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Fuel shortages in the UK?

No more brexit posts please. Otherwise this forum will go totally off the rails – just like every other one which allows that topic. And vaccine posts go in the CV19 thread.

The car fuel shortage is mostly in the south east. Amber is 20-40% stocks. Red is under 20%.

On the original topic, no apparent airfield fuel shortages as yet.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

The car fuel shortage is mostly in the south east. Amber is 20-40% stocks. Red is under 20%.

Swedish media report that military truck drivers are now being used to fill the driver shortage. Is that correct or fake?

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Yes army truck drivers being deployed in time for the governing party’s annual conference.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

Extra drivers are needed because of the extra fuel sales.

If one could get the Swedes to panic, they would have to do the same But maybe they always fill right up?

Maybe driving almost empty is a British thing.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

If one could get the Swedes to panic, they would have to do the same But maybe they always fill right up?

Maybe driving almost empty is a British thing.

Why that sour comment? I’m only trying to get the facts straight as several posts here have stated that media reporting of the fuel situation in the UK is incorrect.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden
Seems some do not get the point: Why should there be higher fuel demand, do Brits a lot more mileage per week suddenly since one week ?? There can be a bit more demand from filling station tourism, but how much can that be ? Not even 100 percent more than before.

It does not matter if drivers tank in 10 liter portions each day, they will not need more in one week like that compared to tanking 70 liters in one go. There is not a lot of extra sales , where would that go exactly, into home storage, and what amount then ?

Vic
vic
EDME

Sour comment? Just a response to “Is that correct or fake?”.

I am making the point, over and over again, that the whole UK petrol pump issue is public panicking and suddenly filling up their tanks a lot more than they were previously. This is a lot more fuel purchased – probably 1-2 week’s worth of consumption. The delivery pipeline is not able to cope with the new demand, because there were, and are, only just enough drivers and vehicles, to meet the demand which existed the day before the panic started. BP had some driver shortage because they were trying to fire a load of drivers and re-hire them under new contracts (I can’t remember the details now) but even they had enough delivery capacity to meet normal demand, especially as not many miles further down the road there is another, non-BP, station.

Sure the govt will probably get some Army drivers to drive some tankers. It will look good, reduce the panic a bit, but the real end to this will come when people get bored. They have already got bored further up north.

The problem is that the mass media is incapable of rational analysis, because to consume such analysis one needs a brain, and there is a distinct shortage of that in the mass media audience (in every country) Unfortunately also this whole thing suits the mainland media agenda, and nobody there is going to be reading the quality UK media because you have to pay to read quality media (in every country). So people abroad read the BBC (utterly banal) and the Guardian (an anti govt organ with a clear agenda to drive down the UK at every opportunity). Then there is the Daily Trash which is at a similar level to Bild i.e. trying hard to reflect low-middle-IQ public mood. This is Daily Trash at its best – never fails to make one laugh:

I’ve just been down to the airport. They have just had a Jet-A1 delivery and their tanks are full, and are getting a 100LL delivery in the next day or two, so that will be full also. No panic and no fuel shortage. It would be difficult to engineer a panic there because pilots have limited options for suddenly buying a load more fuel.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

In a fuel situation update, I drove past 4 filling stations on my way out this morning. All had petrol and diesel, none had queues.

Fuel stations in my city in the West of England also had fuel and no queues. I would agree with Peter that it should calm down pretty quickly now. As above, some other parts of the country remain affected.

The airport had a regular fuel delivery last week – no shortages, but also no rush to fill up aircraft that sit in the hangars, just normal demand.

There were 100 army fuel drivers deployed. News outlets didn’t state what the normal number of fuel truck drivers are employed in the industry but I bet it’s a lot more than that, so will make little difference.

As for the lack of availability of HGV tests, the whole admin paperwork exercise of getting a provisional licence, then training for and passing two tests has been significantly slowed down by a strike and slow working at the DVLA who issue the licences. It isn’t just the tests themselves. One of my students is keen to apply to become a truck driver but awaits provisional licence issue due to a minor medical issue.

FlyerDavidUK, PPL & IR Instructor
EGBJ, United Kingdom
There is a forum at BBC pages. Readers report otherwise, very much depending on where they live, so you may see a few stations empty , in other places not so. All fake news , obviously then . . . . Vic
vic
EDME

I wonder if people are more motivated to report empty stations than the return to normal, a bit like the mainstream media showing only the queues and closed fuel stations rather than reflect the true proportion of those that are working normally.

If so hadn’t witnessed the lack of queues myself I would easily have expected them to exist based on media hysteria.

FlyerDavidUK, PPL & IR Instructor
EGBJ, United Kingdom
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