Why are people scrambling for petrol?

Aretnap

elsien said:

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. 

It's one of those irregular verbs.

I need to get petrol. 
You panic buy. 
They are hoarding idiots. 

facade

I would suggest

1) The Government say "Don't Panic!", "There is no shortage"- and is there anyone left who believes a single word that comes out of the mouth of a politician?

2) If you don't panic buy now, there won't be any when you need it because someone else bought it now.

It will blow over, once everyone has filled up they will go back to replacing what they use as normal, (and the price will come down again )

In The Olden Days  I used to keep my tank full, every week replacing what I used, in anticipation of another strike/shortage/coup/oil terminal fire, it costs no more once you have initially filled up to top up to full than to add fuel from the low fuel light.

Now I don't drive 150 miles a week I keep it close to empty to avoid problems from the ethanol fuel going off.

marlot

Jonathan_Powell said:

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

I'm reminded of the fuel strikes in 2000.

I was away on business, 200 miles from home.  There was no fuel to be had in the town I was working in.  I had to set off for home, late on a Friday, not knowing if I was going to make it home.

I was very, very fortunate that a motorway services had a little drop of super unleaded left.  They were out of regular (and diesel).

Keep_pedalling

Whether it be fuel or toilet paper we have enough stupid people in this country to turn a minor issue into a major problem. The panic buyers seem quite happy to block roundabouts and supermarket entrances so they can stick a few litres into already quite full tanks. They don’t really care about anyone trying to get to their destination, get their shopping done or those who really do need to fill up.

elsien

Aretnap said:

elsien said:

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. 

It's one of those irregular verbs.

I need to get petrol. 
You panic buy. 
They are hoarding idiots. 

I need to get home. I did not have enough petrol to do so. I had already planned to fill up today anyway. I am not sorry for doing it yesterday instead. 

brettcta

I’ve just filled up for the week as I was on fumes but whilst there wasn’t a huge queue, the kiosk staff cut the fella off next to me as he’d filled his car and unloaded six (may have been more) Jerry cans. He was already on £90 before he’d had chance to fill them up but the staff came on the loudspeaker and told him to sod off (albeit more professionally).

Grumpy_chap

I solved this problem.
Put the car on SORN for lockdown and left it there.  It so happened the tank was fairly full at the time.
No petrol issues for me.
In fact, I have a car with a full tank of fuel - that car may have just doubled in value.

Thesaltmustflow

Got half a tank of Diesel as of this morning which will give me around 250 miles and that will cover me for all next week so will be looking to fill up next weekend and IF I come across ridiculous size queues I won't be joining any, I have never panic bought anything.   

Thrugelmir

The media is to blame. Everything is now a crisis.  Yet we haven't even started to address the issues for climate change. Which will require all of us to make a contribution and invest in other things than overpriced houses. 

sevenhills

lisyloo said:

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).

Surely if you need fuel in the next few days, you would get it now, just to be sure?

It's not like you will take the last drop.