PANIC BUY!

[Taipan]

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...

[Yorick]

Seriously who has more than a couple of 5L get-you-home jerry cans in the shed? I only have two because someone gave me one that I liked because it was a nice one marked in US gallons. The other ones I accumulated over the years (because like a twat when I actually -need- one it's miles away, so I buy another) I binned.

Some people just trawl social media waiting for picture evidence they can get riled about.

I've got a 20l can and a 5l can.
Always keep them topped up to fill up the 3 dirt bikes.

[Taipan]

What's the difference between paraffin and petrol? There's two Fs in paraffin, but no F in petrol...

[irie]

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.

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.

[Mr. Dazzle]

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

[Supermofo]

Yup.

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.

[Asian Boss]

The local supermarket petrol station has fuel for sale, no restrictions and no queues.

There was a nasty old bastard filling up cans though.

[Potter]

The local supermarket petrol station has fuel for sale, no restrictions and no queues.

There was a nasty old bastard filling up cans though.

That's a result.
Looks like Boris fixed the massive crisis (that definitely wasn't short-term panic buying) in less than a week

[DefTrap]

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)

[McNab]

Are we not clapping for tanker drivers tonight, then?

[Asian Boss]

Are we not clapping for tanker drivers tonight, then?

Is that for the ones we still have or the ones Boris Brexited away?

[slowsider]

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.

[KungFooBob]

...so if she weighs the same as a duck...

[Mr. Dazzle]

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.

[Potter]

Does this mean truckers can go back on our "couldn't give a toss" list? (not that they ever left mine)

In general principle, I'd back them, I know what it's like doing a job away from home in crap conditions.
It wouldn't take much to get them a bit better deal if we all stuck together.

[Noggin]

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!!

[JackyJoll]

I’m being called up!

[Horse]

"Vere de Norbiton"?

Is that somewhere near Trumpton and Chigley?

[JackyJoll]

I can hardly remember how to murder a Yorkie bar or bite squares off a prostitute.

[Potter]

"Vere de Norbiton"?

Is that somewhere near Trumpton and Chigley?

She's married to the head of fundraising for the conservative party, so I'd be writing back and asking what's in it for me.