Where did all the fuel go?

[Zebster]

Originally Posted by Whippy

And they won't, why? Because the price of crude has more than doubled in twelve months.

Thank God we'll all soon be forced to convert to electric transport!

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by Zebster

Thank God we'll all soon be forced to convert to electric transport!

If they ever become affordable.

Then again, the Government won’t be bothered. If people can’t afford cars, they’ll have to use public transport even more.

The prices of these electric vehicles are ridiculous!

[Whippy]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

If they ever become affordable.

Then again, the Government won’t be bothered. If people can’t afford cars, they’ll have to use public transport even more.

The prices of these electric vehicles are ridiculous!

Which isn't available in the countryside.

[john.wigley]

Originally Posted by Whippy

Which isn't available in the countryside.

The availability varies greatly by area. We live in a north Leicestershire village which is served by the 'Skylink' 'bus service to and from EMA. We are very fortunate in having a 20 to 30 minute service 24/7 to Derby, Nottingham and Leicester with a journey time of around an hour in each case.

Some neighbouring villages either have no service to one or two 'busses a day at best. It all depends on where you happen to live.

Regards, John.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Familyman 90

Wasn't much of a crisis. Indeed, cycling past the lemmings queueing half a mile along the road was tremendous sport.

I don't do Facebook, but Mrs Familyman showed me a post from one fool who'd spent £15 worth of fuel driving around looking for fuel, only to then fill up with £15 worth at the end of it because that's all the cash he had, and the chump was expressing his relief at getting back to square one! Now if that wasn't panic buying idiocy at its finest then i don't know what the cause was.

Prior to the panic buying it was single digit numbers of BP stations- yes, single digit! - that had to close because of their driver issues, and by and large BP chose outlying fuel forecourts with a lesser turnover to close so the drivers could be redeployed elsewhere. Prior the Road Haulier Association deliberate leak, the press hysteria, and the panic buying, a mere 0.02% of forecourts suffered supply issues - an insignificant number.

Following the RHA leak, the press hysteria, and panic buying, forecourts were still largely being aupplied at the same rate as before, but supplies were being sold in typically a third or less of the regular delivery period.

Supplies at the refinery, and the industries ability to satisfy normal demand were all but unaffected. The problem was a period of adnormal demand, and it's not difficult to see who was responsible for that.

Ultimately nothing has changed. Fuel supplies are entering the market at much the same rate and volume it was before this idiocy, there are much the same number of tanker pilots there was before, very little has changed in substantive terms on the supply side. So if nothing has changed on the supply side, then the only remaining variable is demand, and a stupid, willingly gullible public did their own knees with that one.

On reflection it is difficult to come to any other conclusion than the one you have described above Familyman. There never was a crisis, the whole thing was due to a frenzy of panic buying stirred up by the Road Haulage Association and the media. It would seem that such hysteria is inevitable with such a wealthy and large population as ours: able to drain the tanks or shelves of any commodity on a whim.

:-)

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Zebster

Thank God we'll all soon be forced to convert to electric transport!

Well, that is the aim the whole nation has signed up to: net zero by 2050, so none of this should be a surprise. This hasn't just been the doing of the present government of course, it has been happening since at least the 1990s - that is why we have all those wind farms and have not been granting oil and gas extraction licences.

To me it seems a nonsense to ignore all the oil and gas - but who am I to say.

:-)

Alan

[Whippy]

Originally Posted by Othen

Well, that is the aim the whole nation has signed up to: net zero by 2050, so none of this should be a surprise. This hasn't just been the doing of the present government of course, it has been happening since at least the 1990s - that is why we have all those wind farms and have not been granting oil and gas extraction licences.

To me it seems a nonsense to ignore all the oil and gas - but who am I to say.

:-)

Alan

Someone, somewhere needs to sort out some infrastructure then. Cos it's dire at the moment.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Whippy

Someone, somewhere needs to sort out some infrastructure then. Cos it's dire at the moment.

What part of the country's infrastructure were you thinking of as being dire Whippy?

Having lived all over the world during my adult life I have returned to the UK to find most things work better than I had expected, and the main impediments are extreme population density and high expectations. Power comes out of the sockets and is fairly cheap, water comes out of the taps, is clean and costs a couple of pounds per ton delivered to my house - and the sewage gets taken away invisibly. Natural gas is available to the majority of homes and is cheap, the roads and too congested - but there is little 'someone, somewhere' could do about that without having less people (unpopular move) as we certainly don't want to concrete over any more countryside. Food, manufactured goods, hardware, clothes and so on are all cheap and efficiently distributed. Healthcare is available free at the point of use (whether or not one agrees with the NHS's funding model that is a good thing) and so is education up to the age of at least 18.

I'm not being difficult for the sake of it Whippy - but when I look at the infrastructure package supporting 66 million people in such a small place I do wonder what you think is dire about it?

Good fortune,

Alan

[Whippy]

Originally Posted by Othen

What part of the country's infrastructure were you thinking of as being dire Whippy?

Having lived all over the world during my adult life I have returned to the UK to find most things work better than I had expected, and the main impediments are extreme population density and high expectations. Power comes out of the sockets and is fairly cheap, water comes out of the taps, is clean and costs a couple of pounds per ton delivered to my house - and the sewage gets taken away invisibly. Natural gas is available to the majority of homes and is cheap, the roads and too congested - but there is little 'someone, somewhere' could do about that without having less people (unpopular move) as we certainly don't want to concrete over any more countryside. Food, manufactured goods, hardware, clothes and so on are all cheap and efficiently distributed. Healthcare is available free at the point of use (whether or not one agrees with the NHS's funding model that is a good thing) and so is education up to the age of at least 18.

I'm not being difficult for the sake of it Whippy - but when I look at the infrastructure package supporting 66 million people in such a small place I do wonder what you think is dire about it?

Good fortune,

Alan

Electric car charging infrastructure, we were talking about electric vehicles.

[Cull06]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Now that things appear to have settled, is there any conclusions to the cause of the crisis ?

Was it a shortage of drivers ? If so, has the governments measures made more available, or is the Army still driving to bridge the shortfall ? Or are logistics companies, managing their fleets better ?

Was it just panic buying, brought on by petrol companies or truckers or media or ...... ?

IS everything OK now, is anyone still suffering issues ?

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news....-halt-12426700

This is a good analysis. It’s reflective of wider issues for the U.K. in supply chains. Well worth a read.