“Don’t panic, don’t panic!” The words of the immortal Lance Corporal Jones could well be applied to events of today, September 24.
It would have been impossible to miss the queues outside petrol stations – long queues at Jempson’s, Peasmarsh and gridlock at the Skinners roundabout. It was a similar situation at almost every petrol station in the area – the result of the news last night and this morning that a shortage of HGV drivers was making it difficult for the petrol companies to make scheduled deliveries to some of their outlets.
It should be emphasised that the government says stocks of fuel, both petrol and diesel are ample and more than adequate to meet demand, the problem is simply getting it from depot to pump.
There is therefore, absolutely no need to stock up beyond normal requirements either on goods or petrol and to do so will only exacerbate the situation.
Today Jempson’s issued the following statement:
“Our Peasmarsh petrol station has seen a surge in fuel demand. Deliveries are scheduled tomorrow, Monday and next week.
“There is no need to panic, be sensible and only buy as normal. We are ‘stacking’ those queuing for fuel so that access to the supermarket is not impeded.”
Image Credits: Jempson's .
If you told the people in this country that there was a shortage of air coming they’d form a queue somewhere.
The media have done their bit to stir everyone up banging on about it, BBC breakfast went on and on about it, reporters at the pumps showing the queues etc
It’s 6 pm on Saturday and there’s still queues at Jempsons, hopefully all those that need it to get to essential jobs can get some.
Jempsons appear to be having a delivery every day and are still running out, can anyone explain to me where all these people are driving to, people who need it for work and essential services are struggling to get it and we’re probably at work yesterday in the three and a half hours that it took to sell out.
There must be an awful lot of cars sat on drives with full tanks and nowhere to go, if you’ve got enough petrol for your needs then why not step back and let those that need it have it, when ambulances etc have to queue for petrol there’s something wrong somewhere.
This so-called panic over petrol shortages can be more properly described as petrol anxiety. Many, many people rely on their car to drive, to work, to hospital, etc., etc. Then there are the Public sector workers, including NHS staff and care workers and also in the fire and police services. Those who are themselves drivers are also affected and an efficient public transport service depends on them. Petrol anxiety is perfectly understandable and it doesn’t help that this anxiety is casually batted away as something mean and unreasonable and not a condition that more ‘perfect’ individuals ever suffer from.
Then it’s all the fault of the media. Really? What sort of country would we live in if this sort of thing was not reported on by the media? Despite its many shortcomings in this country, to not report on what is actually happening is an insidious and despicable attempt to undermine democracy, which is anyhow looking pretty fragile at the moment.
Odd, no one’s mentioned Brexit for the shortage of lorry drivers? While there’s other reasons for the shortage of drivers, the immediate effect is Brexit as embarrassingly the government is trying to entice them back to help us out of this shambles.
It isn’t just because of Brexit. Lorry driving in the UK is a vastly different experience. Imagine being dependant on motorway cafes for weeks on end and having to sleep in the drivers cab and wash in public toilets. On mainland Europe motorway truck stops are comparatively luxurious with very good facilities at regular intervals. Why come to work in the UK and put up with the miserable conditions for £20 per hour or whatever the pay is? Much better to stay on the continent where it’s more humane.
Following Government advice to fill up my car as usual I went to a local petrol station, waited about 10 minutes, then went to a pump for diesel. I noticed that the previous user had spent just £6.37.
Did they (a) only buy a gallon to leave more for others (b) fill up a fuel can, or (c) top up to the brim of their vehicle’s tank?
You can understand some hgv lorry drivers not wanting to drive, I used to drive a forklift for a local business and I got paid more per hour than a lot of hgv drivers I was loading which to me was something of a joke!!