Donate to Remove ads

Got a credit card? use our Credit Card & Finance Calculators

Thanks to johnstevens77,Bhoddhisatva,scotia,Anonymous,Cornytiv34, for Donating to support the site

Panic buying, or shortage

Passion, instruction, buying, care, maintenance and more, any form of vehicle discussion is welcome here

Have you topped up with fuel in the last few days when you wouldn't have done normally?

Yes
7
8%
No
76
92%
 
Total votes: 83

pje16
Lemon Half
Posts: 6050
Joined: May 30th, 2021, 6:01 pm
Has thanked: 1843 times
Been thanked: 2066 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#446195

Postby pje16 » September 29th, 2021, 10:11 am

dealtn wrote:Aren't deliveries generally being made to petrol stations that are empty of fuel. I'm not aware of much queuing at empty petrol stations so I doubt this is a significant issue.

see this link from earlier in this thread
https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world ... t-21694540

DrFfybes
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3733
Joined: November 6th, 2016, 10:25 pm
Has thanked: 1171 times
Been thanked: 1964 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#446202

Postby DrFfybes » September 29th, 2021, 10:26 am

Looking at the poll results, only 1/20 Fools fuelled early.

I deliberately didn't try and differentiate between those who had a valid reason/excuse, as I was really just after the numbers.

Given the posts on here compared to other sites I visit, Fools seem to be in the "less stupid" demographic, and even some of those were swayed by peer pressure.

It's a bit like investing, deep down you know everyone is wrong, but the market can remain irrational much longer than you can remain fuelled.

OTSO higher rate of misfuelling, number of sales will have increased much more than volume of sales due to limits on spend and small top ups, so propaly not a valid statistical exercise.

Paul

daveh
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 2191
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:06 am
Has thanked: 409 times
Been thanked: 807 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#446272

Postby daveh » September 29th, 2021, 1:38 pm

DrFfybes wrote:Looking at the poll results, only 1/20 Fools fuelled early.

I deliberately didn't try and differentiate between those who had a valid reason/excuse, as I was really just after the numbers.

Given the posts on here compared to other sites I visit, Fools seem to be in the "less stupid" demographic, and even some of those were swayed by peer pressure.

It's a bit like investing, deep down you know everyone is wrong, but the market can remain irrational much longer than you can remain fuelled.

OTSO higher rate of misfuelling, number of sales will have increased much more than volume of sales due to limits on spend and small top ups, so propaly not a valid statistical exercise.

Paul



As mentioned I topped up early as I wanted to check out the situation before driving a long distance this weekend, so I could tell the person whose car we will be using if the supermarket petrol station had fuel, as the petrol stations in her small town were all out (on Monday). So I topped up at half a tank instead of my normal 1/4 tank. Because I wasn't desperate, if Tesco petrol station had been busy with long queues I'd have not bothered, but it was quiet so I filled up. I may start filling up at 1/2 tank in future (which will be about once a fortnight) just so that I'm never in that situation where I have to fuel up NOW because the light has come* on and I'm desperate. Psychologically I've always filled up with at least 150 miles of range left, because I don't like worrying about running out or having to chase around different petrol stations if the one I've gone to is out of the fuel I want.

* I've never been in that situation with any of my cars.

sg31
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 1543
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:35 am
Has thanked: 925 times
Been thanked: 708 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#446555

Postby sg31 » September 30th, 2021, 12:24 pm

I get a sense of satisfaction when I have a full fuel tank. I think it goes back to my early driving days when I was permanently skint. I'd boughtt my first house and it was as much as I could do to scrape by. Filling the tank was just not an option, I'd put a couple of gallons in when the needle was hard on the bottom of the guage. If I needed to go some distance it was a struggle to find the money for fuel. A lot of journeys were completed on fumes.

Now having a full tank and being able to go where I like without worrying is a great satisfaction.

My other fuel worry was totally self inflicted, I still don't understand the thought process fully. I call it motorway service station roulette.Driving down the motorway low on fuel there's a sign 'Services 3 mile and 22 miles' or something similar. Hmm, don't like the next services, I think I'll make it to the one after. Just after I pass the first one the petrol gauge sinks rapidly and I spend the next 18 or so miles sweating on whether I will make it or not.
Why on earth did I do that. Stupid.

These days I usually complete journeys with plenty of fuel and top up at the cheapest place before the return journey.

DrFfybes
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3733
Joined: November 6th, 2016, 10:25 pm
Has thanked: 1171 times
Been thanked: 1964 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#446581

Postby DrFfybes » September 30th, 2021, 1:16 pm

sg31 wrote:My other fuel worry was totally self inflicted, I still don't understand the thought process fully. I call it motorway service station roulette.Driving down the motorway low on fuel there's a sign 'Services 3 mile and 22 miles' or something similar. Hmm, don't like the next services, I think I'll make it to the one after. Just after I pass the first one the petrol gauge sinks rapidly and I spend the next 18 or so miles sweating on whether I will make it or not.
Why on earth did I do that. Stupid.

These days I usually complete journeys with plenty of fuel and top up at the cheapest place before the return journey.


There used to be a book called something like "5 mins away" which contained good pubs and fuel stations within 5 mins of a junction.

These days I look for "petrol along route" on the phone and there's usually a superstore in the next 30 miles or so with a petrol station in it.

Paul

bungeejumper
Lemon Half
Posts: 8066
Joined: November 8th, 2016, 2:30 pm
Has thanked: 2846 times
Been thanked: 3939 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#446592

Postby bungeejumper » September 30th, 2021, 1:42 pm

DrFfybes wrote:There used to be a book called something like "5 mins away" which contained good pubs and fuel stations within 5 mins of a junction.

This one? https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/book ... 1860110313 Or
something like these? https://www.google.com/search?q=just+of ... orway+book

BJ

MyNameIsUrl
Lemon Slice
Posts: 474
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 1:56 pm
Has thanked: 1304 times
Been thanked: 107 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#446611

Postby MyNameIsUrl » September 30th, 2021, 2:34 pm

bungeejumper wrote:
DrFfybes wrote:There used to be a book called something like "5 mins away" which contained good pubs and fuel stations within 5 mins of a junction.

This one? https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/book ... 1860110313 Or
something like these? https://www.google.com/search?q=just+of ... orway+book

BJ

You probably already know about the modern equivalent: https://justoffjunction.co.uk/

Arborbridge
The full Lemon
Posts: 10377
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:33 am
Has thanked: 3604 times
Been thanked: 5233 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#446615

Postby Arborbridge » September 30th, 2021, 2:40 pm

Strange question: of course there's a shortage. See the queues at fuel stations and it's obvious there is not a fast enough supply to keep up with demand: ergo, there is a shortage.

Naturally, panic buys and shortages can occur together and reinforce, so the answer is that there is no "either or" - it is or can be both.

Arb.

DrFfybes
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3733
Joined: November 6th, 2016, 10:25 pm
Has thanked: 1171 times
Been thanked: 1964 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#446871

Postby DrFfybes » October 1st, 2021, 9:38 am

Arborbridge wrote:Strange question: of course there's a shortage. See the queues at fuel stations and it's obvious there is not a fast enough supply to keep up with demand: ergo, there is a shortage.

Naturally, panic buys and shortages can occur together and reinforce, so the answer is that there is no "either or" - it is or can be both.

Arb.


Our local stations arr still getting nightly deliveries. The difference now is there is a short queue all day, until about 5pm when they tend to run out.

Presumably the tanker is still delivering the same amount to the same number of stations, so unless they've added more onto the route so each station gets less then there is still quite a bit of overbuying going on.

Paul

BT63
Lemon Slice
Posts: 432
Joined: November 5th, 2016, 1:22 pm
Has thanked: 59 times
Been thanked: 121 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447094

Postby BT63 » October 1st, 2021, 8:59 pm

We have four cars in our household. By lucky chance I filled one up the day before the media broadcast the story (600 mile range). The other three all had 1/3rd to 1/2 tank (250 mile range).
So we didn't bother to fill up and have minimised car usage.

I expect things to mostly return to normal next week. A large factor behind the panic buying has been about three quarters of workers get paid in the last week of the month so everyone has plenty of cash.

I also note there is evidence that retail sales are greatly down due to people being either busy queueing for fuel and/or spending a lot more on fuel instead of in the shops so less money available to them, and/or people not willing/able to waste their fuel travelling to retail premises.

Mike4
Lemon Half
Posts: 7088
Joined: November 24th, 2016, 3:29 am
Has thanked: 1638 times
Been thanked: 3796 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447124

Postby Mike4 » October 2nd, 2021, 4:01 am

DrFfybes wrote:
Arborbridge wrote:Strange question: of course there's a shortage. See the queues at fuel stations and it's obvious there is not a fast enough supply to keep up with demand: ergo, there is a shortage.

Naturally, panic buys and shortages can occur together and reinforce, so the answer is that there is no "either or" - it is or can be both.

Arb.


Our local stations arr still getting nightly deliveries. The difference now is there is a short queue all day, until about 5pm when they tend to run out.

Presumably the tanker is still delivering the same amount to the same number of stations, so unless they've added more onto the route so each station gets less then there is still quite a bit of overbuying going on.

Paul


I don't understand how anyone can 'over-buy', once their tank is full.

Looking dispassionately at my own fuel-buying behaviour, the problem now has morphed into motorists buying the same amount of fuel in twice as many transactions. Whereas I used to run my tank down to empty before re-filling, I now tend to queue up and refill when I'm down to about one third of a tank. This is from fear of getting caught out with no fuel and unable to find anywhere with stocks.

If everyone is doing similarly (highly likely) but some do it when down to say 2/3 of a tank, the net result is gonna be twice as many fuel station visits to buy the same amount of fuel. Hence the queues.

This will only stop once confidence is restored amongst motorists that every fuel station has fuel available on demand.

swill453
Lemon Half
Posts: 7962
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 6:11 pm
Has thanked: 984 times
Been thanked: 3643 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447125

Postby swill453 » October 2nd, 2021, 5:31 am

Mike4 wrote:I don't understand how anyone can 'over-buy', once their tank is full.

Looking dispassionately at my own fuel-buying behaviour, the problem now has morphed into motorists buying the same amount of fuel in twice as many transactions. Whereas I used to run my tank down to empty before re-filling, I now tend to queue up and refill when I'm down to about one third of a tank. This is from fear of getting caught out with no fuel and unable to find anywhere with stocks.

If everyone is doing similarly (highly likely) but some do it when down to say 2/3 of a tank, the net result is gonna be twice as many fuel station visits to buy the same amount of fuel. Hence the queues.

This will only stop once confidence is restored amongst motorists that every fuel station has fuel available on demand.

It's not just the number of fuel station visits.

You've just said that you've changed your behaviour to fill up when a third full rather than empty. So the average amount of fuel you're carrying has gone up from half a tank to two thirds of a tank. Assuming a 50 litre tank that's over 8 litres of extra fuel in your car compared to before the crisis.

If everybody did that...

Scott.

redsturgeon
Lemon Half
Posts: 8912
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:06 am
Has thanked: 1309 times
Been thanked: 3667 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447127

Postby redsturgeon » October 2nd, 2021, 6:08 am

I filled up once since the fuel crisis began, I have travelled about 1000 miles and still have 600 miles of fuel in my tank(I had a full tank last Friday. I need to travel over 500 miles over the weekend. I will be looking tom fill up on Monday. I am travelling about 40k miles per annum and I can fill up once a week...who is visiting the petrol stations more often? Considering the average driver does less than 10k per year I am confused.

John

Mike4
Lemon Half
Posts: 7088
Joined: November 24th, 2016, 3:29 am
Has thanked: 1638 times
Been thanked: 3796 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447131

Postby Mike4 » October 2nd, 2021, 8:19 am

swill453 wrote:
Mike4 wrote:I don't understand how anyone can 'over-buy', once their tank is full.

Looking dispassionately at my own fuel-buying behaviour, the problem now has morphed into motorists buying the same amount of fuel in twice as many transactions. Whereas I used to run my tank down to empty before re-filling, I now tend to queue up and refill when I'm down to about one third of a tank. This is from fear of getting caught out with no fuel and unable to find anywhere with stocks.

If everyone is doing similarly (highly likely) but some do it when down to say 2/3 of a tank, the net result is gonna be twice as many fuel station visits to buy the same amount of fuel. Hence the queues.

This will only stop once confidence is restored amongst motorists that every fuel station has fuel available on demand.

It's not just the number of fuel station visits.

You've just said that you've changed your behaviour to fill up when a third full rather than empty. So the average amount of fuel you're carrying has gone up from half a tank to two thirds of a tank. Assuming a 50 litre tank that's over 8 litres of extra fuel in your car compared to before the crisis.

If everybody did that...

Scott.


Set against that, I'm making fewer and only local journeys now. Pre-crisis I would make two or three 250 mile round trips per week. Now I'm only driving to fairly local boiler breakdowns. My mileage has reduced by at least half, I estimate.

tsr2
2 Lemon pips
Posts: 227
Joined: June 20th, 2017, 8:30 am
Has thanked: 294 times
Been thanked: 62 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447140

Postby tsr2 » October 2nd, 2021, 9:05 am

redsturgeon wrote:I filled up once since the fuel crisis began, I have travelled about 1000 miles and still have 600 miles of fuel in my tank(I had a full tank last Friday. I need to travel over 500 miles over the weekend. I will be looking tom fill up on Monday. I am travelling about 40k miles per annum and I can fill up once a week...who is visiting the petrol stations more often? Considering the average driver does less than 10k per year I am confused.

John


What sort of car does 1600 miles on a tank? That's seriously impressive. I drive pre-hybrid petrol cars and a full tank will take me about 400 miles. Our main car did 15000 miles last year and I would usually fill up when I got down to 100 miles or so remaining, so I would have had to fill up around 50 times, roughly once a week.

The fuel retailers said the normal average fill was only around £25, so even with an average mileage I expect that would be once a week for a lot of people.

redsturgeon
Lemon Half
Posts: 8912
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:06 am
Has thanked: 1309 times
Been thanked: 3667 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447146

Postby redsturgeon » October 2nd, 2021, 9:20 am

tsr2 wrote:
redsturgeon wrote:I filled up once since the fuel crisis began, I have travelled about 1000 miles and still have 600 miles of fuel in my tank(I had a full tank last Friday. I need to travel over 500 miles over the weekend. I will be looking tom fill up on Monday. I am travelling about 40k miles per annum and I can fill up once a week...who is visiting the petrol stations more often? Considering the average driver does less than 10k per year I am confused.

John


What sort of car does 1600 miles on a tank? That's seriously impressive. I drive pre-hybrid petrol cars and a full tank will take me about 400 miles. Our main car did 15000 miles last year and I would usually fill up when I got down to 100 miles or so remaining, so I would have had to fill up around 50 times, roughly once a week.

The fuel retailers said the normal average fill was only around £25, so even with an average mileage I expect that would be once a week for a lot of people.


To clarify, I had a full tank on Friday 24th since I'd filled up on Thursday, just before the panic. I then used that up by Tuesday 28th and filled up again from empty. I can get about 800 miles from a tank.

Your own case reinforces my point that even you as an above average mileage driver, filling when you get down to a quarter tank, only doing 400 miles to the tankful, still only needs to visit the fuel station once a week.

John

Arborbridge
The full Lemon
Posts: 10377
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:33 am
Has thanked: 3604 times
Been thanked: 5233 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447168

Postby Arborbridge » October 2nd, 2021, 10:25 am

I would expect this to be self-correcting fairly quickly: there's a limit to how much fuel the nations vehincles can hold. I usually fill up when nearly empty, but as I had 200 miles to do this week, I filled up earlier as there was not enough to cope with that.
But having filled up, I shouldn't need to again for a while as I am deliberately not undertaking long journeys now. The next long stint will be 10th October so I will be getting anxious just before that.

I am trying not to let my habits chance, but there's bound to be a certain amount of anticipation of it all ending in tears, which means filling up a day or two earlier than normal. This is rational behaviour and not anti-social panic buying, in my view. I daresay the majority of people are the same - applying normal rules of rational behaviour while allow for contingencies.

Filling up extra water bottles with fuel, however, is extreme, as well as downright dangerous. Let's hope that doesn't happen often.

Arb.

Gerry557
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 2006
Joined: September 2nd, 2019, 10:23 am
Has thanked: 172 times
Been thanked: 544 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447259

Postby Gerry557 » October 2nd, 2021, 3:30 pm

I was passing a petrol station just after the story broke. I would have normally filled up but couldn't be bothered queueing as it was much busier than normal. On my second pass it was even worse.

Today no queue although I struggled to get fuel as my card wouldn't authorise. Mrs G's card eventually worked. I suspect it could be area dependent. I haven't seen any no petrol signs, just some queues. Maybe everyone has filled here up now and the deliveries can be directed elsewhere.

I liked the story about the 20 drivers following a tanker only to find out he was moving morter!

I'm fully loaded up with toilet rolls though

swill453
Lemon Half
Posts: 7962
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 6:11 pm
Has thanked: 984 times
Been thanked: 3643 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447262

Postby swill453 » October 2nd, 2021, 3:35 pm

I've never seen a queue (of more than one or two cars) here in Scotland. Some pumps sometimes out of use, but others being used.

I drove straight into a Tesco filling station yesterday, had my choice of pumps. First time since all this started, filled up as usual from a quarter full.

Scott.

scotia
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3561
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 8:43 pm
Has thanked: 2371 times
Been thanked: 1943 times

Re: Panic buying, or shortage

#447264

Postby scotia » October 2nd, 2021, 3:52 pm

swill453 wrote:I've never seen a queue (of more than one or two cars) here in Scotland. Some pumps sometimes out of use, but others being used.

I drove straight into a Tesco filling station yesterday, had my choice of pumps. First time since all this started, filled up as usual from a quarter full.

Scott.

Yes - at ASDA in north Glasgow on Friday there was normal activity at the petrol pumps.
It seems the Scots are better behaved than our southern kindred.


Return to “Cars, Driving, Motorbikes or any Transport”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests