Why are people scrambling for petrol?

born_again

JIL said:

So there is a lack of drivers?  If half no longer wish to do the job, then it surely follows there is a shortage.

Don't forget that no new HGV drivers entered the market in most of 2020 & till July 2021, as there were no tests due to covid. Thousands of EU drivers went home due to covid. They have clearly decided that living at home is now preferable, as they had the chance to stay in the UK.

Also tanker drivers are a breed apart, not just you average trucker.

Reginald74

You reap what you sow

Thrugelmir

TimSynths said:

LippyDoodle said:

troffasky said:

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

Love this!  Pity we can't put some gas and electricty in storage now! 

No probs! Tesla Powerwall will sort you out nicely for stored Electricity.

How is the electricity being generated? 

maisie_cat

Reginald74 said:

You reap what you sow

Who does? Those who created Covid? DVSA who delayed testing? Drivers who were approaching retirement who decided to call it a day? Consumers who demanded cheaper goods resulting is outsourced trucking which resulted in lower wages?Brexit voters?

Thrugelmir

born_again said:

JIL said:

So there is a lack of drivers?  If half no longer wish to do the job, then it surely follows there is a shortage.

Don't forget that no new HGV drivers entered the market in most of 2020 & till July 2021, as there were no tests due to covid. Thousands of EU drivers went home due to covid. They have clearly decided that living at home is now preferable, as they had the chance to stay in the UK.

Also tanker drivers are a breed apart, not just you average trucker.

An article from December 2018. As usual the media coverage lacks an understanding of the issues. 

European road transport firms are racing towards a driver shortage crisis of 150,000 unfilled jobs, according to new research from Transport Intelligence.

In a report released this week, European Road Freight Transport 2018, the supply chain analyst shows that in just six countries – the UK, Germany, France, Denmark Sweden and Norway – the shortage of drivers adds up to 127,500.

The UK leads the way with a shortage of 52,000 drivers, but is closely followed by Germany at 45,000 vacancies – with predictions that this could increase by a staggering 28,000 each year.

The report says: “In Germany, the DSLV transport union reports that in the next 15 years, two-thirds of drivers will retire. Germany is facing a shortage of 45,000 truck drivers, with around 30,000 leaving the profession every year. This compares with only 2,000 people receiving truck-driving qualifications each year.”

France has a shortage of 20,000 drivers, while road freight associations in Sweden, Denmark and Norway report shortages of 5,000, 2,500 and 3,000, respectively.

This, of course, leaves out more than 20 countries in Europe where numbers have not been collected – although it is safe to assume that similar trends are likely across western countries, where driver numbers have been on the decline for the past two decades.

This gap in the labour market has been partly filled by an influx of East Europeans, but the report warns there is a limit as to how much this will ease the driver shortage.

One problem is the increasing appetite among global manufacturers to site production facilities in central and eastern Europe, which has provided an alternative source of jobs for many would-be drivers.

“As explained by some of the European LSP’s Ti interviewed, while multiple factors are behind driver shortages, the relocation of production to Eastern Europe has further exacerbated the problem, as nationals of these countries prefer to work in factories over being truck drivers,” the report says.

Meanwhile, Tim Philips, director of Duma Consulting and former chief executive of Freightex, wrote, in a commentary in the report, that simply bringing in drivers from East Europe has, in turn, created a similar gap in the markets they left.

“This is currently being partially filled by drivers from further afield, such as Ukraine. However this is not an inexhaustible supply and there are trucks parked up with no drivers,” he adds.

cattom

so forgive me here, but if its because x% of eastern european lorry drivers have left the uk, or at least not so many are coming here, what did we do before we had people coming here from god knows where? country used to run ok then. or am I being naive?.

user1977

cattom said:

so forgive me here, but if its because x% of eastern european lorry drivers have left the uk, or at least not so many are coming here, what did we do before we had people coming here from god knows where? country used to run ok then. or am I being naive?.

We relied less on "just in time" logistics systems. Petrol stations, supermarkets, and pretty much everyone else now rely on there being predictable demand by customers, and the tanks/shelves being refilled just before they run empty. Which all goes to pot if either the deliveries stop arriving on time, or the customers all turn up at once.

If you want to build in larger margins for error, and have big full stockrooms through the back or tanks with more fuel than you probably need, that's going to be reflected in the prices.

photome

Hope the media are happy with themselves for causing a widespread shortage of fuel

ontheroad1970

photome said:

Hope the media are happy with themselves for causing a widespread shortage of fuel

They will feel vindicated, as they are oblivious, like certain bumbling idiots in Downing Street to anything they do that causes chaos.

ontheroad1970

born_again said:

ontheroad1970 said:

born_again said:

It's not the media's fault. They have just reported that BP said that a handful of their stations were closed as they could not get fuel to them.
And just who pays their inflated prices.. 9p Ltr more than supermarket for base petrol round here..

The fault is with the lemmings that are now rushing to fill up. Oblivious to the fact that there are 8000+ petrol stations in the UK.
Some one on the news last night said they had tried two petrol stations to get fuel & been turned away.. Great reporting, but plenty more stations to try....

Perhaps get a staff  member out and anyone with more than 1/2 tank gets turned away. Or tell them, Yes you can fill up but there is a min charge of £50.
But given price has gone up anyway in the last two days.. These lemmings are paying too much anyway. So laugh is with the people who are not rushing out to fill up.

You obviously didn't see the headline in The Sun yesterday,  then - "Running on Empty"  Irresponsible and counterproductive.

Does that say rush out and buy fuel?

If the sun said chop your hands off to save your life. Would the readers do that.... 

I'm sure the vast majority were not sun readers that were waiting at the stations.

The Sun knew what the reaction would be to their headline, and still ran with it.  You come across more naïve than I know you to be on these boards.