Drago's murder deathkill slaughter massacre panic petrol buying watch!!!

[Salty seadog]

I had about 100 miles in the tank on Friday. I left an hour early for work on Saturday and took a route that I could pass 7 stations. First two no fuel, third had no diesel but the fourth at Tescos just outside Thanet had a shortish queue which I spent 20 minutes in and left with a full tank. That's me good for 4 weeks-500 miles.

 

[Beebo]

I wonder if average speed on motorways is lower as people conserve fuel.

 

[Archie_tect]

This is weird- haven't seen any queues up here at the four PFSs I passed on the way into and then back out of Newcastle today... and none on the way south from Dundee last week, is this just a panic buying thing down south?

 

[jowwy]

During the last fuel tanker drivers' strike, the impression I formed is they are relatively well paid.

Public sympathy was in short supply from those on lower wages.

Some tales at the time (2012?) of them making £45K.

Perhaps one of out transport correspondents could give the current position.

a quick google says this


How much do ADR drivers earn UK?


The highest salary for an ADR Tanker Driver in United Kingdom is £42,765 per year. The lowest salary for an ADR Tanker Driver in United Kingdom is £25,334 per year.

 

[jowwy]

but another google brings up this - so not sure really


How much do Tanker drivers earn UK?


“Tanker drivers are paid on average £45,000 a year – double that of a regular haulage driver.”3 Apr 2012

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I can't say there's been that much of a shortage around here, but that hasn't stopped the taxi drivers putting their prices up. They're as bad as farmers who up the prices claiming it's been too hot, too cold. too wet etc. Despite spending a lot of time in the sticks, it's a novelty seeing them working.

 

[Bollo]

And I agree you've assessed that journey correctly: important, but not essential. While I agree with pointing at the panic-buyers, I am going to point a little finger (?!?!?) at you for emphasising in your story that the situation "could then have become life-threatening" which is strictly true but a bit misleading. After all, getting out of bed in the morning could become life-threatening if it goes badly wrong. There were far more ways that it could (and indeed should) have still worked out OK for Boletta without a parental car visit.

I don't excuse myself either: my journey was not essential strictly-speaking, my small extra purchase on Friday to give me the range to reach home Sunday won't have helped and it was almost only luck that I was refuelling at a big station before the panic started causing outages there.

I apologise for misinterpreting one being mentioned immediately after the other.


And then this digs the hole further! How can you be sure that none of those A&E staff "caught out" or the patient transports suffering "some fuel-related shuffling" weren't after you at the "very last place [in] the City [that] had some fuel"? Maybe everyone thinks their own journey's important? You do and I did too (both about your journey and mine).

I would really like things to change so that at least strategic service stations (the ones mentioned earlier as planned and previously government-leased) go to some sort of "essential workers only" service once they reach a certain reasoned low point, instead of selling out... but will any government be brave enough to say "Bollo can't go on that mercy mission and mjr can't go to this funeral because we are failing at sustainable transport and need to make sure NHS workers can still car to work"? I think fuel outages will become more common as it runs out and/or demand dwindles, and we switch over to other transport, so this nettle will be offered up for grasping many more times in the future.

It's all a big continuum really. There's a continuum of need: At one end we have vital medical services that need to be delivered by road. At the other end you have la-di-da dilettantes like me who rarely need to drive normally but who went for a totally unnecessary drive from London to the Peak District and back last weekend. In the middle are people with a genuine, but not life-or-death, need to drive in order go about their lives.

There's a continuum of stupidity/selfishness too. Someone filling jerry cans so they have more fuel than can be held in the collective tanks of all their many vehicles is clearly at the far end of selfish stupidity. But there are also people who need to make an important journey and would have been filling up anyway, panic or no panic. At what point do you trip from being a sensible concerned individual to being a stupid lemming?

People, I get it, and in almost any other circumstance I would have been happy to sit tight and let this burn out. I had no intention of filling up my car or trying to go anywhere during this shootshow because I don't get my news from facebook, hate queuing and don't rely on motorised personal transport for my non-essential job. But when you worry that your child is in distress then it forces you to make a decision which, given ALL the circumstances, was probably the right one. I've offered up a justification for my journey and on dogtrouser's continuum of need I'm going to, just this once, claim a position near the front. Engaging in abstract moral philosophising was very low down on my list at the time.

 

[presta]

I don't have a car, but I've stocked up with a couple of hundred gallons just in case.

 

[mudsticks]

This is weird- haven't seen any queues up here at the four PFSs I passed on the way into and then back out of Newcastle today... and none on the way south from Dundee last week, is this just a panic buying thing down south?

Its Northumberland..

People are sensible

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

This is weird- haven't seen any queues up here at the four PFSs I passed on the way into and then back out of Newcastle today... and none on the way south from Dundee last week, is this just a panic buying thing down south?

I've heard that it's worst in major conurbations. I've no idea how true this is because I don't have enough fuel to go swanning around other major cities....

 

[Mo1959]

I see Channel 5 have devoted a whole hour to it tonight.

 

[Bollo]

That's terrible for her. Make sure she registers with a GP at Uni; I hope it's still the same process as when I went i.e. you register as a student with a GP local to the Uni

OT but.....

Thanks EA. She was actually in the process of registering but hadn't completed everything when this kicked off. It was a bit of a perfect storm in terms of timing, which is some of the reason we felt we had to step in with some direct action.

Some of this might have been avoided by a face-to-face with a GP sooner, but emergency appointments are like hens teeth right now.

 

[mudsticks]

I've heard that it's worst in major conurbations. I've no idea how true this is because I don't have enough fuel to go swanning around other major cities....

You're just like me.

If i go to a city - i can't resist a good old swan about...

 

[mjr]

But when you worry that your child is in distress then it forces you to make a decision which, given ALL the circumstances, was probably the right one.

I've agreed with you and also noted that I'm annoyed that student welfare at Bolette's uni seems to have failed her, which is another straw added to the UK motoring-encouragement haystack which was nursemaid to this fuel crisis.

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

I see Channel 5 have devoted a whole hour to it tonight.

So that's 30 minutes with the adverts, "Coming up" and "So far..." bits taken out...