, needed to fill up to get there and I can’t risk the panic buyers getting there first. If I was at home, I wouldn’t care. 

Marvel1

Because they are stupid, happened around 10am - at least first I heard about it.

JIL

Many companies are putting a limit on the fuel you can buy. I fill up once a month on payday usually £57 ish. But I cant now.

I really hope there will also be a minimum sale of £10, I just remember a few years back with the tanker strike and people queuing to put £4 of fuel into their car to keep it full.

lisyloo

motorguy said:

Because the newspapers have spun up a petrol shortage when there isnt one and induced panic buying.

Totally no need.  

I agree that the media are really unhelpful, however I also think there’s a need for personal responsibility and not just believing what it says in the sun (and no I haven’t been to the petrol station).

motorguy

lisyloo said:

motorguy said:

Because the newspapers have spun up a petrol shortage when there isnt one and induced panic buying.

Totally no need.  

I agree that the media are really unhelpful, however I also think there’s a need for personal responsibility and not just believing what it says in the sun (and no I haven’t been to the petrol station).

Of course there is, however people do believe what they read in the papers / online news sites and knee jerk based on it.  And its self fulfilling.  Drive past a BP station with a queue and people go "!!!!!! it must be true, i'll join the queue".  Its a rather sad reflection on society and its herd mentality.

MrsStepford

GBP has set a ration of £30 worth per car, I haven't heard of others doing this.

There aren't enough HGV drivers to drive tankers (needs specialist training), supermarket deliveries, milk tankers etc and companies are offering silly money sign on bonuses. up to £5k and other perks eg free bread at Warburtons creating a free for all. Can't blame the drivers for wanting more money.

Relaxing visa rules won't meet demand. Too many EU drivers will have experienced or seen the scenes at Manston and M20 over Christmas and New Year, when Sikh charities and locals were handing out food and water via ropes from motorway bridges and through a hole in the fence at Manston Airport. It was all over European news.

Fuel shortages are all over European news too eg Deutsche Welle and in USA eg CNN, NBC.