Why are people scrambling for petrol?

prowla

TripleH said:

Ganga said:

prowla said:

Lawd - it's only gone and started raining now too!

Are you sure or did you read it in the Sun

No, a friend of a friend did 😉

I blame Brexit, Bojo, the Government, conservatives in general, and idiots.

prowla

elsien said:

jimbo6977 said:

jimjames said:

jimbo6977 said:

jimjames said:

jimbo6977 said:

wolvoman said:

motorguy said:

Reginald74 said:

One thing that these situations bring out that is worse than the panic buyers is the smug moral superiority of the people who call them idiots.

Many of those in the queues will genuinely need fuel, as demonstrated by some posters ok this thread. Wafting past, nose in the air, calling them all idiots and lemmings serves no purpose.

Let's look instead at the government actions that have led us here and sling the mud at the right target.

?

Yeah NOT buying in to the hysteria is obviously much worse than sitting for hours to get petrol unnecessarily. 



Of course theres a small percentage who actually do need the petrol and have got surprised by the sudden demand but lets not kid ourselves - the vast majority are there because they're panic buying unnecessarily.  Just like they did with bog rolls and paracetamols.

I received data this morning on basket spend from several hundred filling stations. The average spend per transaction has plummeted. Mode spend for weekends is usually around £40-£50. This past few days it has been down at £16-£17.
Make of that what you will

There was no shortage the week before, nor the week before that, nor the one before that, when total sales and average transaction were at "normal" levels.

People keep claiming this and it's just not true. BP have stated that they had only 66% of normal fuel levels at petrol stations before this started. When going to fill up last week I was unable to do so as no super was available, few days later super was available but no unleaded or diesel. The situation has been made far worse by the additional purchases over the weekend but to claim there was no problem beforehand is misleading.

"BP have stated..."

Have you any independent evidence to prove the veracity of their statement?

If only journalists did their jobs instead of parroting BP press releases that happen to meet with the media's political leanings, we wouldn't be where we are.

The government have confirmed the statement as leaked so I'm not sure what more confirmation you want?  It was not a BP press release. I tried to fill up last week at Shell and was unable to do so due to lack of supplies, that was before this kicked off at the weekend.

The people blaming the media and suggesting they should be controlled by the government really haven't thought things through and how dangerous that would be. When are the media allowed to report that fuel stations have a problem? Only when 50% of them are empty? 
Social media is more of an issue than the mainstream broadcast media, no idea about newspapers as I don't buy them.

I don't want the media controlled, barring the BBC, which frankly needs shutting down. 

I do think it's a pity that people can't see through the BS - the Mail was rightly ridiculed BTL for describing Raducanu's grazed knee in the US Open as a "gruesome cut" as if she'd been hacked at by an axe-wielding maniac. Yet somehow the same rag is to be believed to the letter when it says there'll soon be no petrol in the country. 

I've passed a number of petrol stations today with petrol with perfectly manageable queues - in fact the one I went to didn't have a queue. The general hysteria really does need to calm down. 

I went out this evening an when driving home at about 9 there didn't seem to be queues anywhere, though some petrol stations had bollards up to cordon off pumps.

If you're smart and go out in the evening rather than waiting til 9 am, you should be fine.

Bigphil1474

Would be interesting to know what the difference is between panic buying and being prepared.

Gotta say I don't like the term 'panic buying' anyway. If someone said that British Gas were offering the cheapest deal on gas and electric, you'd expect a load of people to try and get that deal - being savvy, shrewd, planning ahead? Yet when the news tell us that there may be a shortage of fuel, people buying fuel that they either need now or may need in the near future are called panic buyers.

Sure, there'll be numpties who think they have to top their tank up to full, from nearly full, and other idiots who go round filling up any container they can lay their hands on, but let's face it half the population are below average at most things, so it shouldn't be a surprise. 

In normal times, if someone came on saying they ran out of petrol because the garage they normally go to was closed, they'd be lambasted for not planning ahead and getting fuel when they could and not leaving it until the last minute.

For my part, I usually fill up every other weekend. Last Sunday afternoon around 5pm I had to queue behind 1 car and wait all of 2 minutes. 

Reginald74

I totally agree. It's smug moral superiority. If your business depends on being able to get around, you'll fill up. If you need to be able to visit elderly relatives who might need urgent care, you'll fill up. If you live in the country and there is no public transport easily accessible, you'll fill up.

On person's sensible precaution is another smug person's 'idiot lemming'.

The ill-informed judgemental comments are the most horrid thing about any 'panic buying' episode, especially a fuel based one.

Let's direct the vitriol towards the real cause of this problem: a government who has known this problem is brewing for years and done absolutely nothing about it except induce Brexit (20% of HGV drivers were EU nationals before Brexit).

[Deleted User]

I picked the wrong time to go see family the other side of the country. Meaning the 1/4 of a tank I got to fill up near the folks made sure we got home. Ordinarily I would have filled up around half way back on a lot less of a tank left. It also curtailed the various sight's we wanted to go see.

What we saw on the way back (5 hour drive) was either long queues or shut stations, there were a lot of shut stations. And signs around the M40 saying some services no HGV fuel. Topped off again on the way back so we had head room between miles to empty and distance to home.

Don't really blame the people out panic buying, they are led there by the politicos in power.

Freecall

half_empty said:

Don't really blame the people out panic buying, they are led there by the politicos in power.

I have to agree.  Give the Johnson government it's credit though, not many could preside over such a failure of national management and then successfully blame their electorate for the consequences. 

ComicGeek

The only petrol station around here with any fuel left is about 15 miles away - fortunately it's close to my son's school, so I was able to fill up this morning without too much queuing. They seem to be concentrating on refuelling the larger stations around here close to major roads, which makes sense - the ones in the local town have been closed since Saturday, and aren't opening any time soon. 

Our petrol stations aren't 24hr, but not too bad now before 8am or after 8pm. I have to admit that I was starting to panic, as didn't have enough petrol for tomorrow.

facade

Freecall said:

I have to agree.  Give the Johnson government it's credit though, not many could preside over such a failure of national management and then successfully blame their electorate for the consequences. 

I don't normally comment on politics, but I have to wonder just how staggeringly useless the opposition must be if this lot are still the most popular.....

caprikid1

facade said:

Freecall said:

I have to agree.  Give the Johnson government it's credit though, not many could preside over such a failure of national management and then successfully blame their electorate for the consequences. 

I don't normally comment on politics, but I have to wonder just how staggeringly useless the opposition must be if this lot are still the most popular.....

We have an opposition ? Biggest success of our time getting the poor to vote for the conservatives, talk about the woodcutter befriending the tree !.

ontheroad1970

Bigphil1474 said:

Would be interesting to know what the difference is between panic buying and being prepared.

Gotta say I don't like the term 'panic buying' anyway. If someone said that British Gas were offering the cheapest deal on gas and electric, you'd expect a load of people to try and get that deal - being savvy, shrewd, planning ahead? Yet when the news tell us that there may be a shortage of fuel, people buying fuel that they either need now or may need in the near future are called panic buyers.

Sure, there'll be numpties who think they have to top their tank up to full, from nearly full, and other idiots who go round filling up any container they can lay their hands on, but let's face it half the population are below average at most things, so it shouldn't be a surprise. 

In normal times, if someone came on saying they ran out of petrol because the garage they normally go to was closed, they'd be lambasted for not planning ahead and getting fuel when they could and not leaving it until the last minute.

For my part, I usually fill up every other weekend. Last Sunday afternoon around 5pm I had to queue behind 1 car and wait all of 2 minutes. 

Going out deliberately to get more than you know you need would be being severely over prepared.  The comparison to getting cheaper gas and electric isn't a valid comparison.