Panic Buying At Petrol Stations?

[El Cid 220]

43 minutes ago, West 77 said:

I've been out and about the last two days and not seen any queues at the two petrol stations I regularly use.  I've not bought any petrol as I have plenty in my tank and will buy as normal sometime next week.  I'm more than willing to give details of the location of my two regularly petrol stations via private message to any forum member providing they are not anti Brexit, anti Tory, anti Boris, anti British or anti democracy.  Obviously that rules out any of the Mister Men, their associates and sock puppets.

I drove past two today on the way back from my sisters, both closed, I was surprised, but I have seen others in the area closed.

I have half a tank left, so no problem here.

[Guest sibon]

Last time this happened, it was caused by a Tory minister. This time it is caused by the entire government.

 

I guess that is progress

Edited September 26, 2021 by sibon

[ECCOnoob 1,044]

1 minute ago, sibon said:

Schnapps is currently fully employed under his given name, blaming the public for the crisis. It’s hardly our fault that nobody believes a word this government says and panics at the first whiff of a problem. He’d be better employed doing his job properly and sorting out the problems.

 

I’ve also been out and about todays. There were no queues at the two petrol stations that I passed, because they were sold out of unleaded.

Actually, I disagree. It is partly our fault. I have said before that people as a collective are dumb, reactionary, emotive. They are fuelled by the media whose agenda is less on facts and more on sensationalism to sell their papers.

 

It is widely documented that there are driver shortages all over Europe at the moment. So those simplisticly chirping about brexit can do one.   A private company makes it very clear that they had a small number of outlets which had a limited supply and yet 24-hours later half of the bloody country is out there are hysterical filling up their vehicles, which of course the media then reports all over the papers with dramatic headlines which fuelled even more to go out and do the same. This is all in the face of not only the government but several distributors and few operators all  clearly stating there is no shortage.

 

If people just calmed down and just fuelled when they needed as they would do normally - supply will flow around. So therefore people are dumb and people are to blame.  Trying to pay this on the government as a trust issue is nonsense.

 

This "crisis" is virtually being created by ourselves.

[Guest sibon]

1 minute ago, ECCOnoob said:

Actually, I disagree. It is partly our fault. I have said before that people as a collective are dumb, reactionary, emotive. They are fuelled by the media whose agenda is less on facts and more on sensationalism to sell their papers.

 

It is widely documented that there are driver shortages all over Europe at the moment. So those simplisticly chirping about brexit can do one.   A private company makes it very clear that they had a small number of outlets which had a limited supply and yet 24-hours later half of the bloody country is out there are hysterical filling up their vehicles, which of course the media then reports all over the papers with dramatic headlines which fuelled even more to go out and do the same. This is all in the face of not only the government but several distributors and few operators all  clearly stating there is no shortage.

 

If people just calmed down and just fuelled when they needed as they would do normally - supply will flow around. So therefore people are dumb and people are to blame.  Trying to pay this on the government as a trust issue is nonsense.

 

This "crisis" is virtually being created by ourselves.

You missed my point. The panic is causing the crisis, but you can’t blame the public for not believing the Government when they say that everything is alright.

 

They are such an untrustworthy bunch. That is entirely down to the way they conduct themselves. 
 

So this is a failure of government.

[Carbuncle 0]

23 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

It is widely documented that there are driver shortages all over Europe at the moment.

It is widely documented but not necessarily true. I am sceptical of the whole long term 'shortage' of HGV drivers story because there does not seem to be any sign of a long term shortage of HGV driving, ie goods were turning up pre-Brexit/Pandemic. I am sceptical of the Europe-wide 'shortage' of lorry drivers because, at least as far as I checked, I could not find any news stories from the EU of food missing from shelves or petrol stations running short. Perhaps you could point me at stories of EU (delivery) shortages or else explain why out of the EU27 + UK it is only the UK where deliveries are a problem.

[ECCOnoob 1,044]

22 minutes ago, sibon said:

You missed my point. The panic is causing the crisis, but you can’t blame the public for not believing the Government when they say that everything is alright.

 

They are such an untrustworthy bunch. That is entirely down to the way they conduct themselves. 
 

So this is a failure of government.

So why dont people believe it when the fuel companies themselves are saying there is no shortage issues??

 

Let me guess, the people have a complete distrust in the corporate machine as much as they do the government.

 

We really are doomed aren't we.

[Rockers rule 673]

29 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

Actually, I disagree. It is partly our fault. I have said before that people as a collective are dumb, reactionary, emotive. They are fuelled by the media whose agenda is less on facts and more on sensationalism to sell their papers.

 

It is widely documented that there are driver shortages all over Europe at the moment. So those simplisticly chirping about brexit can do one.   A private company makes it very clear that they had a small number of outlets which had a limited supply and yet 24-hours later half of the bloody country is out there are hysterical filling up their vehicles, which of course the media then reports all over the papers with dramatic headlines which fuelled even more to go out and do the same. This is all in the face of not only the government but several distributors and few operators all  clearly stating there is no shortage.

 

If people just calmed down and just fuelled when they needed as they would do normally - supply will flow around. So therefore people are dumb and people are to blame.  Trying to pay this on the government as a trust issue is nonsense.

 

This "crisis" is virtually being created by ourselves.

Again, I find myself agreeing with you (can you please make sure this doesn't happen too often)

 

This "Crisis" is entirely created by "ourselves".

 

 

 

 

[Guest makapaka]

3 minutes ago, Rockers rule said:

Again, I find myself agreeing with you (can you please make sure this doesn't happen too often)

 

This "Crisis" is entirely created by "ourselves".

 

 

 

 

Yep - if you didn’t need fuel this weekend - and you went and got some anyway - you’ve contributed to the problem. 

[rogets 141]

The truth is we live in a selfish society and people in their 30s and early 40s were born during the thatcher era 

 

So it's not surprising there are selfish idiots out there with am I'm alright Jack mindset 

 

I was sat in a queue at the petrol station all this queuing is being caused by selfish morons panik buying fuel. 

 

If people carried on as normal we wouldn't have all these problems 

 

Anyway, eventually we did fill up the car and 4 Jerry cans so we will be fine for a while 

 

Neighbour on the other hand went to the same petrol station 45 minutes later and they had ran out of fuel.  Poor bloke can't get to work tomorrow 

[Padders 2,867]

Shortage of Turkeys now folks...

 

 

[Carbuncle 0]

8 minutes ago, Rockers rule said:

This "Crisis" is entirely created by "ourselves".

I think panic buying is the wrong term. It may be a British obsession but panic is almost never the  problem.

 

The crux of the problem is that people act in their own self-interest so that confronted with a (potential) shortage they try to secure their own personal supply. In other contexts that might be called prudence but if everybody suddenly does it all at once we get queues and shortages.

 

If the government and media were trusted then people would not feel the need to do this. Unfortunately, the government and media are not trustworthy and correspondingly not trusted. When a government minister says there is no need for panic buying, the immediate reaction is to top up the tank.

 

My own take: I expect the whole fuel issue to resolve within a week.

 

 

[Guest makapaka]

2 minutes ago, rogets said:

Anyway, eventually we did fill up the car and 4 Jerry cans so we will be fine for a while 

 

Neighbour on the other hand went to the same petrol station 45 minutes later and they had ran out of fuel.  Poor bloke can't get to work tomorrow 

You are kidding yeah?