Petrol and diesel set to be the new bog roll. Road Warriors unite! 🚙

richmtb

Some shortages in Glasgow but nothing serious.

I think having Grangemouth an hour from where most people in Scotland live makes things a lot easier

Stanlow refinery is 1/2 hour from Liverpool or 15 mins from the Wirral but the situation is still pretty dire there.

mrs_oab just filled up the Ovlov with a full tank diesel – no queue, quiet forecourt. 7am in Stirling.

Had to put off this weeks spirited driving due to low fuel.

It occurred to me that on my 7 mile commute there is only one petrol station directly on the route. (This is all main roads.) There used to be at least one, maybe two more but they closed years ago after the big supermarkets muscled in and people stopped using the smaller stations. I’m guesstimating that there were something like an extra 50% more petrol stations, maybe even double the number about twenty years ago around here. Would the fuel situation be better if we hadn’t allowed these places to close?

Had to put off this weeks spirited driving due to low fuel.

Were you in mid-wales?

Currently on M25, and ‘no fuel’ displayed on the electronic signs, same along the M4 from Bristol earlier.

Hmm, this is a little worrying – we have to go to Surrey at the weekend from the SW, and whilst we have just over 3/4 tank of fuel, our car isn’t the most economical (old Subaru) so a bit concerned we won’t be able to top up if we run low!

I’m guesstimating that there were something like an extra 50% more petrol stations, maybe even double the number about twenty years ago around here. Would the fuel situation be better if we hadn’t allowed these places to close?

Still need to get the fuel to them – having more stations doesn’t necessarily help with that although it might spread the demand around a bit more.

A quick search online reckons there are about 8300 petrol stations now, down from 18,000 in the early 90’s but I wonder how many of those closures are due to small “village” pump places being swallowed up by urbanisation plus the much greater tank capacity and efficiency of modern cars. Sure, there are millions more cars on the road now than there were then but the system clearly works 99+% of the time without those missing 10,000 stations.

I wonder if people are seeing long queues and assuming those are the places with fuel, without checking other places?

A quick search online reckons there are about 8300 petrol stations now, down from 18,000 in the early 90’s but I wonder how many of those closures are due to small “village” pump places being swallowed up by urbanisation plus the much greater tank capacity and efficiency of modern cars.

Cars might be more efficient than they were but not only are there far more of them but they drive far more miles. I suspect that’s the reason for fewer stations – people are driving further, so they pass more stations, which means they don’t need to be so close together.

I wonder how many of those closures are due to small “village” pump places being swallowed up by urbanisation

Every little garage used to have to have a pump, quite a rare sight nowadays. I can only think of a couple off the top of my head, and one of them is a little classic car dealership with a pump for 4*, really can’t be many of those left now! And I’ve not been passed that for ages, is that even still allowed? My dad used to get fuel for his Stag there but he got rid of the car last year.

Called at the Asda in Halifax this morning for the Covid test and the fuel station looked normal, just two cars filling, one waiting. Mrs R filled up without issue on Tuesday at the little Jet garage on the main road near us. Again, just two cars already at the pumps.

This must surely be a population density thing? Big cities hit hard. Calder valley seems OK.

Cars might be more efficient than they were but not only are there far more of them but they drive far more miles. I suspect that’s the reason for fewer stations – people are driving further, so they pass more stations, which means they don’t need to be so close together.

In 2019, the average car in the UK drove 7,400 miles—down 20% from 9,200 miles in 2002. British motorists drive less now, primarily driven by a drop in business driving and private driving. Commuting mileage has held steady at 2,700 miles a year on average per car. From 2002 to 2019, business mileage is lower by 900 miles a year, commuting mileage is flat and other private driving is lower by 700 miles a year.

From https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/cheap-car-insurance/average-car-mileage-uk

In 2019, the average car in the UK drove 7,400 miles—down 20% from 9,200 miles in 2002.

It’d be interesting to see a bell curve on that one as I suspect the average is lowered considerably by a vast number of vehicles doing a few miles a couple of times a week to take Betty to the bingo or Tarquin and Jemima the half mile to school and back.

Overall mileage per car is down but the number of actual cars and journeys has increased significantly. Problem is, they’re all super short urban runarounds which is exactly the area that we should be looking to remove cars from altogether!

I do wonder how much fuel is sitting there in cars that do <200 miles a month of urban driving and for which a full tank could easily last 2-3 months.

Two days ago, GiantPay was hit with what looks to be a ransomware attack. GiantPay pay lorry drivers. They said they will “try” to pay them this week.

It’s not public knowledge yet so I’m limited as to what I can say (and details are sketchy), but it’s looking like Reed Boardall has just been hit by a ransomware attack. RB is a haulage firm for chilled goods, they are effectively shut down.

This isn’t getting better any time soon. If you can find fuel, I’d strongly suggest using some of it to buy food.

Seems like the perfect opportunity for a foreign adversary to be coordinating an assault on this kind of infrastructure.

Are we about to find out how vulnerable we are as a nation to cyberattacks?

Not saying it’s aliens, but…

<fetches tinfoil hat, checks Brexit/Covid food stockpile>

Carry on…

Every little garage used to have to have a pump

Not only that but there were far more little garages and workshop places all over the countryside. Places that would work on farm machines etc. There was a little tiny place in the small town on a corner in town, it had two cars for sale, a tiny shop selling a few parts and a pump outside, the sort with the little glass bell that filled with fuel.

There’s a house near me in Cardiff, called the Old Forge, in a suburb that used to be a little village and it had what looked like a 1940s pump outside it for ages – disused obvs.

Seems like the perfect opportunity for a foreign adversary to be coordinating an assault on this kind of infrastructure.

Naw, domestic terrorism.

I’m telling you, the attack on Howard Cox’s telephone was the first stage of a coordinated attack by the Provisional Sustrans Army!

Edit: And Remoaners, obviously.

This isn’t getting better any time soon. If you can find fuel, I’d strongly suggest using some of it to buy food.

am I allowed to walk/ride to the shop or is driving compulsory?

#scaremongering

This isn’t getting better any time soon. If you can find fuel, I’d strongly suggest using some of it to buy food.

am I allowed to walk/ride to the shop or is driving compulsory?

How are you going to barter petrol for cans of beans if you arrived on your bike? Smart thinking that lad.

How are you going to barter petrol for cans of beans if you arrived on your bike? Smart thinking that lad.

shops will be empty, everyone will be sitting in traffic jams with their engines running down what precious fuel they have….

Just got 1000 litres of kerosene delivered. I reckon by Monday morning that’ll be Oligarch status for the stabiliser household. Kneel before me!

Just got 1000 litres of kerosene delivered. I reckon by Monday morning that’ll be Oligarch status for the stabiliser household. Kneel before me!

If you own a jet plane…

This isn’t getting better any time soon.

I think it must do. We had enough tanker drivers last week, the week before – the surge in demand was caused by people hoarding – well they can only hoard so much can’t they?

I do wonder how much fuel is sitting there in cars that do <200 miles a month of urban driving and for which a full tank could easily last 2-3 months.

If that’s E10 unleaded there could be a lot of unhappy seals and plastic things as a result.

Sandwich
Full Member
I do wonder how much fuel is sitting there in cars that do <200 miles a month of urban driving and for which a full tank could easily last 2-3 months.

If that’s E10 unleaded there could be a lot of unhappy seals and plastic things as a result

its an interesting point sandwich that isn’t lost on the manufactures, especially with hybrids. It’s not so much the ethanol, it’s just the general amount of time that fuel may sit, or rather not pass through the fuelling systems that there is a small concern about..

Does anyone else think it’s interesting that from near-total coverage, there’s been very little in the news today about it?

At the risk of sounding a bit, well, loony, I wonder if the gov’t have ‘had a word’ about inciting hysteria (or even issued a d-notice)?

Just adding my thoughts to a conversation above re small fuel stations. As mentioned previously our business is in owning fuel stations.
Fuel isn’t a money earner, due to competitive pricing we make very little on fuel. A small space restricted village fuel station isn’t going to be able to add additional components to the business that make money.
All of our stations have large amounts of land, allowing us to build nice food stores and to partner with brands customers want to purchase from.
You would also be surprised at the amount of use a jet wash and automatic car wash see. But all these things, along with nice easy parking are essential to keeping the business afloat.
This crisis has affected our business a fair bit, definitely seeing a lot less footfall in the store, when a tanker arrives people are waiting for it to be ready, very little shop business happening. People are filling up and leaving (in a huff!).

What’s to say?

Remember that the news needs to be.. well, new. And if you keep reporting the same situation people get bored of it and complain. It’s not a simple information service, although perhaps it should be – it needs viewers.

As mentioned previously our business is in owning fuel stations.

Can I ask if you can make some kind of app or ask Google to note down which stations are big enough for a caravan or large trailer please? 🙂

No problem in Falkirk.
Shell at Newtongramge was open last night, as was Dalkieth Tesco, albeit the latter only for petrol. Pace in Falkirk have both and no queue, with a 40 litre limit (iI’ve ust bought 25 from them) and the BP by the M9 has everything and a queue of about four cars, like any other Friday afternoon.

Fuel isn’t a money earner, due to competitive pricing we make very little on fuel.

Why didn’t you double or treble your price to limit demand? Everyone wins.

Haha, we did talk about what we should do with the pricing, we lost a fair amount last month as the manager of one of the primary sites incorrectly adjusted the fuel price to 30p less than we bought it for….this was our chance to recoup that loss….
But being the nice people we are, in conjunction with the other local owners we agreed to keep the price fair (in relation to what we buy it in at)

But being the nice people we are, in conjunction with the other local owners we agreed to keep the price fair (

Bloody cartels 😜

@ Flaparon,increasing fuel prices so low paid workers and those living in rural areas with no public transport can’t get to work is a great suggestion coming from someone with a very highly paid job driving a very expensive electric car

@ Flaparon,increasing fuel prices so low paid workers and those living in rural areas with no public transport can’t get to work is a great suggestion coming from someone with a very highly paid job driving a very expensive electric car

How much do you think low-paid workers earn if they can’t get to work at all because Daily Express readers panic-bought all the fuel? Loads of people driving around on holidays still. Don’t see them staying at home to let low-paid workers buy fuel.

You could easily have a system that allowed people with a company ID / marked van / reasonable excuse to fill up at the normal rate and punted Daily Express-readers towards the expensive pumps.

At the risk of sounding a bit, well, loony, I wonder if the gov’t have ‘had a word’ about inciting hysteria (or even issued a d-notice)?

Do they even need to bother now the DG is a Tory stooge and they just need to say the words ‘licence fee’?

I’ve resorted to pumping fuel out of my car to my GFs Astra as it had the light flashing and had done 460 miles already, not bad for a 2004 1.6 8v. I wasn’t convinced it’d make the petrol station and no guarantee of fuel if it got there

Feels a waste putting 99 in it but it’s more efficient and more practical than mine.
Mines basically a fuel store now.

it seems a bit mean spirited to fill right up when half a tank will easily see me though the next fortnight

You’ll never prosper in Brexit Britain with that attitude.

This is more the stuff:

New Tory target audience nailed 30 odd years ago…

The small town where I live (c 25,000 residents) has 2 filling stations on the high st. I’ve always wondered how they survive, even though one is a service station and the other has a Co-op attached.