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I think we do have a choice. If buying it ultimately leaves us with no money then why bother? Might as well give up work and take the non driving short-cut to having no money.
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Why are so many people panic buying ? There's plenty of fuel to go around.
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Because they're being silly
The strike will take place over Easter weekend if it will go ahead
Those who fill up now will most likely need to do so again before the weekend
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The day when the UK people went utterly bonkers ! Sheep mentally.
Motorists queueing down the road blocking entrances to supermarkets, blocking entrances for essential services, blocking local roads where a fuel station is located.
Have people gone insane, this is utter madness.
A local car park was almost empty around noon today, normally it's quite busy. Are people actually trying to save fuel or are they busy queueing to buy more fuel ?
With fuel at record prices how come so many people are so eager to purchase the stuff ?
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I want to know how so many people can afford to suddenly go out and buy entire tanks of the stuff. I still don't understand people's panic. When they call the strike is the day to stock up and panic. Right now filling stations are getting deliveries as normal, but people are acting as though the strike is already on.
There's 1/4 tank in my car and I will buy some tomorrow, as I usually do on a Friday. Will I be stocking up cans etc? No. I'm just buying enough fuel to ensure I can reach my girlfriends place on Friday - which is hugely essential travel - and i'm not that bothered about commuting related supplies :)
Tell you what though, this last couple of days shows how much the UK depends on the stuff, 90% of journeys are by road and people are frankly terrified of a repeat of 2000.
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Selfishness, greediness and fear is what is driving the panic buying.
I'm not buying any fuel, don't need to and certainly not topping up, I'm saving fuel by not driving and by not queueing trying to buy the stuff.
I wonder, if this were the very last available petrol/diesel fuel on earth would people still be queueing ?
I suspect yes they would, and then what happens when your tank is empty ?
Makes you think doesn't it !
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I understand obviously people depend on cars, its not like the public transport network could handle any extra demand and its vitally important for many to be able to get around. What I dont understand is why people are panicking NOW. Why now? Even if a strike goes ahead its two weeks away even at its nearest. Fuel tankers are still going to stations. Even if one runs out on Saturday it'll have more on Sunday, whats the problem?
It is a glimpse of a possible future which I hope I'm too dead to witness. If this is what happens when there is no strike and no shortage, imagine what happens when there actually is a shortage in many years to come? I'm picturing violence on the streets, Shropshire turning into South Africa etc.
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Francis Maude's absurd suggestion about jerry cans set off the stupid switch in many people's brains.
I, and lots of others on here, do big journeys every day for work. Have I 'panic-bought'? No. All the petrol stations I pass on my way to work in the morning were nowhere near busy and they all had fuel.
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Lets see: which is better.
No stock building before a strike so petrol stations run dry and motorists have no reserves
or
Sttock building before a strike so motorists have full tanks and some reserves.
?
Hardly requires a genius to work out...
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let's see: which is better.
A panic creating a self-fulfilling prophecy leading to a short term surge in demand leading to supply chain overload and shortages, followed by a slump in sales.
or,
No panic leading to a constant demand for fuel which can easily be met by the capacity of the forecourt tanks. The wallets of the tankers will dry up before the tanks do!
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No stock building before a strike so petrol stations run dry and motorists have no reserves
Stocks are running dry now! They're running dry not because of Unions, or tankers or any strikes but because people are buying more than they usually do. There is no strike and no disrupted supply yet stations are running dry because people are panicked about stations running dry? Do you not see what I'm saying? If people didn't panic there'd be no shortage.
All this is doing is spreading hysteria and causing a massive problem for retailers. Petrol stations do not stock enough fuel to prepare people for Armageddon, they do not stock enough for people to fill up their garages. A petrol station is a sensitive operation based on mathematics of what people usually buy, when demand surges 81% they don't have enough to meet it.
This action isn't preventing stocks running dry. Its causing stocks to run dry. And motorists will have used those reserves before any strike even happens which is 10 days away even if one is called on Monday.
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So by next week, every UK motorist will have full tanks and all the filling stations will have been replenished - it'll then stay that way until any strike starts.
This seems like a rather subtle strategic government policy !!
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Wasn't that the strategy over to coal miners' strike?!
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So by next week, every UK motorist will have full tanks and all the filling stations will have been replenished - it'll then stay that way until any strike starts.
LMAO. As if it'd stay that way. The moment a strike is confirmed it'll get worse and everybody who's panic bought fuel this week will have used it all before the strike even starts. People are worried about the easter holiday but they shouldn't be, the easter holiday is fine because Unite have to give 7 days notice so the ONLY cause of disrupted supply over Easter is people panic buying fuel they dont need, egged on by Cameron and his horrific misjudgement.
This seems like a rather subtle strategic government policy !!
If these morons are 'strategists' in the modern day then we dont need an opposition.
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Wasn't that the strategy over to coal miners' strike?!
That worked brilliantly.
Cameron seems determined to cause a problem and a fight. He wants disruption so as he can give Unions some abuse so he encourages panic buying. Personally i'd rather have no disruption and nothing to fight about. Whoever wins said fight will find themselves with a hollow victory anyway.
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Well Cameron has succeeded in taking the heat off the OAP tax allowance debate, together with VAT on pasties and sausage rolls (shock)!
Unite must be laughing their socks off - complete panic without their members losing as much as an hours pay. Gridlock in my part of the world tonight, courtesy of drivers even managing to queue across dual carriageways.
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If retailers have to order in extra stock then Unite's drivers will find themselves with more overtime pay courtesy of David Cameron's scaremongering. The Government are playing directly into Unite's hands and doing the drivers employers no favours in trying to prevent this strike. Unite can now easily say 'look what happens when we merely threaten a strike, do you want to face the public when we actually do it?'
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I don't suppose all this panic buying has done Shell/BP/Tescburys year end sales figures any harm either
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>> So by next week, every UK motorist will have full tanks...
WRONG - We won't be even be visiting a fuel station let along have full tanks, so that's at least 2 motorist who won't be playing the game of "grab the fuel and stuff the rest of you".
Yet again the local Tesco, Asda and Texaco fuel stations have queues outside them with motorist waiting for fuel, and the fuel prices have increased since yesterday. Even saw one motorist jump the queue by attempting to drive straight to the pumps, no wonder there is tension out there.
Obviously higher fuel prices don't appear to affect the "grab the fuel and stuff the rest of you" brigade !
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But there is no strike!!!!! The only thing running stations dry is people panic buying. So they need to stop it and go home.
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There was an incident in Zambia when fuel rationing was announced after UDI was declared. It concerned a lapse in communication by a farmer who instructed his workers to dig a big hole while he went into town in his truck with a collection of cans and bottles which he filled up at the filling station. When he got back and unloaded the containers he collected a lesser number of containers and set off back to town, asking his foreman as he left to put the fuel in the hole they had dug. As he arrived back he was to observe the foreman pouring the last of the fuel into the hole.
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The lady behind the counter in my local newsagents has a good comment to make, thank you Ma'am.
She said that the panic was all got up by the Government. It is the end of the tax year and the panic buying of fuel, the price of which is mostly tax, will go a long way to hiding holes in the public finances, and of course the year end report.
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Nice conspiracy but numbers don't add up. They've probably raised about £150million more than expected this week in fuel related tax, but thats money that now won't be spent next week because theres a limit to how much fuel fits in the car and how much money is in peoples wallets. Also when you consider £150million would only get the NHS through 10 hours, it demonstrates how its a very small amount of money all things considered.
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Doesn't it make sense to load the "just in time" replenishment system when it is in full flight with qualified drivers who know their runs doing the work?
"Panic" buying is very sensible in this case, if everyone brims their tank and them keeps them that way before the strikes happen then the strikes will have minimal impact when they do happen. There's more fuel on the road at any one time (in tankers) then there is in the combined capacity of all petrol stations, similary the combined capacity of every road-worthy vehicles' fuel tank comforably exceeds the combined petrol station capacity. The left are just upset because the government's sound advice will largely negate the impact of a strike - if we heed their sound advice and keep our tanks brimmed in anticipation of a strike. After the intial surge (replenished by the fully-fit resupply chain) the top-ups will just represent "normal" demand. Job done, lots of greedy over-paid drivers out of a week's wage for nothing - bonus. stupid agitating left-wingers looking for an excuse to strike because the "wrong" government is in power with egg on their faces - priceless.
A full tank of fuel will last the average driver at least two weeks - many over a month - most people are not high-mileage drivers.
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A full tank of fuel will last the average driver at least two weeks - many over a month - most people are not high-mileage drivers.
Ha I wish! Tank a week!
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Me too, but the reality is there's a large percentage of drivers who do 18K+ miles per year, some 50K+, so the average works out at about 12K but around 50% of drivers actually drive 6K miles or less per year.
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All our fuel stations are now out of both petrol & diesel. In addition I saw only regular diesel was still on sale at a Shell garage, only 1 pump still working at Tesco, whilst the likes of Texaco etc. had cones blocking off all the pumps.
I saw one chap, who needed petrol after his day at work, having to drive away looking rather despondent after seeing all the petrol pump handles covered over.
Hopefully tomorrow will see some sort of normality returning now that clearer statements have been issued that there will be no strike action this side of Easter and unlikely after that.
Edited by MikeTorque on 30/03/2012 at 23:15
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