drew
Drew
The shortage of fuel at petrol stations started when only a couple of BP petrol stations had a slight delay in their fuel delivery arriving and so had to temporarily close.
The tanker drivers (note, not HGV drivers as tanker drivers need a ADR qualification) that were delivering in the weeks before this to every other retailer were still there delivering their normal supplies each day, and they still continue to be there, making their deliveries for forecourts across the country
So the trigger was... The way that that shortage at a couple of BP stations was jumped upon by the media, the anti-Brexit brigade and so on, making it out as a far bigger shortage than it would ever have been without that hype creating a fear amongst so many that if they didn't keep their tanks filled to the brim, even if it normally didn't need filling for say another fortnight, then demand would have carried on being normal and the petrol stations would still have had plenty of fuel for those in actual need to refill
All the nonsense about the lack of HGV drivers and Brexit being the cause just created the panic and was based on nothing more than scaremongering and promoting their own political agenda
The European HGV drivers who left and were supposedly to blame for the lack of fuel at the pumps left the country months ago, not in the last few hours before the couple of stations had to temporarily close due to a late delivery, which it only affected BP
Yet despite BP's woes, fuel deliveries had carried on as normal for every other fuel retailer.
If no one had panicked, and just carried on fuelling up as normal, then there would have been no crisis.
If the system is balanced so demand for fuel is say 400m ltrs, and tanker drivers can supply up to 500m litres of fuel to forecourts in the same time frame as the 400m litres is used, then there is spare capacity for deliveries and no shortage (except at BP who where the only ones struggling to supply a couple of stations)
Cue the misleading messages of shortages, no drivers, etc and demand sky rockets to say 1500m litres of fuel being used sold by forecourts when normal operations would have seen 400m litres sold.
Now tanker drivers can only deliver 500m litres so this panic buying has led to others running out of fuel and having to close when normal buying patterns would have seen no lack of fuel and no forecourt closures of petrol stations that weren't experiencing supply issues (only BP were)
If people had acted rationally and normally, and continued to buy fuel as before instead of rushing out to get every little bit of fuel they could into their cars, then the system would have coped and fuel supplies would have been more than sufficient because if someone found one of those temporarily closed BP forecourts, there would have been several different alternatives for their fuel needs nearby they could have used instead
This now ends when the buying of fuel by drivers falls to such an extent, mainly due to their having full fuel tanks and not needing to refill, that petrol stations can start to retain a stock rather than selling out almost as fast as they get stock in. The more that can retain stock as it isn't all snapped up, means less panicking as drivers see it will be available when they need it once again and can afford to let it run down which will allow those who absolutely need a lot for their work to refill as they need it rather than being concerned about running out and grabbing some as soon as they see an opportunity, no matter how full they are. That will all just take time and demand to drop below what it is possible to deliver in one day once again.
Where has anyone said it was only a couple of forecourts closed by BP? A couple is commonly deemed to be two. BP announced it was a handful of forecourts but when pressed did not confirm how many was a handful. This problem was caused by BP making that announcement and that this was reported by both BBC and ITV. From my recollection of what I hears on Thursday 23rd Sept was that there was no indication there was a shortage of fuel. That was how the press followed it up the second day.
This problem was caused by the press release by BP and that was caused, it seems, because the company contracted by BP to deliver their fuel were crap employers.