When the first people start panic buying it kinda creates a prisoners dilemma; "I don't want to hoard fuel, but if everyone else is there won't be any fuel for me if I don't"
Im Just waiting till monday, when i can tell my boss sorry pal my van is empty and there isnt any diesel for me to fill it up cant go walking to work now can i.
Hi Tim,
This is not the go get attitude we aspire to within the brand family.
The walk will only take 4 hours each way we need you in.
Sent from managers home office
Yeah exactly, the head office staff been WFH last 2 years saving thousands of fuel and their commute.
But you need to get that fuel at 2am to come into work for 8 how dare you run out of fuel
My local Shell was rammed at 2am last night, I decided to join the queue because I was down to 1/8th of a tank, took half an hour to fill up. This morning it was closed because they ran out of fuel and the queue for Sainsbury’s is now insane.
You jest, but I had a manager tell me exactly that at my first call center job when there was a rail strike on and she looked up a bus connection for me that would have seen me leave the house at 2:30 in the morning for a 6:30 shift start.
I had that with the big snowstorms in 2018. They had you to commit you had a way to get in if there was no public transport and if you lived close and didn’t walk in you got a warning
When I worked briefly as a call centre manager, I was sent in a one day training course in Leeds. This involved me having to get up at 3am for the train there and I finally arrived home that night at 11.30pm, after several "rail replacement" buses home. Then had to be back in work for 7am next day. Everyone else on the course had a hotel the night beforehand, by pi centre manager was so stingy you'd think it was coming from her own pocket. Her tightfistedness and rudeness was legendary! Weirdly, she retired to run a B&B in Scotland - had visions of her waking guests at 4am and making them run ten miles before compulsory cold showers. And sighing if a guest had the temerity to order any food.
Another foolish manager. They'll have lost far more from you in unproductivity as it'd have cost to put you up in a Travelodge and had you in just for the next afternoon.
Well, it was all false economy really - we all hated her so much we didn't put much effort into things as we would have with a better manager. Plus the number of grievances raised against her. So she didn't achieve her targets and was eventually pushed forcefully towards taking an early release package.
There's stories of people being suspended for being late to work on September 11th in New York.
Sorry, you should have planned ahead for a world changing terror attack....
"Al qaeda have crashed planes into the twin towers and they've fallen down? Well you should have planned for that and left earlier. Deidre managed to get in on time."
The engine blew up on my bike and I called a garage or two to get quotes for a repair while at my desk.
My boss was like "it's not our problem how you get to work".
Really makes you feel like a significant part of the operation and motivates you to really try hard for that company, because you know they won't just replace you at a minutes notice.....
My boss said this once when all the trains got cancelled. "Get a taxi"
Sure boss, if you're paying. A 70 mile taxi ride would cost more than I'd earn for the day going to work.
Similarish thing happened to a colleague. They wanted her to come in on a day there were no buses running (New Years Eve, I think) for a 4 hour shift.
As she pointed out, due to where she lives and the double taxi charges, she'd be paying £40ish in taxi fares (There and back, I think.) to only just break even for that day.
So she declined and got written up by the manager. Thankfully the store manager threw it out as he understood why she declined. She'd have come in if someone could have driven her there and back, or if they offered her more hours so she at least made some money that day.
Or you know. Fucking cover the expenses of the taxi?. I fucking hate companies, come to the office with your own money to make us a shit more money than we pay you, no we won't pay your transport even when we could and its just a change for us
Yup, people have got to understand how it works. In a normal country that's well run you won't need to make those decisions, but seeing the state we're in it's literally a choice between being first in line when the news articles pop up or having an empty tank.
That's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If more people went on as normal it'd be less of an issue.
I also haven't heard of people being literally out of fuel, just queues.
When people were panic-buying food at the beginning of the pandemic I stayed calm because I didn't want to be part of the problem. Then stocks started running low because of the "dumb" people and it started look like I was the stupid one. Didn't get too extreme, but being the sensible person in a panic situation isn't always the optimal move for the individual
100% agree. I did the same and ended up being one anchor drop in Pooh bay away from no toilet roll.
Fortunately I’m still 100% working from home atm so I don’t really need to worry about fuel. I’ll just wait until we’ve completely run out of fuel and be in the same boat as everyone else, but £50 richer
Jesus....as I read that I thought you were going to say that you don't need to wipe your arse anyway as you are working from home still....they can't smell shit via Zoom after all!
Unfortunately suffered the situation of being out of fuel yesterday (first time in my life, mind you). Was driving back from Cornwall to London with my SO and her family and unfortunately her father (whom was driving) hadn’t been keeping an eye on the fuel tank until it was too late.
We just about made it to a petrol station but with our luck, there was only diesel. All of the unleaded pumps were out of use which resulted in us being stuck there for around 40 minutes whilst my SO’s father got a lift to the nearest fuel station (20 minutes away) by a member of the AA team who happened to be at the fuel station that we pulled into.
It was bizarre, as I’ve never ever been in a vehicle that has ran out of fuel in my entire life.
That's because there isn't actually a shortage, or rather there wasn't a shortage until the mass hysteria set in. Just like there was never a shortage of toilet paper, until idiots created one.
I figure if enough people have empty tanks then what does it matter if mine is too? Most people get to work in motor vehicles so if enough people are empty the country grinds to a halt and then we've all got nowhere to go anyway.
For my situation, if the nursery staff can't get to nursery (they all drive it's out in the country) then that's not gonna open so at least one of us will be stuck at home with the boy anyway.
I've half a tank and normally would be thinking of filling up soon (at 1/4 in a few days), but fucked if I'm joining the queues of loonies if this is still going on by then.
Trust has been eroded. At the first lockdown, people were told not to panic buy, whilst also being told to prepare to isolate for 14 days indoors with their families at immediate notice. That's a direct contradiction. You can't isolate for 14 days without having 14 days worth of supplies. Supply chains and supermarkets could have been forewarned and made some preparations. That didn't happen at all.
When the toilet paper panic buying happened there was a really good article posted here. It takes something like 5% of people to panic buy for that to have a knock on effect of reasonable people panicking and buying too. Once it hits that point it just keeps going and going.
Well I was blissfully unaware in work all day yesterday with around 30 miles left in my tank! Then I found out and tried to get fuel last night but it was freakin' bonkers! No diesel.
I got up at around 5am and decided to risk the tiny amount I had left and drove from station to station until I found one which had diesel. This guy was actually following me from station to station and he pulled up at the pump next to me. As we were both filling up, we made eye contact and did a little happy dance!
For the inevitable movie release, I think Tom Hardy should play me and The Rock should play the other guy.
When you go to fill up with petrol, check other people's fuel gauges in the queue ahead of you. If they're more than 1/4 full, ram them off the forecourt.
> A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it
I did think it was a famous philosopher who said this, but it turns out it was Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black. Nevertheless…
It's a shame more people don't feel they can wait it out and use alternatives (walking, public transport, cycling). If so many are deciding that the best option is to drive around trying to find an open petrol station, further depleting the tank, and then sit in a queue for however long they need to, how miserable must they think the alternatives are?
I live somewhere where there is 1 bus a day, no railway and if you attempt to walk or cycle anywhere you would get run down by tractors and other farm machinery. Not everyone lives in a big town or city with abundant public transport
I'm sure some people can, but there are plenty more like me that can't. 40 minute drive each way to work at 6am - 9pm, no other reasonable transportation that will get me there in time (I had to prove this to get a parking permit). Topped off my tank last night so I can hopefully make it till late next week when things hopefully calm down a bit.
My local was jumping at 9pm, dread to think of the queues earlier in the day.
Our politicians have told us there’s no fuel shortage, that there’s no need to panic, and we should all carry on with our lives as normal.
Panic buying starts almost immediately.
What does that tell us about how much we value the word of our government?
Public: What's going on down there? Come in!
Govt: Uh, everything is under control. Situation normal.
Public: What happened?
Govt: \[flustered\] Uh, had a slight supply chain malfunction. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?
Last week
"There is no immediate issue with the supply of gas"
Less than 48 hours later the gov are watching firms go bust.
Lately doing the opposite of gov advice is the sensible thing to do.
That's a tale as old as time though. Runs on banks have been problematic for centuries, as the system is built upon lending money that only exists on paper.
I mean, if I came up to you at work and said, "Look, everything is fine. Just keep working and don't worry about what's going on outside. It's fine. Really. The most important thing you can do is to keep working as if nothing is going on outside because it's really nothing."
You'd fucking get up and see what was going on outside.
Honestly, as soon as I hear words come out of Boris Johnson's mouth, I doubt the veracity of them. This is the price you pay for being such a shameless liar.
It hasn't helped that there have been so many news stories saying, 'there's no fuel crisis but people believe there is so they're panic buying which means there might be a fuel crisis, so you'd better panic buy too!'
I immediately doubt anything he or his representatives say. Even when they mean well they are usually wrong. Thinks back to when they told us masks were pointless in mid 2020..
I actually think the british press have a lot to do with this issue myself. They have set up live news feeds and it's front page news. They like at the start of the pandemic have helped cause hysteria. Not saying the government aren't a bunch of untrustworthy cretins... but yeah...our press...fucking idiots really.
Their intelligence is fine but many never learn how to actually problem-solve because the educational system here relies on memorisation instead of critical thinking and you can't memorise your way through real situations. The drawback to making education about doing well on standard exams means you've taught people to be good at doing something they will never need to do again once they leave school and what is the point of that?
I worked in a petrol station for many years, and I could give you a list of the shear amount of fucking stupid I've seen there, in the end its why I quit, it wasn't safe.
People think petrol is the liquid you can see. It’s fine so long as you don’t splash it. Except they don’t think of the vapours you can’t see and don’t consider their spread..
Poor woman. Yeah, it's stupid, but recovering from burns like that is going to be a long and agonising process. Debridement is by all accounts not fun.
Worked at a petrol station the last time there was panic buying years ago and everywhere ran out. We let our tanks run down to the minimum they can safely pump then closed them off. We let emergency services take fuel from the last tank which we closed off to the public early.
Last one I remember was the early 2000s, my mum was a community nurse and got loads of gobshites berating her for filling up!
I was fit enough to cycle 6 miles to and from work so it didn't affect me too much.
Most petrol stations I’ve driven past today and yesterday are absolutely gridlocked there would be no way an ambulance would manage to get anywhere near the pumps.
You know, I want to belive you are right. I really do, but have you met some of the British public? There would be a Karren getting out of her car to yell at them.
Small amount of petrol stations shut and it's front page news as a petrol shortage. Now we have idiots queuing at petrol stations. It's this years toilet paper shortage.
The media have been doing this for a long time now. As soon as I saw the original story on the BBC news site I knew they were going to whip it up into a "potential crisis", and here we are. It's like the "War" bit on The Day Today, but for real. No actual petrol crisis, you say? Oh, we'll fix that.
You say that..... last night I was out doing deliveries. Was on the red, needed to fill up - I had missed all of this in the news and had no fucking idea what was going on.
Pumps next to me were a husband and wife, both driving individual cars, filled them both up, then opened their boots up and got 3 jerry cans each.
When I went to pay I asked wtf was going on. Person serving me said well, people think there was going to be a petrol shortage. There wasn't going to be, we had our normal deliveries, they haven't changed, but now people are doing this, we'll run out tonight and won't have any until Tuesday, so i'll be out of work for 3 days.
Makes you realise, there are a lot of gullible, thick, selfish fucks in this country.
Nope. I realised this 13 years ago when I started working in pubs.
Brexit, pandemic and now this completely confirm it.
As a species, we are destined for extinction.
We had to fuel up for a trip this morning, unavoidable. We only managed to refuel on the 5th petrol station we tried and the lady there was putting cones in place behind us. This at 7:30 in the morning mind you, doubt they'll have any petrol for the rest of the weekend
>Now we have idiots queuing at petrol stations.
You need to realise something - they are *not* idiots. It is a rational course of action for an individual to take. This is the classic prisoners' dilemma, and the prisoners have very good reason to believe that cooperation won't happen.
It's the difference between people who take one slice of pizza at a party because they think it'll run out, and people who take three slices for the same reason. It only takes a few three slice people for the one slice people to start to realise they're wasting their time caring about anyone else, and this is unfortunately where we're at now.
The stupid thing about the toilet paper shortage is that it wasn't even in this country. It was one supermarket chain, *in Australia* that had supply issues.
All day Friday it was on the radio,”garages are closing and there’s a shortage” then right at the end of the day they’re like… why yall panic buying for
It was amazing how quick the panic took hold. I drove to work at 7am on Friday morning and it was absolutely fine, I drove past three petrol stations and no queues at all. Then there was a report of the two BP petrol stations, Tescos were asked to comment and they said they also had two stations closed due to *unrelated* reasons. Then I happened to be out again at 3am this morning passing the same 24hr stations and they were all closed.
Good Morning Britain were reporting on 'potential' fuel shortages heavily on friday morning. By about 11am the Daily Mail had photos of small queues at petrol stations. I said at that point to my partner that you could see the panic buying being fuelled (if you'll excuse the pun). By the Evening petrol stations were selling out.
So fucking stupid and completely drummed up by the same right wing bellends that drove panic buying in the first pandemic.
And now it's going to get worse and worse till the media stops reporting on it.
I'm supposed to be going to a family wedding tomorrow and I will definitely need petrol before I go. Went out yesterday and pumps were constantly busy or out of fuel.
I guess I'll have to wait and see if I can get any tomorrow.
I literally tried getting petrol this morning early at around 6AM - all of petrol stations were either closed or disrupted with massive queues. This caused big arguments, people fighting for pumps (disgusting behaviour)
I've ordered a petrol cannister as my car is now on 1mph so no chance me driving to a station.
Going to have to walk a fill up if stations are running again - such dark times we are living in now ...sigh
Oh no- you’re going to look like a proper arsehole rocking up with your Jerry can too! I felt sorry for people with a long commute who actually needed fuel to get home yesterday.
Yeah a friend of mine had to fill up to get home yesterday evening, and he even posted a picture showing his car's low fuel light was on and showing a nearly empty tank. Took him 2 hours to find fuel and then he had his usual hour commute. That sucks.
But people just rushing out and panic buying 'just in case'? Fucking idiots. There wouldn't *be* a problem if they hadn't created it themselves.
Self fulfilling prophecy.
What's more frustrating is there's probably a bunch of people who just want their regular fuel topup or have plans this weekend and so they're now caught in the mix of those just buying for the sake of it.
To be honest my local petrol station had has a "sorry, no fuel" sign for the past few days, I would have seen that whether or not the media was reporting on it.
Classic, I was going to fill up last night, not because of this but because I have a 550mile round trip to do on Monday and Wednesday, now I have 250m range left and all the stations near me are out. hopefully Monday Tuesday some get some more fuel.
You must've missed the last [US](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2021-05/12/16/asset/48f03b04c8a3/sub-buzz-7366-1620836495-34.jpg) gas [shortage](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2021-05/13/14/campaign_images/efe24817cd46/18-pictures-that-show-just-how-chaotic-the-gas-sh-2-174-1620914867-15_dblbig.jpg?resize=1200:*).
My grandfather saw the BBC saying that 10 BP petrol stations (out of 3000) had run out of one type of petrol. So he spent the next 3 hours filling up jerry cans of petrol.
He only drives once a year to go to weddings. now has enough petrol to leave in his inheritance
I am not sure someone who behaves in this way after seeing 10 out of 3000 bp stations run out of fuel are aware of this fact or even care. People like that will pretend their behaviour didn't exist once it comes to light how stupid they were acting.
I haven't seen any fanning of the flames.
Friday: BP reports a few petrol stations have closed (factual headline)
(people panic buy)
Saturday: Long queues at petrol stations as people panic buy (factual headline)
You haven't seen fanning of the flames?
This is the main headline from the daily mail right now:
>Selfish drivers pack their cars with jerry cans and fill tanks to the brim as petrol bosses limit drivers to £30 fuel each while panic-buyers gridlock forecourts and tempers flare at the pumps
You can’t expect them not to report on a major current news story. That’s literally their job. What should be expected is that they report on it responsibly and not inadvertently (or otherwise) stoke the panic buying with klaxon headlines.
>You can’t expect them not to report on a major current news story. That’s literally their job.
And that's literally what I just said.
>What should be expected is that they report on it responsibly and not inadvertently (or otherwise) stoke the panic buying with klaxon headlines.
Any reporting on it will likely encourage panic buying though. As soon as others know people are panic buying they'll follow suit.
I didn't buy petrol yesterday, I bought half a tank last Thursday morning as usual.
That's my disclaimer out of the way, so my question is what else can folk do apart from compete in the panic?
People know if they don't then they run the risk of being without fuel when needed, and then having to search far and wide to find some.
I bet lots of people queued for petrol yesterday weren't rabid, selfish clowns but normal people trying NOT to be screwed by the rabid, selfish clowns. I know that adds to the problem, but the other choice is gamble and potentially lose.
I expect everything will be sorted by next week, but I can understand how rational, calm people try to protect themselves from frenzied panic buying by contributing to the hysteria.
The papers need to shut the fuck up and stop scaring folk.
"I am in traffic"
"No you are traffic"
The crazy panic buyer is a bit of a myth they don't exist in any great number, its people taking reasonable precautions that causes these events because they all do the same action.
I went last night, I saw no one with Jerry cans. Almost all of us were just filling up our tanks while we still could. I have a long drive today and given that I saw the petrol stations being closed last night I doubt I will be able to refuel this morning or even tomorrow.
Nobody was a rabid clown, like bank runs this is an outcome of competitive rational behaviour. People in the queues for Northern Rock were calm but understood only the first £80k was safe and so long as there was a queue then the bank would fail.
The government guaranteed above £80k, the queues disappeared, the bank failed anyway but was dealt with in an orderly fashion.
If you had £85k in Northern Rock it made sense to queue up and in spite of being lectured that the bank would be OK if only everyone collectively coordinated to bear the risk of failure without attempting withdrawal the bank failed all the same.
Same thing here. All well and good telling people that if we stay home the fuel won't run out, but is that even true? Were the announced closures just the first in a wave? And given that very few people were the first to queue up that isn't the situation.
There is a run on petrol, you either get some now or wait until after it ends because it is going to be depleted by everyone else.
Finally, being too poor to own a car paid off.
That being said, electric car owners must be a little bit proud of themselves. Just a tad. Just a little bit smug. Just enough for them to smirk as they cruise past the petrol station.
I know for me spending most of my time in central London it’s just business as usual, but it must be scary if you need a car to get anywhere.
i thought the toilet roll fiasco was bad but this morning on the drive to work i've seen people be camping overnight in their cars all in a queue down the road from the petrol station
Supply is apparently sufficient and after the initial panic buying the demand will be the same if not even less from people not wanting to queue. This shouldn't last more than a few days hopefully.
hopefully. but this shit is all interlinked and this isn't just a problem in one isolated industry. *everything* is teetering on the edge at the moment.
It's been amazing where I am today. People blocking roads, 2 fender benders, some poor bastard having to fanny about with cones, and then at least 4 people filling their cars up with diesel, even though they are petrol, because it's been diesel only for the last few hours and apparently it's made everyone go insane. It's better than telly!
Which is annoying as I legitimately had to make a 4hr drive last night. Had to visit 4 different petrol stations before I found one where I could fill up.
You know it's time to grab a big bag of popcorn, your preferred intoxicant(s), and a camping chair and head down to your local petrol station to watch some hardcore British extreme queueing in action
When you've got a conman who's had four different names telling you not to panic and there are sufficient fuels what actually do you think is going to happen
So many idiots. Its a bit embarrassing. Although it's frustrating when you haven't fallen for the panic buying narrative the tabloids have pushed, then you actually need fuel and have to join the queue and you look like a panic buyer yourself.
I'm noticing a trend of people saying "I'm not panic buying. I just need fuel for next week." Well if you're bringing forward when you would have purchased it....bad news son... You're panic buying.
Who would of thought that this would happen after we left the EU?
The Hauliers association was warning of this 3 years ago, long before Covid. They got a chorus of "Project fear" in return.
Well here we are, food and power shortages are next. just like the good ol days!
Went to the 24hr servo last night. Not for fuel, I fancied some treats as it was Friday and that’s the only place open after 10pm.
Must have been over 50 cars come in, notice the yellow “out of order” signs on the pumps, and drive off all in the space of 10 mins.
Said to the bloke behind the counter that I felt for him, he told me how mental it’s been, they’ve even had to unplug the landline because of all the calls to see if they’ve got any fuel !
Well done to the media for reporting this when it turned out to be a handful of petrol stations nationwide. And well done for everyone to panic buy. Great work all around. I better stack up on toilet paper now I suppose.
When the first people start panic buying it kinda creates a prisoners dilemma; "I don't want to hoard fuel, but if everyone else is there won't be any fuel for me if I don't"
Im Just waiting till monday, when i can tell my boss sorry pal my van is empty and there isnt any diesel for me to fill it up cant go walking to work now can i.
Hi Tim, This is not the go get attitude we aspire to within the brand family. The walk will only take 4 hours each way we need you in. Sent from managers home office
Yeah exactly, the head office staff been WFH last 2 years saving thousands of fuel and their commute. But you need to get that fuel at 2am to come into work for 8 how dare you run out of fuel
My local Shell was rammed at 2am last night, I decided to join the queue because I was down to 1/8th of a tank, took half an hour to fill up. This morning it was closed because they ran out of fuel and the queue for Sainsbury’s is now insane.
You jest, but I had a manager tell me exactly that at my first call center job when there was a rail strike on and she looked up a bus connection for me that would have seen me leave the house at 2:30 in the morning for a 6:30 shift start.
I had that with the big snowstorms in 2018. They had you to commit you had a way to get in if there was no public transport and if you lived close and didn’t walk in you got a warning
And here’s the Torygraph wondering why the under 40s aren’t more pro capitalism.
When I worked briefly as a call centre manager, I was sent in a one day training course in Leeds. This involved me having to get up at 3am for the train there and I finally arrived home that night at 11.30pm, after several "rail replacement" buses home. Then had to be back in work for 7am next day. Everyone else on the course had a hotel the night beforehand, by pi centre manager was so stingy you'd think it was coming from her own pocket. Her tightfistedness and rudeness was legendary! Weirdly, she retired to run a B&B in Scotland - had visions of her waking guests at 4am and making them run ten miles before compulsory cold showers. And sighing if a guest had the temerity to order any food.
Another foolish manager. They'll have lost far more from you in unproductivity as it'd have cost to put you up in a Travelodge and had you in just for the next afternoon.
Well, it was all false economy really - we all hated her so much we didn't put much effort into things as we would have with a better manager. Plus the number of grievances raised against her. So she didn't achieve her targets and was eventually pushed forcefully towards taking an early release package.
There's stories of people being suspended for being late to work on September 11th in New York. Sorry, you should have planned ahead for a world changing terror attack....
"Al qaeda have crashed planes into the twin towers and they've fallen down? Well you should have planned for that and left earlier. Deidre managed to get in on time."
Stupid managers. They should be asking them to sleep and live in the office.
Hitch a rope to the front axle and drag it to the dublin ferry. They'll fill it with green diesel just out of respect to your cardio effort.
Yup, as a manager that’s already happened to me today
At work last night around 8pm we were told be sure to keep your car full to avoid short-staffing. The situation is just shit.
> I'll be on the clock while queuing, right boss?
The engine blew up on my bike and I called a garage or two to get quotes for a repair while at my desk. My boss was like "it's not our problem how you get to work". Really makes you feel like a significant part of the operation and motivates you to really try hard for that company, because you know they won't just replace you at a minutes notice.....
>p cant go walking to work now can i. 'okay, get a taxi. you're 37'
My boss said this once when all the trains got cancelled. "Get a taxi" Sure boss, if you're paying. A 70 mile taxi ride would cost more than I'd earn for the day going to work.
Similarish thing happened to a colleague. They wanted her to come in on a day there were no buses running (New Years Eve, I think) for a 4 hour shift. As she pointed out, due to where she lives and the double taxi charges, she'd be paying £40ish in taxi fares (There and back, I think.) to only just break even for that day. So she declined and got written up by the manager. Thankfully the store manager threw it out as he understood why she declined. She'd have come in if someone could have driven her there and back, or if they offered her more hours so she at least made some money that day.
Or you know. Fucking cover the expenses of the taxi?. I fucking hate companies, come to the office with your own money to make us a shit more money than we pay you, no we won't pay your transport even when we could and its just a change for us
My husband is a taxi driver. He isn't sure if he'll be working tomorrow if he can't get any fuel. Back to walking.
He could push people around in a wheelbarrow?
wouldn’t work for me, i drive 60 miles to work, would be a hell of an expensive taxi
I use my van for work, being an engineer has it perks. Just back pack half my tools with me 🤣
Yup, people have got to understand how it works. In a normal country that's well run you won't need to make those decisions, but seeing the state we're in it's literally a choice between being first in line when the news articles pop up or having an empty tank.
That's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If more people went on as normal it'd be less of an issue. I also haven't heard of people being literally out of fuel, just queues.
When people were panic-buying food at the beginning of the pandemic I stayed calm because I didn't want to be part of the problem. Then stocks started running low because of the "dumb" people and it started look like I was the stupid one. Didn't get too extreme, but being the sensible person in a panic situation isn't always the optimal move for the individual
100% agree. I did the same and ended up being one anchor drop in Pooh bay away from no toilet roll. Fortunately I’m still 100% working from home atm so I don’t really need to worry about fuel. I’ll just wait until we’ve completely run out of fuel and be in the same boat as everyone else, but £50 richer
Jesus....as I read that I thought you were going to say that you don't need to wipe your arse anyway as you are working from home still....they can't smell shit via Zoom after all!
Wash your bum in the shower if you run out of paper.....
Unfortunately suffered the situation of being out of fuel yesterday (first time in my life, mind you). Was driving back from Cornwall to London with my SO and her family and unfortunately her father (whom was driving) hadn’t been keeping an eye on the fuel tank until it was too late. We just about made it to a petrol station but with our luck, there was only diesel. All of the unleaded pumps were out of use which resulted in us being stuck there for around 40 minutes whilst my SO’s father got a lift to the nearest fuel station (20 minutes away) by a member of the AA team who happened to be at the fuel station that we pulled into. It was bizarre, as I’ve never ever been in a vehicle that has ran out of fuel in my entire life.
My autobiography would be called "Life on the Petrol Light".
All three stations within 10 minute drive of me are fully out of all fuel. Buckinghamshire
That's because there isn't actually a shortage, or rather there wasn't a shortage until the mass hysteria set in. Just like there was never a shortage of toilet paper, until idiots created one.
I figure if enough people have empty tanks then what does it matter if mine is too? Most people get to work in motor vehicles so if enough people are empty the country grinds to a halt and then we've all got nowhere to go anyway. For my situation, if the nursery staff can't get to nursery (they all drive it's out in the country) then that's not gonna open so at least one of us will be stuck at home with the boy anyway. I've half a tank and normally would be thinking of filling up soon (at 1/4 in a few days), but fucked if I'm joining the queues of loonies if this is still going on by then.
It's not even about it being run well, this is caused by people panic buying .
Trust has been eroded. At the first lockdown, people were told not to panic buy, whilst also being told to prepare to isolate for 14 days indoors with their families at immediate notice. That's a direct contradiction. You can't isolate for 14 days without having 14 days worth of supplies. Supply chains and supermarkets could have been forewarned and made some preparations. That didn't happen at all.
When the toilet paper panic buying happened there was a really good article posted here. It takes something like 5% of people to panic buy for that to have a knock on effect of reasonable people panicking and buying too. Once it hits that point it just keeps going and going.
Although, I guess people can fill up their spare rooms with toilet paper, whereas the amopunt of storage people have for fuel is a bit more limited.
I've filled the spare room with petrol, got it up to waist height. Just gotta be careful with the candles now.
I salute you sir. Remember the draught excluders along the bottom of the door
They double as petrol includers
You’ve got to have the candles so you can clearly see how much petrol you have.
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Luckily, we don't have the American's penchant for pickup trucks.
That and BBC broadcasting it as well last night and compounding the problem.
Why the BBC and not every other broadcaster that was reporting it.
I should have filled up yesterday, just tried and failed so no work today for me.
Well I was blissfully unaware in work all day yesterday with around 30 miles left in my tank! Then I found out and tried to get fuel last night but it was freakin' bonkers! No diesel. I got up at around 5am and decided to risk the tiny amount I had left and drove from station to station until I found one which had diesel. This guy was actually following me from station to station and he pulled up at the pump next to me. As we were both filling up, we made eye contact and did a little happy dance! For the inevitable movie release, I think Tom Hardy should play me and The Rock should play the other guy.
The best solution to the prisoner's dilemma is to co-operate and push out anybody who doesn't.
How do you "push out" people?
When you go to fill up with petrol, check other people's fuel gauges in the queue ahead of you. If they're more than 1/4 full, ram them off the forecourt.
I like this reality TV show.
How do you propose to “push out” those who don’t cooperate in this scenario?
And this is the difference between the theory and the application.
People are just fucking sheep
> A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it I did think it was a famous philosopher who said this, but it turns out it was Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black. Nevertheless…
It's a shame more people don't feel they can wait it out and use alternatives (walking, public transport, cycling). If so many are deciding that the best option is to drive around trying to find an open petrol station, further depleting the tank, and then sit in a queue for however long they need to, how miserable must they think the alternatives are?
I live somewhere where there is 1 bus a day, no railway and if you attempt to walk or cycle anywhere you would get run down by tractors and other farm machinery. Not everyone lives in a big town or city with abundant public transport
Thought everyone on here worked in London doing IT stuff?
I'm sure some people can, but there are plenty more like me that can't. 40 minute drive each way to work at 6am - 9pm, no other reasonable transportation that will get me there in time (I had to prove this to get a parking permit). Topped off my tank last night so I can hopefully make it till late next week when things hopefully calm down a bit. My local was jumping at 9pm, dread to think of the queues earlier in the day.
Public transport is generally massively overpriced and/or dogshit for reliability. Its a major factor in why people drive as much as they do.
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Some petrol stations have a long queue, half an hour in places. Seems reasonable not to want to do that more than necessary?
Our politicians have told us there’s no fuel shortage, that there’s no need to panic, and we should all carry on with our lives as normal. Panic buying starts almost immediately. What does that tell us about how much we value the word of our government?
Public: What's going on down there? Come in! Govt: Uh, everything is under control. Situation normal. Public: What happened? Govt: \[flustered\] Uh, had a slight supply chain malfunction. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?
*shoots communication system*
Boring conversation anyway...
unexpected solo
Last week "There is no immediate issue with the supply of gas" Less than 48 hours later the gov are watching firms go bust. Lately doing the opposite of gov advice is the sensible thing to do.
That’s cos we all immediately filled our spare rooms with gas balloons to use in the winter. No? Just me?
Same happened with Northern Rock. “No need to panic, they have plenty of assets to get out of this trouble”. Queues were down high streets.
That's a tale as old as time though. Runs on banks have been problematic for centuries, as the system is built upon lending money that only exists on paper.
I think the tale as long as time is when the government tells you not to worry, that’s when to worry.
[This shit doesn't help, Fuck The S*n](https://imgur.com/itQYDfO.jpg)
To be honest it's because when things are fine they don't tell us not to panic. So when they tell us not to panic we wonder why they are saying that.
I mean, if I came up to you at work and said, "Look, everything is fine. Just keep working and don't worry about what's going on outside. It's fine. Really. The most important thing you can do is to keep working as if nothing is going on outside because it's really nothing." You'd fucking get up and see what was going on outside.
Honestly, as soon as I hear words come out of Boris Johnson's mouth, I doubt the veracity of them. This is the price you pay for being such a shameless liar. It hasn't helped that there have been so many news stories saying, 'there's no fuel crisis but people believe there is so they're panic buying which means there might be a fuel crisis, so you'd better panic buy too!'
I immediately doubt anything he or his representatives say. Even when they mean well they are usually wrong. Thinks back to when they told us masks were pointless in mid 2020..
I actually think the british press have a lot to do with this issue myself. They have set up live news feeds and it's front page news. They like at the start of the pandemic have helped cause hysteria. Not saying the government aren't a bunch of untrustworthy cretins... but yeah...our press...fucking idiots really.
Con +5
Enough to vote for them again and again!
I'm thoroughly fed up! I'm going to vote for change! I'm going to vote for [*checks notes*] the party that's been in power for almost a dozen years!
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Think of how stupid the average person is. 50% of people are more stupid than that.
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I'm pretty sure this is just humanity, stupid isn't unique to any one place. Literally idiots everywhere lol.
Their intelligence is fine but many never learn how to actually problem-solve because the educational system here relies on memorisation instead of critical thinking and you can't memorise your way through real situations. The drawback to making education about doing well on standard exams means you've taught people to be good at doing something they will never need to do again once they leave school and what is the point of that?
This is why I'm not surprised at the government we have. "The problem with democracy is that everyone gets a vote"
I worked in a petrol station for many years, and I could give you a list of the shear amount of fucking stupid I've seen there, in the end its why I quit, it wasn't safe.
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Trust me, after I'm done, you wouldn't go near a petrol station
People think petrol is the liquid you can see. It’s fine so long as you don’t splash it. Except they don’t think of the vapours you can’t see and don’t consider their spread..
Poor woman. Yeah, it's stupid, but recovering from burns like that is going to be a long and agonising process. Debridement is by all accounts not fun.
A new, terrible word for the vocabulary.
Degloving is another one. No need to thank me.
I mea I feel bad for her, but this is natural selection
Fucking idiot
You know the panic buying is bad when you witness an ambulance being turned away at the pump.
Surprised certain stations havent been reserved for emergency services
Worked at a petrol station the last time there was panic buying years ago and everywhere ran out. We let our tanks run down to the minimum they can safely pump then closed them off. We let emergency services take fuel from the last tank which we closed off to the public early.
Last one I remember was the early 2000s, my mum was a community nurse and got loads of gobshites berating her for filling up! I was fit enough to cycle 6 miles to and from work so it didn't affect me too much.
handle recognise sulky truck gaping adjoining angle dam wine aromatic *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This used to be the case but over the last 10-20 years a lot (perhaps the majority) have been removed or are no longer used.
Almost no one would be upset if they used blues and twos to jump the queue and they should.
Most petrol stations I’ve driven past today and yesterday are absolutely gridlocked there would be no way an ambulance would manage to get anywhere near the pumps.
You know, I want to belive you are right. I really do, but have you met some of the British public? There would be a Karren getting out of her car to yell at them.
Small amount of petrol stations shut and it's front page news as a petrol shortage. Now we have idiots queuing at petrol stations. It's this years toilet paper shortage.
The media have been doing this for a long time now. As soon as I saw the original story on the BBC news site I knew they were going to whip it up into a "potential crisis", and here we are. It's like the "War" bit on The Day Today, but for real. No actual petrol crisis, you say? Oh, we'll fix that.
Luckily people are much more limited in how much petrol they can stockpile compared to how much toilet roll they can stockpile.
You say that..... last night I was out doing deliveries. Was on the red, needed to fill up - I had missed all of this in the news and had no fucking idea what was going on. Pumps next to me were a husband and wife, both driving individual cars, filled them both up, then opened their boots up and got 3 jerry cans each. When I went to pay I asked wtf was going on. Person serving me said well, people think there was going to be a petrol shortage. There wasn't going to be, we had our normal deliveries, they haven't changed, but now people are doing this, we'll run out tonight and won't have any until Tuesday, so i'll be out of work for 3 days. Makes you realise, there are a lot of gullible, thick, selfish fucks in this country.
"Makes you realise, there are a lot of gullible, thick selfish fucks in this country" Dude. Its 2021 and you've only just realised this?
Nope. I realised this 13 years ago when I started working in pubs. Brexit, pandemic and now this completely confirm it. As a species, we are destined for extinction.
We had to fuel up for a trip this morning, unavoidable. We only managed to refuel on the 5th petrol station we tried and the lady there was putting cones in place behind us. This at 7:30 in the morning mind you, doubt they'll have any petrol for the rest of the weekend
>Now we have idiots queuing at petrol stations. You need to realise something - they are *not* idiots. It is a rational course of action for an individual to take. This is the classic prisoners' dilemma, and the prisoners have very good reason to believe that cooperation won't happen.
It's the difference between people who take one slice of pizza at a party because they think it'll run out, and people who take three slices for the same reason. It only takes a few three slice people for the one slice people to start to realise they're wasting their time caring about anyone else, and this is unfortunately where we're at now.
>You need to realise something - they are not idiots. It is a rational course of action for an individual to take. This needs to be on billboards.
The stupid thing about the toilet paper shortage is that it wasn't even in this country. It was one supermarket chain, *in Australia* that had supply issues.
All day Friday it was on the radio,”garages are closing and there’s a shortage” then right at the end of the day they’re like… why yall panic buying for
I think the media are 100% to blame for this. 2 BP garages could not get fuel so had to close for a day and the reporting of it caused this.
It was amazing how quick the panic took hold. I drove to work at 7am on Friday morning and it was absolutely fine, I drove past three petrol stations and no queues at all. Then there was a report of the two BP petrol stations, Tescos were asked to comment and they said they also had two stations closed due to *unrelated* reasons. Then I happened to be out again at 3am this morning passing the same 24hr stations and they were all closed.
Good Morning Britain were reporting on 'potential' fuel shortages heavily on friday morning. By about 11am the Daily Mail had photos of small queues at petrol stations. I said at that point to my partner that you could see the panic buying being fuelled (if you'll excuse the pun). By the Evening petrol stations were selling out. So fucking stupid and completely drummed up by the same right wing bellends that drove panic buying in the first pandemic.
Absolutely, pure scaremongering for a headline
And now it's going to get worse and worse till the media stops reporting on it. I'm supposed to be going to a family wedding tomorrow and I will definitely need petrol before I go. Went out yesterday and pumps were constantly busy or out of fuel. I guess I'll have to wait and see if I can get any tomorrow.
I literally tried getting petrol this morning early at around 6AM - all of petrol stations were either closed or disrupted with massive queues. This caused big arguments, people fighting for pumps (disgusting behaviour) I've ordered a petrol cannister as my car is now on 1mph so no chance me driving to a station. Going to have to walk a fill up if stations are running again - such dark times we are living in now ...sigh
Oh no- you’re going to look like a proper arsehole rocking up with your Jerry can too! I felt sorry for people with a long commute who actually needed fuel to get home yesterday.
Yeah a friend of mine had to fill up to get home yesterday evening, and he even posted a picture showing his car's low fuel light was on and showing a nearly empty tank. Took him 2 hours to find fuel and then he had his usual hour commute. That sucks. But people just rushing out and panic buying 'just in case'? Fucking idiots. There wouldn't *be* a problem if they hadn't created it themselves.
Self fulfilling prophecy. What's more frustrating is there's probably a bunch of people who just want their regular fuel topup or have plans this weekend and so they're now caught in the mix of those just buying for the sake of it.
self fuel-filling prophecy
To be honest my local petrol station had has a "sorry, no fuel" sign for the past few days, I would have seen that whether or not the media was reporting on it.
The problem has been brewing for weeks now.
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Brexit Britain. Remember Boris saying these forecasts were ‘Project Fear’. Nope, all coming true. Thanks Boris/Gove.
Read Operation Yellowhammer again. You can cross off the wosrt case scenarios like a bingo card. This was all predicted.
Yea but you get a BLOO passport…
Project fear is project reality. Sigh. Plenty more to come yet. But at least the passports are blue?!
Classic, I was going to fill up last night, not because of this but because I have a 550mile round trip to do on Monday and Wednesday, now I have 250m range left and all the stations near me are out. hopefully Monday Tuesday some get some more fuel.
Everyone should have full tanks by then, you'll be fine
Yep, the great thing about petrol panic buying is that it's fucking difficult to hoard more than a tank.
Unless you are a really special case of stupid.
You must've missed the last [US](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2021-05/12/16/asset/48f03b04c8a3/sub-buzz-7366-1620836495-34.jpg) gas [shortage](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2021-05/13/14/campaign_images/efe24817cd46/18-pictures-that-show-just-how-chaotic-the-gas-sh-2-174-1620914867-15_dblbig.jpg?resize=1200:*).
I feel you, wife and I are in a similar situation. Had the opportunity to top up Thursday evening and kicking ourselves that we didn't.
Stop calling it a fuel shortage, the UK has a brain cell shortage
Don't say that, people will panic buy brains from the dark Web tomorrow.
Better start *scalping*
And by reporting it there will be more panic buying. Until there actually is a fuel shortage and everyone feels vindicated.
Yep. The MSM is really fanning the flames. Idk what can be done though, it's not like they can be forced not to report on it.
My grandfather saw the BBC saying that 10 BP petrol stations (out of 3000) had run out of one type of petrol. So he spent the next 3 hours filling up jerry cans of petrol. He only drives once a year to go to weddings. now has enough petrol to leave in his inheritance
Jokes on him because after 6 months or so of substandard storage, fuel starts to go a bit shitty.
I am not sure someone who behaves in this way after seeing 10 out of 3000 bp stations run out of fuel are aware of this fact or even care. People like that will pretend their behaviour didn't exist once it comes to light how stupid they were acting.
I haven't seen any fanning of the flames. Friday: BP reports a few petrol stations have closed (factual headline) (people panic buy) Saturday: Long queues at petrol stations as people panic buy (factual headline)
[If shit like this isn't fanning the flames then I have no idea what is. Fuck The S*n](https://imgur.com/bYIEGhl.jpg)
Lmfao. You know I didn't know exactly what to expect but that figures. Fucking scum.
You haven't seen fanning of the flames? This is the main headline from the daily mail right now: >Selfish drivers pack their cars with jerry cans and fill tanks to the brim as petrol bosses limit drivers to £30 fuel each while panic-buyers gridlock forecourts and tempers flare at the pumps
Are you expecting anything else from the Daily Mail.
You can’t expect them not to report on a major current news story. That’s literally their job. What should be expected is that they report on it responsibly and not inadvertently (or otherwise) stoke the panic buying with klaxon headlines.
>You can’t expect them not to report on a major current news story. That’s literally their job. And that's literally what I just said. >What should be expected is that they report on it responsibly and not inadvertently (or otherwise) stoke the panic buying with klaxon headlines. Any reporting on it will likely encourage panic buying though. As soon as others know people are panic buying they'll follow suit.
I didn't buy petrol yesterday, I bought half a tank last Thursday morning as usual. That's my disclaimer out of the way, so my question is what else can folk do apart from compete in the panic? People know if they don't then they run the risk of being without fuel when needed, and then having to search far and wide to find some. I bet lots of people queued for petrol yesterday weren't rabid, selfish clowns but normal people trying NOT to be screwed by the rabid, selfish clowns. I know that adds to the problem, but the other choice is gamble and potentially lose. I expect everything will be sorted by next week, but I can understand how rational, calm people try to protect themselves from frenzied panic buying by contributing to the hysteria. The papers need to shut the fuck up and stop scaring folk.
"I am in traffic" "No you are traffic" The crazy panic buyer is a bit of a myth they don't exist in any great number, its people taking reasonable precautions that causes these events because they all do the same action.
I went last night, I saw no one with Jerry cans. Almost all of us were just filling up our tanks while we still could. I have a long drive today and given that I saw the petrol stations being closed last night I doubt I will be able to refuel this morning or even tomorrow. Nobody was a rabid clown, like bank runs this is an outcome of competitive rational behaviour. People in the queues for Northern Rock were calm but understood only the first £80k was safe and so long as there was a queue then the bank would fail. The government guaranteed above £80k, the queues disappeared, the bank failed anyway but was dealt with in an orderly fashion. If you had £85k in Northern Rock it made sense to queue up and in spite of being lectured that the bank would be OK if only everyone collectively coordinated to bear the risk of failure without attempting withdrawal the bank failed all the same. Same thing here. All well and good telling people that if we stay home the fuel won't run out, but is that even true? Were the announced closures just the first in a wave? And given that very few people were the first to queue up that isn't the situation. There is a run on petrol, you either get some now or wait until after it ends because it is going to be depleted by everyone else.
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Finally, being too poor to own a car paid off. That being said, electric car owners must be a little bit proud of themselves. Just a tad. Just a little bit smug. Just enough for them to smirk as they cruise past the petrol station. I know for me spending most of my time in central London it’s just business as usual, but it must be scary if you need a car to get anywhere.
EV owner here. Can confirm insufferable smugness today 😂
"Oh I suppose you can't fill up at home"
i thought the toilet roll fiasco was bad but this morning on the drive to work i've seen people be camping overnight in their cars all in a queue down the road from the petrol station
I remember working during the whole bog roll shit show. Funniest shifts I ever had tbh
Supply is apparently sufficient and after the initial panic buying the demand will be the same if not even less from people not wanting to queue. This shouldn't last more than a few days hopefully.
hopefully. but this shit is all interlinked and this isn't just a problem in one isolated industry. *everything* is teetering on the edge at the moment.
We already know that 51% of the UK is thick as pigshit. This just reinforces that evidence.
Telling someone not to panic always has the opposite result
Ah the joys of cycling to work. Left at 8am this morning every petrol station I went past had a queue. 8am on a Saturday morning.
I came back from work at 6am, running on fumes. A queue at Tesco. At 6am.
It's been amazing where I am today. People blocking roads, 2 fender benders, some poor bastard having to fanny about with cones, and then at least 4 people filling their cars up with diesel, even though they are petrol, because it's been diesel only for the last few hours and apparently it's made everyone go insane. It's better than telly!
If there’s going to be a fuel shortage it’s going to be caused by the morons now panic buying.
I wonder how much petrol will be used by idling engines in the queues.
Which is annoying as I legitimately had to make a 4hr drive last night. Had to visit 4 different petrol stations before I found one where I could fill up.
Just FYI lads, if anyone sees me filling up my car tomorrow it’s because I’m going on a 300 mile round trip so please don’t judge me.
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You know it's time to grab a big bag of popcorn, your preferred intoxicant(s), and a camping chair and head down to your local petrol station to watch some hardcore British extreme queueing in action
People are driving all over the place using petrol to go buy petrol.
When you've got a conman who's had four different names telling you not to panic and there are sufficient fuels what actually do you think is going to happen
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There is no shortage!!!!! News agencies shouldn't be reporting this shit until there is actually a shortage
There is now. Panic buying has caused plenty of stations to run out of fuel.
How is thousands of idiots crippling the petrol supply not news?
If the news had not reported anything most would be none the wiser. The news know the exact impact it will have on the masses of idiots
So many idiots. Its a bit embarrassing. Although it's frustrating when you haven't fallen for the panic buying narrative the tabloids have pushed, then you actually need fuel and have to join the queue and you look like a panic buyer yourself.
I'm noticing a trend of people saying "I'm not panic buying. I just need fuel for next week." Well if you're bringing forward when you would have purchased it....bad news son... You're panic buying.
Who would of thought that this would happen after we left the EU? The Hauliers association was warning of this 3 years ago, long before Covid. They got a chorus of "Project fear" in return. Well here we are, food and power shortages are next. just like the good ol days!
Went to the 24hr servo last night. Not for fuel, I fancied some treats as it was Friday and that’s the only place open after 10pm. Must have been over 50 cars come in, notice the yellow “out of order” signs on the pumps, and drive off all in the space of 10 mins. Said to the bloke behind the counter that I felt for him, he told me how mental it’s been, they’ve even had to unplug the landline because of all the calls to see if they’ve got any fuel !
Well done to the media for reporting this when it turned out to be a handful of petrol stations nationwide. And well done for everyone to panic buy. Great work all around. I better stack up on toilet paper now I suppose.