Anyone got a couple of litres to spare ?? I'm willing to pay 10x garage prices.


Or is it just a problem for the southerners?

It's just a problem for idiots.

Or the poor sods who are right down on fuel.

Its almost as if the mainstream media enjoy engaging mass hysteria.

I'm fairly sure people who drive normal, decent cars will be fine. The people in gas guzzling SUVs however...let's just say road fatalities may go down with certain models no longer on the road.. if you know what I mean.

It's becoming a big problem down here.Where's Mad Max when you need him ?

Tanker arrival watch is hot on social media down here..miss out and you don't go to work tomorrow.

Why on earth does the mainstream media have to do this, they create a crisis and then enjoy the chaos.
It was the same with Covid, with the buggers showing pictures of empty supermarket shelves, they’re just shit stirrers creating their own news.

Panic buying bog roll was the classic - I wonder how many idiots filled the spare room with the stuff?

The only good news is petrol's a lot harder to hoard - though if Sussex manages to blow his house up I'm sure we'll hear about it

Knew it wouldn't take long. Granted at a very low level
https://mobile.twitter.com/HorshamFC/st ... 7461478401

We have Northampton at home soon, and it wouldn't surprise me if they pulled this.

there could be new problems arise for those putting this new shit E10 petrol in their cars which is unsuitable for them. filling the tank to the brim for a weekly 5 mile round trip to the shops. heard that this fuel goes stale far quicker than the old type of petrol does and for those unsure of what to use fill up with that dearer super unleaded stuff for all the reasons.

saw on the box some landlord of a pub put out a sign saying that beer shortages are coming and to fill up here.

Could be good news for electric car sales. Fill up at home, until someone causes a shortage of that.
I don't know how many solar panels it takes to provide the power to run a car but it is worth looking into if a couple of panels on the garage roof does the job.
I remember Harold Wilson saying he was all for freedom of the media but that they, in turn, had to play their part by reporting responsibly.
Maybe he should have taken into account that the word responsible was too big for them to understand.

The country is in a hell of a state and everything seems to be unravelling.Blame brexit or covid depending on your politics but it is more than that.
Are seismic changes underway?
Perhaps the breakup of the UK is not that far away with Scotland and Wales pushing for independence and them both joining the EU? Will NI unite with the Republic as the nationalists have now almost equal numbers and the educated young on both sides have had enough of bigotry? Is NI already effectively in the EU now economically?
I can see some big changes starting with the death of the Queen who seems to be the only credible royal IMO.
Little England?
Anyone know where i can stock up on petrol?

coincidence that government want electric car sales to increase and the petrol 'shortage' lol

Change is happening all over the World and as long as it is for the better then let it happen.
The shortage of lorry drivers has been going on for some time and neither Brexit nor the pandemic is responsible for that. The younger element aren't attracted to the job because of it's unsociable hours, crowded roads, sleeping in cabs etc etc. The average age of a trucker has been going up because of this and is now 55 and rising. Women aren't attracted to the industry either and make up only one per cent of the workforce. Domestic bus travel is being hit as well with a shortage of drivers in that sector, although that job is more attractive to females than trucking.
I don't think it is a mess as such but simply that the problem needs addressing.
People are increasing wanting a better standard of living with more disposable income, more leisure time and as usual changes in these directions mean a higher cost of living with ever increasing demands on the benefit system.
Hard economic decisions and firm policies have to be addressed and created and I am glad it's not me saddled with the job.
Covid itself has set the public purse back over four hundred billion pounds and we could do without having to replace that on top of all else that is emerging but it had to be done.
We have to remember that the system controlling the transportation of goods, fuel and food is in the hands of the private sector so there is not a lot any government can do apart from nationalise it. We tried that with the establishment of British Road Services but it was soon kicked into the long grass. We also tried to get the transport of essentials onto the Railway but the logistics weren't in place to handle it. We still needed trucks to get the goods to their final intended destination.
It is estimated the we are 100,000 truckers short but imagine the chaos on our roads if that number suddenly appeared. The roads are rammed now with lorries.
I'd still rather be here than Afghanistan.

.

The truck driver issue is nothing to do with Brexit or immigration. Many of the foreign drivers have disappeared with the introduction of IR35. This is a tax mechanism which stops companies employing drivers on a limited company basis thus avoiding tax and national insurance companies. Basically a driver sets up a limited company and the employer paid them gross. This has now been outlawed.

HGV drivers have been dropping off for years. Average age of a lorry driver is 55-60 and there has been a lack of people wanting to enter the industry for a long time. To drive a truck you need a licence, Driver CPC qualification and a tacho card. You also have to put up with non existent facilities such as overnight parking outside motorway services (extortionate pricing) which is why all the laybys are packed up at night. This can be dangerous with theft of load and fuel. The driver is being used as an unpaid security guard as well as his own duties. Then you have DVSA fines for even the simplest things which are payable by the driver not the company. Being treated like shite at distribution centres and generally being undervalued. Its common for drivers to be waiting several hours in a distribution centre waiting to be loaded or unloaded and being refused access to toilet facilities. Wages have been under downward pressure for a long time pushing drivers into non driving jobs paying similar money or more. Why spend 2/3 night sleeping in a cab when you can get paid more and be home every night?

Covid has hit the driver pool hard because no one has been able to take a test for 18 months and the guys nearing retirement just brought it forward. Thus you have a shortage and its no better in France, Germany etc so relaxing immigration won't help.

Ultimately its been building for years but has now come to a head.

Loads of HGV drivers have packed it in to drive a van and do deliveries - the money's as good or better and you get to sleep in your own bed every night.

The only answer is much better pay, meaning increased costs that will be passed on to consumers. What with the massive increase in energy costs, this is going to be a dreadful winter to get through for anybody on low pay, benefits or a state pension. It would be a hell of a test for any government - let alone this one!

Not according to the lefties, its all brexit and Boris according to them!
1% of BP stations were affected by supply issues, thats 12 going off the total number of stations they have. Now everywhere has supply issues thanks to the media making headlines out of something that wouldnt usually even be a byline in a local newspaper. The garage I normally use has run out before, that didnt make the news, so why did 12 in the whole of the UK become so important unless it was a deliberate ploy to cause mass hysteria? And how convenient the reporter who the BBC used at one of the stations was called Phil McCann.

Funny, the last most sensationalized story in Britain also involved a McCann!

The lefties are holding the Labour party back. Germany has just elected a centre left party albeit without a working majority but that is normal in Germany.
A centre left Labour Party would have a good chance of getting elected here but until they ditch momentum and the like, Boris has the floor for as long as he likes.
The writing was on the wall when they chose the wrong Milliband as leader and then swung further left by electing Corbyn.
I actually sometimes think that momentum are right wingers hell bent on splitting the party to make it unelectable and thus keep the Tories in power. The Lib Dems are a waste of space as are the tree huggers, so the only choice is Boris. That is not a healthy situation. We need a respectable, electable opposition but this lot just get swatted aside. Just like Starmer's reforms got swatted aside by the left in favour of a more watered down version. It's like trying to box with one hand tied behind your back.
The media are taking no notice to any of Labour's plans at their conference this week and instead concentrating on the name calling by the deputy leader. You couldn't make it up.

By the way, there’s a shortage of lorry drivers in ....Germany.
I suspect everyone wants a job spouting waffle or tapping tapping on screens.

It is the governments responsibility to ensure supply of the basics to it citizens and plainly whatever reason is given for this situation the planning process has failed.

So if Stobarts need drivers its down to Boris,dear me

I spoke to a guy I know who is a Petroleum specialist in the Logistics corps. He reckons the army only have 40-50 drivers qualified to drive tankers.

Get real.

So what's the purpose of government?

I work as a bricklayer and about 8 years ago we had to go and rebuild a wall inside that Reed Boardell truckers depot that sits on the A1 near Boroughbridge.

I can report that the behaviour,banter,bad language and general feel of a building site seems civilised compared to what we saw for the few days we were there.

I don’t think that trucking is an attractive world to enter, especially not for women or young people who know how to hold a knife and fork proper or who can string a sentence together without every second word beginning with “F”.

Let’s see how you get on without them then.
Seriously I don’t give a flying fuck about their etiquette, pronunciation or quoting the works of Keats while demanding motorway drawing rooms to socialise... I want them to do a job and get paid the going rate.
And don’t get me going about bricklayers, they all like the love child of a one night stand between Barney Rubble and Postman Pat with conversation to match, but as long as they can lay bricks, I don’t give a shit.

You missed my point. I'm not bothered about their etiquette either AND I want them to do their job too, but young people won't be interested into going into trucking if conditions don't get better.

That was my point.

I got your point exactly. You tar all lorry drivers with the same brush on the basis of one disdainful experience close up. I have worked in far worse conditions and experienced far worse behaviour, but somehow you learn a lot, experience a lot and if some people want to hold their metaphorical lavender scented lace handkerchiefs to their sensitive nose, fuck em.
So can you pleeeeeease stop assuming all young people are precious little bundles of fluffiness who have to be nurtured and cherished....they aren’t.
Fact is, with Tony Blair’s impractical if not lunatic belief the everyone should go to Uni and the resultant financially lucrative expansion of every one horse ‘University’ we’ve achieved a society where everyone with a degree thinks they’re above such work, treating them as race of Helots to be ignored. See how fragile society really is when the real workers holding it together aren’t there, you worry about your Flemish Bond and let them sort out their domestics on the road.

Flemish Bond is history, no need to worry about that.

And yes, the university thing was and is stupid, all jobs are important (well most)

the HGV industry has always had a problem. wages vary so much from being badly paid and hard work to well paid cushy numbers. people who went into the industry knew this and were prepared to do the shit jobs to gain experiance to end up with the better ones. something those in todays world folk are not as prepared to do. might have missed something but has there actually been a report on the percentage of drivers companies are short on their books. to ease the situation surely a relaxation in the drivers hours regs could be put in for those who are prepared to do longer hours. doubt a few more hours driving will cause carnage on the roads. the rest period between shifts mean you cannot drive a wagon but nothing much to stop you doing anything else apart from getting pissed. just the same with the buses. worked from 5.30 to 2pm, quick wash and straight up to the vic for a night match. back in bed by 1am and up again before 5 for work again. hardly close to nodding off either days or killing half of coventry by my actions.

No word of a lie. I knew someone recently who wanted to get into truck driving and he told his college about it. Their response was "eeeeh pick a realistic job like catering or IT".

You have colleges and universities up and down the country teaching the same skillsets. The same courses. And its lead to bloated numbers of people in one sector and none existent numbers in the other.

Yes there are far too many hairdressers out there!

We all have responsibilities and we all need to shoulder them. There is far too much expectation of help from the authorities and not enough willingness to take personal responsibilities. I don't wish to see a so called nanny state where we are led around by the nose from Westminster.
How do you plan for panic buying?????
We planned for a brilliant vaccine roll out which was logistically managed superbly by the armed forces and others where the Government ensured supply so why are there people still walking about unvaccinated. What's your suggestion for the next step?? Do we drag them out of their homes, or raid their homes armed with doses of vaccine, and if they still refuse, do we shoot them on their doorstep???
Are the Government being irresponsible by letting them walk about unvaccinated???
Be careful what you wish for.
Complete state control has been tried and in some areas of the world is still practised. Thankfully most countries have rejected it.

do not think its panic buying for those who drive round looking for fuel and when they actually find somewhere it would be foolish not to fill up their tank to the brim. doing the same thing a couple of days later just to put in a few litres is the problem.

It's definitely part of the problem whichever way you look at it. People putting extra fuel into their tanks when they normally would not have.

I've only been filling my car up every 6-8 weeks for the last 18 months as it's hardly been moving. Fortunately I was empty last Tuesday so filled up ....... only for my engine management light to come on and put the car into limp-home mode and a 2 week wait for a garage to have a space to plug the car into their computer (at £120 a shot).

I suspect Karma of giving me a good kicking although I am considering siphoning the diesel out of the useless car and selling it at a premium to pay for the garage trip.

Apparently petrol has a 6 months shelf life.
Better keep a watch on petrol stored in cans over winter for lawnmower use.

E10 is less than that. heard somewhere that it was between 1 to 2 months in the tank. once you have stale petrol in your tank you have a big job to get rid of it. had the situation once and ended up a major job and not just a tank drain and refill. imagine modern cars being a harder job than an early post war side valve humber was.

plus the pushing of kids into further education who are not suitable for it and condeming certain jobs including building sites and driving as dead end jobs. biggest dead end ones where the old council type pen pushing ones where only dead mens shoes were used to go up a pay grade.

The boss of one of the big road tanker companies was on Radio 4 this morning. He said the media started the panic at the back end of last week when 20-25 petrol stations on the South coast (out of nearly 5,000 nationally) didn't have any supply. Over the weekend panic buying meant sales were 500% up on normal weekend - hence thousands of stations temporarily ran out.

Now that all the people with little runabouts have got a full tank instead of the twenty quids worth they normally put in, things are getting back to normal. Effing ridiculous, but the public fall for media scare stories every time, so we can expect more panics over the winter.

There's a video clip doing the rounds of a woman trying to fill a plastic bag with petrol! Hope she's not a smoker!

Anyone remember when any issue would start panic buying of sugar.
Who uses sugar now?

Harrogate should publicise a new disease that only gets cured if you watch a game at Wetherby Road, might make the ground full for a change!

The selfish bastads!!.Who could do such a thing?

Just out of interest what is the average pay for HGV 1 drivers?

There is a bigger variation than in most jobs away from being a pro footballer. seems the shitter the job is the lower they pay. some cushy numbers in the HGV world and that will be where there will be no vacancies still.

According to Totaljobs the average salary is around £32k PA.

I've just had it explained to me the difference between paraffin and petrol

It seems there are 2 effs in paraffin but no eff in petrol

This mass panic buying of an expensive product produces lots of fast tax for the Government. So your deliberate ploy quote will be spot on.
Energy Companys ripping us of major style= More fast tax for the Government.
Health Tax.
What next?

I think you’re reading something into this that just isn’t there. Are people so paranoid nowadays that everything has to be the product of some evil fiendish plot. Oh dear