Panic buying

[SM42]

You can guarantee that when a government minister says no need to panic buy, that's exactly what will happen.

 

I had intended to do my fortnightly fill up this morning, but put it off till I was on my way home as I couldn't be bothered. 

I had reckoned without Mr Shapps' statement.

 

 Local filling stations wiped out and the only one with some left in town had imposed a sensible  £30 limit and there were no queues either 

That should get me to work next week at least.

 

From a few fuels not available in  a few places to none in hundreds of places in 12 hours

 

I did see it suggested on another web site that perhaps they should have said there was no need to get vaccinated 

 

We'd be up to 100% coverage by Monday 

 

Andy

[Butler Henderson]

All those full petrol tanks and a nice sunny day expected tomorrow - what could go wrong

[woodenhead]

15 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said:

All those full petrol tanks and a nice sunny day expected tomorrow - what could go wrong

I am shocked but not surprised that many petrol stations allowed people to turn up with cans and start filling them up the day after the Government tell us not to panic.

 

The supermarkets didn't restrict supplies when the toilet paper was flying off the shelves and the petrol forecourts don't (all) limit sales to sensible values that let people top up but not hoard.

 

Some of the pictures of people with clearly unsuitable containers I've seen are shocking.

[Michael Hodgson]

2 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

I am shocked but not surprised that many petrol stations allowed people to turn up with cans and start filling them up the day after the Government tell us not to panic.

 

How else do you expect me to fill my lawn mower?

Not that I need to at the moment.

[Jonboy]

One assumes these buyers are all registered in accordance with the Petrol Storage regulations that govern storage in home or club premises of volumes between 30 and 275 litres….

Edited September 25, 2021 by Jonboy

[woodenhead]

3 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

How else do you expect me to fill my lawn mower?

Not that I need to at the moment.

The petrol stations just need to restrict supply a bit like some are now doing, sort of how the Government will do with electric car charging soon so you cannot charge your car in the peak.

[phil-b259]

We have also seen incidents of road rage, and forecourt staff getting terrible abuse from those panic buying, not to mention traffic gridlock. At one stage the manager of Pease Pottage services was threatening  to close - not because of a lack of fuel but because the abuse his staff were getting from panic buying motorists.

 

Meanwhile spare a thought for all those essential workers who sensibly followed Government advise* to fill up as normal but now can’t get fuel with less than 30miles in the tank but jobs to go to over the weekend or the start of next week.

 

* which is what I did and am understandably pissed off the the selfish ***** that passes for the British public, panic buying yesterday.

 

(I did see an article saying a petrol station which usually sold 80000 litres per day had sold in excess of 240000 litres - and I bet the majority of those filling up were  NOT down to the last 50 miles / quarter of a tank)

Edited September 25, 2021 by phil-b259

[Ron Ron Ron]

4 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

.......sort of how the Government will do with electric car charging soon so you cannot charge your car in the peak.

 

That was a supposed, leak of a possible government proposal, to make it the default setting on home chargers. 

The proposal also ensured it could be overridden by the homeowner.

So fake news.

[phil-b259]

1 minute ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

That was a supposed, leak of a possible government proposal, to make it the default setting on home chargers. 

The proposal also ensured it could be overridden by the homeowner.

So fake news.

More likely genuine news - in the sense that the Government let it be leaked to judge public response. They have form for this….

 

After all if we don’t charge our cars at peak times the amount of electricity companies have to generate and the grid has to deliver can translate into big savings in terms of new / upgraded infrastructure.

 

 

[MarkC]

The great British sheep stampede continues... 

[phil-b259]

10 minutes ago, MarkC said:

The great British sheep stampede continues... 

 

I know

 

Had the media and the DfT kept quiet then we wouldn’t be in this mess - though in truth the blame actually lies with the pig thick panic buying British public (not to be confused with the minority of motorists buying fuel because they were / are genuinely running low).

Edited September 25, 2021 by phil-b259

[Mark Saunders]

4 minutes ago, phil-b259 said:

 

I know

 

Had the media and the DfT kept quiet then we wouldn’t be in this mess - though in truth the blame actually lies with the pig thick panic buying British public (not to be confused with the minority of motorists buying fuel because they were / are gunnels running low).

I remember last time people just going in and getting topping the tank up for the sake of it and quite often some couldn’t even get £5 in!

[MarcD]

to miss quote "Sheep lead by Donkeys" this government's record on letting the British public make the own minds up is amazing to say the least. Sometimes I really have to ask myself how we became a world power with the 3 brain cells the country has.

 

Marc 

[boxbrownie]

23 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

The petrol stations just need to restrict supply a bit like some are now doing, sort of how the Government will do with electric car charging soon so you cannot charge your car in the peak.

Hence the reason I haven’t a smart meter 

[melmerby]

24 minutes ago, MarcD said:

to miss quote "Sheep lead by Donkeys" this government's record on letting the British public make the own minds up is amazing to say the least. Sometimes I really have to ask myself how we became a world power with the 3 brain cells the country has.

 

Marc 

That was before the social media mentality, where rumour becomes fact and spreads like wildfire.

[Neil]

1 hour ago, MarcD said:

to miss quote "Sheep lead by Donkeys" this government's record on letting the British public make the own minds up is amazing to say the least. Sometimes I really have to ask myself how we became a world power with the 3 brain cells the country has.

 

Marc 

 

We were, at the height of the empire, thugs and bullies who ruthlessly exploited those countries we colonised. Now we elect buffoons because they tell us tales of how our ills are the fault of others and that if we could unhitch ourselves from them then all will be well.

[Titan]

What would stop the panic buying of petrol is a minimum charge of £25 - i.e. if you can't fit £25 worth of fuel in your tank tough, you will still have to pay £25.  It will stop all the people that don't genuinely need to fill up doing so, or if they insist paying the financial penalty.  There would be two exceptions:

 

a) motorbikes and mopeds

b) a quantity of between 4.9 and 5.1 litres, to allow the filling of 1 empty jerry can should someone want to run their lawnmower etc.

[beast66606]

1 hour ago, Neil said:

 

We were, at the height of the empire, thugs and bullies who ruthlessly exploited those countries we colonised. Now we elect buffoons because they tell us tales of how our ills are the fault of others and that if we could unhitch ourselves from them then all will be well.

 

Of course none of the countries we colonised benefited from any of our knowledge, but hey, let's just look at the negatives, and of course they were all perfect before we arrived.

 

The MSM caused the fuel run, the BBC in particular had a headlining story about "Petrol Shortages"  which eventually admitted in a few garages, anyone who believes the MSM headlines would be in their car and off to the pumps before they got to the factual part.

[woodenhead]

So in sunny manchester I took my car to the garage at lunchtime, a big Asda, the nearby BP looked closed and Costco was heaving - but no traffic jams, no snaking queues down the roads.

 

Pulled my car into the pay before you fill pump with no waiting, no diesel but petrol was on, filled up (less than a quarter left @phil-b259 in case you think I was a panic buyer).  Because of a mix up I did have to ask for the pump to be unlocked and was discussing the situation with the lady who unlocked the pump and mentioned about my wife who is NHS, Asda apparently have a contingency plan like early Covid for key workers if things keep deteriorating.

 

However, whilst I was there a tanker arrived to refill the tanks so all is good near me.

[phil-b259]

3 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

 

However, whilst I was there a tanker arrived to refill the tanks so all is good near me.

Well down my way last night there was zero left at any of the 3 forecourts in my hometown, none in any of the forecourts in Crawley and huge queues at Pease Pottage services.

 

Not sure how things are today as I’m signalling trains at the Bluebell but if forecourts have run out then a single tanker won’t go far unless the morons* stop panic buying (the tanker deliveries are usually done on a ‘top up the stocks’ rather fill up from scratch basis).

 

* For avoidance of doubt a moron is someone who is not ‘filling up as normal’ - something which I would suggest usually equates to waiting until you have a quarter of a tank left before refilling unless embarking on a particularly long journey.

[Michael Hodgson]

16 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

However, whilst I was there a tanker arrived to refill the tanks so all is good near me.

It's good to know that I can come to Manchester if I use the diesel I bought the other day. 

[Gareth Collier]

As I mentioned last night when the missus was leaving work at 7pm a convoy of cars followed a tanker into Asda who had run dry earlier. On going to work this morning at 8am it had already run out again.

Makes you wonder how far the numpties would have followed the tanker.......

[woodenhead]

At the Asda, they had actually locked the self pay pumps out of use, I had asked before making my payment and was told it was ok to use before finding it was locked so they unlocked it for me.  But they had them locked out so that they could switch them back on when the payment booth was closed.  Seemed quite a sensible approach, and the tanker arriving meant that for sure later on there is going to be fuel available for those who come out at night.

[Gareth Collier]

Our Asda pumps are all pay at the pump after the old payment booth was removed during a refit. If you have a problem you press a button and talk to a staff member in the store a couple of hundred yards away.

I'd have thought turning the pay at pump option off would have had no effect other than slowing the turnover of cars down and therefore increasing queuing time and congestion. 

[woodenhead]

40 minutes ago, Gareth Collier said:

Our Asda pumps are all pay at the pump after the old payment booth was removed during a refit. If you have a problem you press a button and talk to a staff member in the store a couple of hundred yards away.

I'd have thought turning the pay at pump option off would have had no effect other than slowing the turnover of cars down and therefore increasing queuing time and congestion. 

There were no queues or congestion, I could have swapped to another pump if I had needed to, it was no more or less busy than a typical day there and that was with the pay at pumps (8 of them) locked out.