Where did all the fuel go?
 

I can't believe that after Bogrollgate early on in the pandemic, we are now facing Fuelgate.

Just drove 10 miles to two local filling stations - one closed & the other with several pumps out, no diesel & a queue of traffic.

Car now showing range of 40 miles, well into the reserve & me potentially stranded.

Another example of the "screw you mate, I'm OK" culture in this country?

Highly Peevd.

Good weekend all!

yeps Yet Another case of
MEDIA Scaremongering causing problems for everyone

the brain deads see it on the telly then act like brain deads

about time the media en mass were taken to task for yet Again causing panic and problems where non exist.

The gas stations will shoot themselves in the foot ultimately.

They make peanuts on selling fuel & rely on add on sales in the store. Coffee, confectionary, tobacco etc etc.

They should be rationing fuel to keep the bedwetters / panic buyers at bay.

Apparently it's a short term issue & there is not an issue with the amount of fuel at the refinery....

Another example of what makes Great Britain...Great?

Yeah, but it's such a good story, and it's an opportunity for a trip out to somewhere to stand in front of a camera looking good (snigger), to listen to one's own voice, and potentially to further one's career.

You need to get your priorities right!

Question I've been asking is how would you go about reporting on this issue without triggering a panic? Reporting on it even with the disclaimers "...lack of lorry drivers but we have enough fuel, do not panic buy". We have a lack of trust in the media as well as the govt as either one of them can claim we have enough fuel, and in smelling the rat we decide to opt for precautionary measures.

Yet another Brexit triumph...

The moronic panic buyers are creating the shortage, if they had been sensible and just bought their usual amount things would be okay
There have been photo's on social media of people filling up 8 petrol cans, why did the petrol station owners allow this ??

"Research by logistics analysts Transport Intelligence found that Germany was missing between 45,000 and 60,000 HGV drivers last year. That number is increasing, with the International Road Transport Union warning of a 185,000 shortfall there by 2027. Poland is short 124,000 drivers.

France has also faced a similar crisis, with the country facing a shortage of around 43,000 drivers since 2019. The shortfall in Italy in 2019 was estimated to be around 15,000, Transport Intelligence said. "

Definitely BREXIT then .........😂

Yep. No doubt.

You British are a right weird lot.

The moment a fuel company representative or a govern,ent minister says "don't panic buy", you all rush out and do the opposite.

Profit simple as


why pay Our own people properly ,,,cheaper to employ those who don't have HGV licences to UK standards ,who will undercut UK drivers , not pay UK tax and not give a hoot about UK law.. (not all but enough of them) and dont forget the How long we were NOT allowed to take driving lessons OR tests...
not that a 12ish month time frame would have ANY impact there at all,,

Not a "brexit" thing at all,

the door to leave the uk is Open please feel free to use it if you dont like the british

Naily-heady thing in the first part. In the second part, why is it the fuel stations' role in any way to prevent dickheads from being dickheads, providing the law is being obeyed and correct containers are being used?

So exactly how much are you happy for HGV drivers to be paid? And where will all these (100,000?) extra drivers come from, seeing as how most of them are currently employed elsewhere?

Definitely due to Brexit, although I appreciate the need for leave voters to be in denial. Same as they are for the entire disaster...

I think it's a complex situation and there are many factors involved which have created this 'perfect storm', but I think to say that Brexit isn't one of those is a bold statement. The RHA reckons c20,000 foreign hgv drivers have left the UK and returned to their home countries.

There is a systemic labour shortage in the UK now - there are a million vacancies. A million, of which the hgv drivers form a fair chunk. Even if we threw lots of money at this, then they can't just appear from nowhere.

good thats C20000 less "other countries" HGV drivers causing Serious issues on our roads :D
and it makes c20,000 MORE jobs for UK people who pay the correct taxes and have the Correct level of licences to do the job

Win + Win

And! There's gonna be a shortage of broccoli too!

If there is no supply shortage then this panic buying won't matter assuming people are making the same journeys as they normally do. The whole situation will be fine in a few days, you can only keep filling the car up if you are driving it.

You're bob-on, 20,000 fewer overseas hgv drivers are indeed causing serious issues on our roads.

No empty shelves in Germany, Poland and France!
No panic at the Petrol Station there either!
No Food Rotting in Fields!
No lack of Test Tubes for Blood Tests!
No Gas Price Hikes!

now as you say they have everything that we have except BREXIT!

So yes you are RIGHT Definitely BREXIT then .........😂

This country is F@@Ked largely.

It was dog eat cat in the 80s and has only got worse since.

P poor government, too many people, cars etc etc.

I'm feeling like a Robinson Crusoe end to life without the life stress & BLX & Internet.

Having not had a mobile phone for 20 years has helped..

And where are these drivers going to come from? Germany? Poland? Italy? France? Dream on.

If we paid proper wages for what is a boring, skilful, sometimes dangerous n dirty job with long hours away from home then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Not sure how your point relates to my post, could you explain.

Agreed, but the mismanagement of numerous governments of all stripes left us at the mercy of the market and we threw away our advantages in that market when Bojo enacted an extreme Tory Brexit..

Lincolnshire can't get cabbage pickers even offering £20 an hour.. it's access to seasonal labour that has gone with Brexit.. Land Army coming soon to a field near you..

Apparently there is plenty of petrol & diesel at the UK refineries.

So this country was wholly reliant on European tanker drivers to maintain supply?

BLX.

Most people who would pop £20 of derv in the car have just put twice that and more in the tank.

To be on the safe side.

Class A muppetry - this country has been dumbed down & forgotten any social conscience / care for the neighbour for many years.

Nope but we were reliant on them for just about everything else and the market is paying £10k bounties to poach drivers and encourage them to move from one area to another ..

I so agree on the social conscience and care for neighbours we look the other way and act for our own interests above all else and then wonder why successive governments do the same.

Public service is nearly dead killed off by privatisation and corporate greed .. :eek:

This is just a rehearsal for when the UK has to go electric..

It's abundantly clear that there is not the infrastructure now, let alone 10 years time.

When this country is struggling now with electricity production, how is it suddenly going to cater for a nation on motor electricity?

It won't.

Seems Petrol/diesel in the new toilet roll for a**e holes

Agreed. You can build all the wind powered generators in the world but if the wind don't blow then you'll be ****ed. Then expecting to cope when all those happy 9-5ers come home and try and top up their plastic grey euro ****boxes with more angry pixies at six in the evening......well not difficult to imagine where we'll be is it.

HGV driver earned £12hr and works 40hrs a week (he as a great job) gives him £480 before stoppages. Now earns £14hr so get £560 and thinks things are on the up.

Then the bills start going up starts with increase in NI, council tax, food, energy, fuel for the car, cloths, in fact everything leading to inflation so Bank of England increase interest rates so the mortgage shoots up

Then it hits home "I'm no better of"

Far from rationing fuel by saying a maximum of £30, there should be a minimum charge of £30 for car/van drivers. If you don't have room for 5 gallons, you don't need to be filling up.

Getting petrol is boring, so I like to minimise the number of visits to the pump. I do this by filling up each time. It's not greedy, it's my normal pattern, but I can imagine being taken to task for it.

We have a problem, and the problem is we want everything cheap, clothes? Get em from a sweatshop in China, food? Get poor people to sweat in the fields for us. We need to wake up to what is important, stop worrying about what streaming service is cheaper, start paying more for the food you need to live. If we paid farmers more to produce food they could afford to pay for more tech n better wages.

We are in a vicious circle of dependency of cheap foreign labour to keep us supplied with the basics of life. It's gotta stop.

That is exactly what I do. I also have a 20lt jerrycan for use with the ride-on mower and the pedestrian mowers for more formal areas around the house. It does genuinely need refilling, but there is no way I'm taking that down to the local filling station and looking a right greedy d!ckhead. The grass will have to grow until this little skirmish is over.

Whippy

But would we wish to go back to the late 80's early 90's ? If prices keep going up the BOE will put interest rates up. Anyone under 50 will not remember when interest rates hit 13%plus. Can you imagine those rates with house prices has high has we have in the UK now thanks to both parties. Feel for kids starting out now.

Given it's a car forum back on topic. Need to swap out a failed wheel bearing but while doing it was going to do track control arm, drop links ect given I might has well do it all at same time on a 2010plate. God the prices and lack of parts is getting scary. Even Parts for Volvo seem to have stock problems, because most parts come from Europe?. And a number of car parts suppliers where I live have disappeared (gone bust) The world has gone mad.

Nah, just Britain.

When do we reckon the medicine shortages will kick in?

Thing what worries me re fuel is the clowns from ExRe are liable to block the fuel depots to bring us to our knees. Even if emergency vehicles run dry putting lives at risk. But yes some things we can do without but medicines need to be delivered and if the vans can't get fuel this week.

It's a vicious circle.

I currently drive for a supermarket, vans... and on Friday the forecourt at the store was queued round the car park, thus it was becoming an issue to fill said vans (they're topped up when they hit 1/2 tank usually) and being sat in the queue for an hour and more wasn't an option, schedules etc ect.

Late Friday night they temporarily closed the forecourt and fuelled all the vans, which is compounding the issue but the other option was to either lose hours sat waiting or have vans running out and cancelling deliveries. Saturday afternoon and after continuous queues all day and people filling their tanks, it's now empty as are a few others locally.

I need fuel in the car, light is on but I'm hoping that once the initial knee jerk reaction is over and Karen who's filled her XC90 now has enough fuel that she won't need to visit again till mid December given she works from home and the car does 7 miles a week to the school and back... plus a friend who drives HGV's has alluded that the local refinery hasn't really suffered any driver losses, bar the usual sick days etc but it's still business as usual and it's the fact panic buying has kicked in that has created the issues.

See also: bog rolls, water, pigs in blankets..

But what do you do, queue for an hour and stick a tenner in or join the sheep and fill the tank? My wife's currently away south of the border and put £50 in the car to get her home later plus see her through the rest of the week but she said didn't know whether to fill it or just fuel it as we normally do. It's a catch 22 situation, do you blindly follow the herd or pick your own path and deal with the consequences that may bring.

Frankly, the country is a mess just now... and I think a lot is down to the media and their need to the next big story, regardless of the facts and then the Facebookers just fuel the fire "OMG hun, have yooz herd theirs no fewl, best go and get some... even though uv not got a car, just fill up wee Jaysens water bottle hun xoxoxox" and we end up in a proper old mess.

It's madness.

its ok everyone's tank will be full by tomorrow leaving the forecourt empty for you hopefully !