Hope you're not thirsty!

I was down to my last eight litres yesterday evening so called in at Stratford-upon-Avon for 72 litres of Shell's finest and had a choice of pumps. Herself tells me that the Mini is down to the last two bars on the gauge, but by now she might have to settle for our local place on the Fosse Way, which is 10p per litre more expensive than anywhere else.

One of my colleagues recently updated her (and hubby's) Q7 to an SQ7, with 4.4 litres of V8 petrol loveliness powering it.

At c. 15-18mpg.

And 40 miles showing on the range meter .. .. ..

First I knew of this was when taking the Boxster to its service on Wednesday - I recalled when I started it up that the light had just come on from Sunday's drive, stopped for some Esso Super, and they were serving 30l per customer only. I was possibly lucky to get Super as so many people were already panic buying it due to ignorance about E10.

As we know from the fuel crisis of the Blair years, average tank status is about a third full at any time - just everyone filling up knocks supply for a time. That's what will happen now, when only some Esso and BP garages have genuine supply issues.

Annoyingly the XF is fairly low on fuel so I'll probably sneak out on one of the weekend mornings and fill it. With E10. I'm due out again today but, having recently collected the Boxster which is invitingly sitting on the drive hood-down, I'll be using that again!!!

It seems that people are drawing attention to this purely to create a shortage which is irresponsible but right up the media alley. That and self interest groups poking their noses at anyone they see as in 'their way'.

Time for a jolly good shooting.

Seems it's grim out there. Local news is reporting many stations out of fuel and long queues, looking at google maps and the traffic display, it appears that they are right. Both my daughters have been out and about this evening, not yet been held up by queues at petrol stations where they live but people appear to be panic buying all over the place.

Profiteering?

So what you’re saying is not only are you are panic buyer, but twice in one day!       

I’ve got 90 miles left in my car, which will drop quickly as that’s after a busy motorway run.  I’ll need some on the way home on Tuesday otherwise I’m not going anywhere.   I think the Golf has 150 miles or so left, but I need to do over 300 on Thursday.

But I refuse to get any before I need it and as there isn’t a shortage, I hope all the panic buyers have filled up, then the stock can be replenished over the next few days as most won’t need fuel again for weeks…. 

I need to do a 120 mile round trip tomorrow and I don't have that much range in any of my cars at the moment, so I popped down to my local Sainsburys at 8.20am today and it took me about 25 minutes to reach the front of the fuel queue.
At least they didn't appear to be profiteering.

Its mayhem around where I live, most garages are sold out, the few that have are rationing it and the queues are horrendous. The local big Sainsburys (just been to get some food) has about 20 pumps but the queue is all the way back to the dual carriageway off which it sits, so maybe 60 or 70 cars queueing. Local garage is one of the few with some left but limiting it to £30 and causing issues on the main road on which it's located due to the queue; just had a frustrating 10 minutes or so queueing (filled on my way out) because the Captur had almost no fuel in it, not been used much recently as wife is quite badly ill and has to go to a not-so-near hospital during the coming week. It's getting on for 3 months since it has got fuel and now this.....

Boris and the idiots running the country have a lot to answer for, as well as the fuel crisis (and it is a crisis despite what they may say) there are even more gaps on the supermarket shelves, no fresh diced beef or lamb (only mince), no Kingsmill 50/50, even the stocks on the confectionary shelves are running low!
If lockdown didn't force you to stay at home, the fuel crisis (lack of, and escalating prices) will.

We're doomed

Go to an Iceland Food Warehouse Chris. 

Thanks to me and my team and a CEO who makes quick/sensible decisions, they are less than half a day behind ideal/optimum stock levels with very few items out of stock.  Scotland is a bit worse to be fair as COVID cases have been high over the last couple of weeks but everywhere else is OK.   I’ve been into Tesco, Waitrose, Aldi and Co-op in the last week and their availability is shocking.  

The problem a lot of supermarkets have had is they refused to react to increasing rates and do anything different to attract and retain drivers/warehouse pickers.  They have now but they can’t catch up and it’s warehouse workers more than drivers that’s the issue, drivers are available if you’re prepared to pay. 

It’s not all frozen food in Iceland (c35% only), a Food Warehouse has enough range to cover a standard weekly shop and sells unfrozen mince.   Not that most supermarket fresh mince is really that though, a lot is previously frozen anyway. I remember the supplier of Bootifull Turkeys having an issue because their fresh turkeys were taking up space in the frozen warehouse…..

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t been into one of their stores in well over 20years until I was talking to them about running their network, but the refreshed / larger stores and range are very good.  

I’d guess Reading, then Basingstoke are the 2 nearest and Farnborough is probably the nearest standard store. 

Not sure how shopping in a different store effects your job hunting though? 

Trust me, there is a genuine and significant shortage of drivers.  But I agree that press and public have made it a lot worse.  It was the same with toilet roll, the biggest manufacturer had over 12 months stock at the time, but because it takes up so much cube on a vehicle, they just couldn’t get it out fast enough to keep up with the general public’s hording.

In my opinion, there’s too much noise about getting foreign labour back and faith that it’s the answer, I don’t think it is and it won’t be cheap either.

Creating new drivers is the answer, but it’s not a quick fix.  We’re setting up driver training schools, it’s only costs £3,000 to take a man or woman off the stree and take them all the way through to being a qualified Class 1 driver, all we need to decent test availability.  I’ve had 10 throug and pass already with 20 waiting for a test date.

... but the government is not responding with plans to resolve the crises that we are experiencing. This is at least the third time I can remember, since moving to my present home, that there have been fuel shortages and wide-spread queueing. I can also remember the fuel crisis in the 1970's where petrol coupons were distributed but never actually used, also with shortages and queueing; that's 4 times in just over 50 years in a so-called modern civilised country where we have had major issues with a "basic" of life. Government actions are notable by their absence every time

“4 times in over 50 years…” 😀

Come on Chris have you forgotten what caused the fuel shortages in the 70s?

Anyway, no queues in Newcastle on any forecourt I’ve passed, perhaps a little busier than normal. Supermarket shelves normal.

Crisis? What crisis?