Why are people scrambling for petrol?

prowla

I tend to fill up my car when it goes below half a tank; I went yesterday (Friday) as I was passing rather than today (Saturday).

There was a small queue and then I went straight to a pump and filled up.

I've bought no more petrol than I would have done anyway and I didn't see anybody scrambling, panicking, or even faintly anxious.

facade

I'm hoarding petrol to use as currency to barter for meat, frozen vegetables, milk, gas & electricity

TimSynths

I need fuel, local garage has been closed for refurb and set to open tomorrow so was happy to wait, fortunately don't need to go anywhere urgently so will hang on for a few days till the madness calms down. I too blame this useless government, whatever they say a lot of people will now immediately go and do the opposite as they know they are incompetent corrupt liars.

TripleH

I was completely oblivious to this.

We went to a retail park last night to look at sofa beds. Ended up in a 20 minute queue to get out and couldn't think why.

Only found out once we had got out that everyone was queuing for fuel and the queues were long. This was at about 8pm.

Was very miffed that we had to wait when we only wanted to get out and go home.

Lived for 4 months in rural shire without a car, so we can manage without having to use ours all the time. If people were a little less lazy and stopped using their cars for all the silly unnecessary trips*, this wouldn't be an issue.

Daft thing is how much fuel was wasted queuing to fill up?

*- accept people's needs do differ but we nearly all do it.

sheslookinhot

The desperation for fuel among the idiots knows no bounds. Sadly these folks are all around us. What would their behaviour be like in a crisis ?

We have just recently came out of lockdowns where people were urged to stay at home, work from home etc. If you don’t have fuel, simply don’t use your car.

pogofish

I must  have been lucky - Leaving work and sitting in traffic listening to the local news, it came-on that the three main roads at my end of town were disrupted by traffic queuing for the filling stations on each of them.

I had been thinking it was time for a top-up and I needed milk.

However, just ahead of me was another station/small supermarket with no queue whatsoever - so I pulled-in filed-up, got milk and was on my way again in just a few minutes.  

pogofish

Grumpy_chap said:

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.

If you were really savvy, on top of the petrol in the tank, you could quite legally be storing two containers with (depending on material) up to thirty litres of fuel in that vehicle..!  

Aretnap

sheslookinhot said:

The desperation for fuel among the idiots knows no bounds. Sadly these folks are all around us. What would their behaviour be like in a crisis ?

We have just recently came out of lockdowns where people were urged to stay at home, work from home etc. If you don’t have fuel, simply don’t use your car.

2016: "Sunlit uplands" 
2017: "There will be no downside, only a considerable upside" 
2019: "There will be adequate food" 
2021: "Look, you didn't really need a car anyway" 

JIL

I actually think it's all a big ploy.

The government as per usual are dithering on the lack of HGV drivers, with little or no action. 

So BP shut a few petrol stations and get the media involved. Mass panic, big queues, people moaning and the government forced to act.

oldagetraveller1

MSM "There's a fuel shortage because of (fill in the blank)"

Cue the sheep who believe it and panic buy. Queue at any available fuel outlet, or multiples if it's rationed. Fill up their tank from 3/4, and all the containers they can find.

Now they have a shed/garage/house/garden full of full fuel containers and a full tank in their car.

Next week, MSM "We were correct and warned of a shortage now there's non left anywhere." Of course not because you triggered a panic buying stampede and the sheep bought it all!

The week after, MSM "Don't know what the panic was, all the storage tanks are full and deliveries are almost normal."

Result, the sheep have £'s worth of excess fuel, a depleted bank balance and don't need any more for weeks.

With apologies to those who are running on fumes and need their vehicle for work etc..