Taipan wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 9:27 pm
People like landscape gardeners and anyone that uses plant need cans of fuel or they cant work. So it may not be just for selfish storage reasons...
Must be a huge increase in landscape gardening.
DT wrote: As a result of panic-buying, fuel refiner Essar said sales volumes from its Stanlow, Northampton and Kingsbury terminals over the last weekend were up 22% against a "normal" weekend.
"Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people." - Giordano Bruno
You don't need everyone to buy extra fuel for the panic buying to cause a temporary shortage. You just need to alter the timing right?
Say for example you've got a garage that restocks fuel once a week. Over the course of a week their supply drops fairly consistently until they get restocked. So one tanker, once a week, can keep them open. Then say you have seven such garages. One tanker, visting each once a week, can keep seven garages open*.
If everyone suddenly buys fuel all on the same day, instead of it being spread out over a week, all seven garages will be emptied on one day. Then you might have to wait up to a week for your usual tanker to get to you and fill you up.
No extra fuel bought - but still lots of empty forecourts.
*You may meet these garages on your way to St. Ives
I've gone from a tank of fuel a week to a tank a month since lockdown.
If I have half a tank when the news comes out of a potential supply issue but I think I have 2 weeks fuel so all is good then chances are everything is dandy.
If I and a million others like me all rush to fill that half a tank now in panic, then that's 30 litres X 1 million cars = 30 million litres of fuel demand that would otherwise have been spread out for 2 weeks in the space of 2-3 days.
Fuel like everything else now is delivered on a tight schedule of 'just in time'. But a huge spike in demand will knacker it very quickly and with no excess capacity to catch up easily. So even with calm it's gonna take a while for things to smooth out.
Potter wrote: ↑Wed Sep 29, 2021 2:32 pm
That's a result.
Looks like Boris fixed the massive crisis (that definitely wasn't short-term panic buying) in less than a week
Does this mean truckers can go back on our "couldn't give a toss" list? (not that they ever left mine)
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:55 am
You don't need everyone to buy extra fuel for the panic buying to cause a temporary shortage. You just need to alter the timing right?
Say for example you've got a garage that restocks fuel once a week. Over the course of a week their supply drops fairly consistently until they get restocked. So one tanker, once a week, can keep them open. Then say you have seven such garages. One tanker, visting each once a week, can keep seven garages open*.
If everyone suddenly buys fuel all on the same day, instead of it being spread out over a week, all seven garages will be emptied on one day. Then you might have to wait up to a week for your usual tanker to get to you and fill you up.
No extra fuel bought - but still lots of empty forecourts.
*You may meet these garages on your way to St. Ives
If the usual customers who buy fuel from one garage over a week, from a garage that is filled once a week, all buy it on the same day, the garage sells the same amount of fuel. If they use that fuel over a week, the garage will have been replenished by the time they need to refill.
slowsider wrote: ↑Wed Sep 29, 2021 4:14 pm
If the usual customers who buy fuel from one garage over a week, from a garage that is filled once a week, all buy it on the same day, the garage sells the same amount of fuel. If they use that fuel over a week, the garage will have been replenished by the time they need to refill.
And if it were a closed system, where the same customers always visit the same garage and buy the same amount of fuel, said situation wouldn't be a problem. It's not.
That's why the UK as a whole isn't short of fuel, but local regions and specific people are.
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:55 am
You don't need everyone to buy extra fuel for the panic buying to cause a temporary shortage. You just need to alter the timing right?
Say for example you've got a garage that restocks fuel once a week. Over the course of a week their supply drops fairly consistently until they get restocked. So one tanker, once a week, can keep them open. Then say you have seven such garages. One tanker, visting each once a week, can keep seven garages open*.
If everyone suddenly buys fuel all on the same day, instead of it being spread out over a week, all seven garages will be emptied on one day. Then you might have to wait up to a week for your usual tanker to get to you and fill you up.
No extra fuel bought - but still lots of empty forecourts.
*You may meet these garages on your way to St. Ives
Oi, none of your sensible argument and reasonable explanations here!
You know the roolz - tis the gubbermints fault and people are eejits!!
Life is for living. Buy the shoes. Eat the cake. Ride the bikes. Just, ride the bikes!!
When or if they get through they will have to explain why they need the fuel and then have to decide themselves if the reason is deemed urgent enough for a same day appointment or can they wait two weeks.
Yay! Got £35 worth this morning. Let joy be unconfined. I have also made the ultimate sacrifice and changed the settings from 'Dynamic' to 'Economy' - it's like driving through porridge.
(The Mrs misread one of the options and thought 'Comfort' was 'Combat'. Now that's an option they should add. ).
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire