Where did all the fuel go?

[Sotosound]

We drink Aylesbury Spring. It's on tap where we live.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Sotosound

We drink Aylesbury Spring. It's on tap where we live.

I like the Mount Corby Dew, similarly on draught here :-)

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Moomoo

Wait until the queue is for water!!

... that may happen when the global population doubles again (in only 69 years at the current 1% PA growth rate).

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Cull06

https://twitter.com/gmb/status/1443108414033367044?s=21

Seems the panic is continuing back home.

Now that is interesting. The lady gas station manager says she would normally expect 3-4 tanker delivers/week, but at the moment it is 2/day. Obviously the supply chain is working perfectly well, indeed it is performing 3-4 times better than in steady state. The issue can only be with the demand side in that case - which rather proves the thesis this this issue is solely due to panic buying, and nothing whatsoever else.

My prediction (last Friday I think) that this situation would fizzle out as soon as everyone had filled up their car/jerry cans/plastic water bottles/child's paddling pool is being proven correct, and the situation will be entirely back to normal once people get tired with topping up their cars with two gallons every day.

People - ho hum.

[Whippy]

Yup, people. Especially those who post up links to Twitter that show how well the supply chain is working in an attempt to show how badly it's broken. Lordy.

[Zebster]

Originally Posted by Othen

Now that is interesting. The lady gas station manager says she would normally expect 3-4 tanker delivers/week, but at the moment it is 2/day. Obviously the supply chain is working perfectly well, indeed it is performing 3-4 times better than in steady state. The issue can only be with the demand side in that case - which rather proves the thesis this this issue is solely due to panic buying, and nothing whatsoever else.

My prediction (last Friday I think) that this situation would fizzle out as soon as everyone had filled up their car/jerry cans/plastic water bottles/child's paddling pool is being proven correct, and the situation will be entirely back to normal once people get tired with topping up their cars with two gallons every day.

People - ho hum.

So in no way should bringing in military tanker drivers be considered to be the actions of a desperate PM and instead we should be reassured by your dismissive anecdotes? Hmm...

I'm not saying that panic buying DIDN'T make the fuel shortages worse, but the problem was obviously there before the panic buying began! And the other emergency action committed by HM government of granting rapid visas for foreign HGV drivers further indicates the real cause.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Whippy

Yup, people. Especially those who post up links to Twitter that show how well the supply chain is working in an attempt to show how badly it's broken. Lordy.

I came to the same conclusion, see above.

Some folk (here and elsewhere) will attempt to distort any information support a vested interest.

People, ho hum.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Zebster

So in no way should bringing in military tanker drivers be considered to be the actions of a desperate PM and instead we should be reassured by your dismissive anecdotes? Hmm...

I'm not saying that panic buying DIDN'T make the fuel shortages worse, but the problem was obviously there before the panic buying began! And the other emergency action committed by HM government of granting rapid visas for foreign HGV drivers further indicates the real cause.

Dear Zebster,

I can appreciate that you are a socialist (and that is your prerogative) and so will use any possible excuse to show Mr Johnson in a poor light, and I also accept that you may consider me to be Tory scum, but I think the argument you make is very weak indeed here.

In the military (I am a retired Army colonel) planning for contingencies, including civil assistance, goes on all the time. Usually this happens behind the scenes without the public even knowing - and very often the contingency is not called upon so no one is ever the wiser. I'm not aware that a single soldier has been deployed to drive a commercial fuel tanker yet, but I'd be surprised indeed if every TTF driver in the service isn't doing some refresher training and certification as I type this. That is just the way of the military. This is not in any way desperate, it is just sensible contingency planning and the military does it to support whatever flavour of administration happens to be running the nation at the time. I was certainly involved in lots of similar planning to support Mr Blair and Mr Brown during previous (Labour) governments. You may recall only a week or so ago the SNP administration in Scotland asking for the MoD to assist driving ambulances (which it did). I rather suspect you did not accuse Mrs Sturgeon of being desperate at that time - and that is because your vested interest is only agin the Conservative Party.

Any reasonable person must agree that there was no fuel shortage prior to the panic buying (the proof was in that Twitter link someone posted above); the panic buying was initiated by some sensitive information deliberately leaked to the press by the Road Haulage Association, a trade body with a vested interest in keeping down British HGV drivers' wages by allowing cheap East European labour to undercut them. That much is in the public domain.

HM Government is aware of there being a shortage of HGV drivers, and has already taken steps to ameliorate that (some made possible by us leaving the EU, such as the requirement to pass a test on a rigid bodied lorry before taking a second on on an articulated one). The real villains of this piece have been the civil servants at DVLA and DVSA who have resisted all attempts to reduce the administrative backlog of 40,000 HGV licence applications for British drivers (I don't think anyone questions that figure, not even the civil service unions). I thought you might appreciate this article from the newspaper 5 days ago suggesting that the Army should be brought in to assist, not as tanker drivers but as clerks to clear DVLA and DVSA's backlog and so address the real problem:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...cklog-testing/

I wasn't going to bother answering your post above because I thought it too confrontational (on your part) but now I have. I rather suspect my words will do nothing to change your negative view of Mr Johnson, and confirm your belief that I am mere Tory scum (well, that is partially right, I am a proud Tory because I think that is the best way of running the United Kingdom).

Yours respectfully,

Alan

[pinballdave]

Originally Posted by Othen

Some folk (here and elsewhere) will attempt to distort any information support a vested interest.

I think it's more that different things are seen from different (possibly blinkered) viewpoints. If you are only looking from the right hand side, some of the features on the left may be in shadow and unseen. It's only when you consider both viewpoints that the whole situation is fully observed.


My story was that I had a hire car for the weekend (the reason for which will probably be posted in one of the technical topics groups in the next week or so!), and was in a mild panic about whether I could find somewhere to fill it up before returning it. I had to waste a couple of hours in queues at filling stations that ran out before I could get to the pumps (one of which I was only three cars away from the forecourt when the their last diesel pump ran dry). I then decided to come back home for some lunch and found the Texaco at the top of the road had just had a delivery, and I could pretty much drive straight in.

A couple of the motorway service stations we stopped at on the journey only had diesel available at the HGV pumps, and they were only allowing diesel cars in if they had empty tanks. Petrol seemed easier to get hold of.

The biggest problem at most of the motorway stops was that the whole site was gridlocked, and when you have a passenger who needs to take regular breaks on long journeys, spending half an hour getting into and out of the car parks severely decreases your range between stops.

[Wizzpop]

Alan,
Whilst I understand where you are coming from, and I agree with some of your points, the government seems to be adding to the confusion.
A news item this afternoon says "Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng suggested the Army would be delivering fuel to petrol stations within days to help ease the situation."
That implies we do not have sufficient drivers to meet the demand, albeit a demand much greater than normal. Yet a previous post of yours says "the lady gas station manager says she would normally expect 3-4 tanker delivers/week, but at the moment it is 2/day. Obviously the supply chain is working perfectly well, indeed it is performing 3-4 times better than in steady state."
If that is so why deploy the military?
I can, of course, accept that the military would have been trained and on standby in case, but to suggest they will be deployed when, as you state, the supply chain is working perfectly well, doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.
I'm sorry to say that I have little confidence in our current PM, nor indeed most of those he has appointed to cabinet positions. And no I do not see Starmer and Labour as a sensible alternative