I’ve been out working this past three days and as time has gone on, the fuel situation seems to have been getting steadily better. Some stations are still closed awaiting supplies, but most are open even if not fully. What I have noticed is that the queues have died down. Two days running I filled up the bikes with little more than a five minute wait – not much more than normal. All of which confirms the point I was making last weekend – that this isn’t a “no fuel” situation. An idiot surplus, certainly, but there has always been plenty of fuel coming into the supply chain. Around 11 BP garages were short due to late deliveries. That was it. Yet the media and some politicians were trumpeting their “no fuel” mantra and whipped up the panic that led to a sudden spike in demand. Naturally, the supply chain is based upon normal demands so that sudden spike inevitably caused localised shortages. But even in the middle of that, there was still fuel – but you had to be prepared to queue.
As I wasn’t, I regulated what I had. I used the Indian on the Saturday as it had a full tank. On Tuesday I used the RT with around two-thirds of a tank and then switched on Wednesday to the XR with about half a tank. As one of the petrol stations on my route into work was serving fuel with a small queue that morning, I filled the tank from half full. By the end of that day, mine and the students’ bikes were down to half full again, so on our ride back to base, we filled up again – with, once more, only a short wait. This would be normal operation for me – to leave the bikes with full tanks ready for the following day.
By the time we needed fuel on the ride back yesterday, it was almost straight in and fill up as there was one vehicle at the pump before us and I spent longer waiting to pay than we did waiting on the forecourt.
Two things have happened here. The market has adjusted and supplies have compensated along with those panic buyers having full tanks, the demand has settled back to pre panic levels.
Which brings me to price gouging. I did notice the usual outrage in the media about profiteering from the economically illiterate. One of my students commented yesterday that on the drive in, she noticed that one garage had put their prices up to £1.40 a litre whereas another just down the road was selling at £1.35. I leave it you you to speculate which one had the queue.
I spent a few minutes pointing out to her that this was a perfectly rational method of regulating over demand. Those who need fuel will be prepared to pay the extra. Those who don’t, but were planning to fill up anyway because of “no fuel” are more likely to be put off and go queue at the cheaper station or wait a bit until their fuel level is lower and they can buy elsewhere because they won’t pay the “extortionate” rates of the “profiteer.” Then there is the other factor – some people (me included) value time over money. So I’ll pay the extra not to queue. The budget airlines do it with their speedy boarding passes. Pay a fiver and you go to the front of the queue and there are plenty of people who will pay.
It was an interesting conversation, because I could see the penny dropping. She clearly hadn’t considered that aspect before. As I explained, I’ve done it myself. Back in the early nineties when I was running my own driving school, I was experiencing over demand. I put up my prices. The end result was more time off with the same level of income.
It’s amazing how few people really get this and fall for the media line of “profiteering” when it is not. It is the market regulating itself. Something that wouldn’t have been necessary on this occasion if the media hadn’t behaved so irresponsibly in the first place. And of course, there will be no accountability. They will simply move onto the next thing that they can destroy with their toxic reporting. Some journalists dangling from lamp posts would be nice, but I have to accept that this is merely fantasy.
One idea I saw suggested was that garages should have put a minimum spend level on when these panic buying episodes occur, not a maximum one, say £30, and no filling jerry cans allowed. Thus stopping all the idiots who have more than half a tank popping in to top up by £10-20 and those trying to hoard fuel in their houses, and leaving space for people who are genuinely in need of fuel and are nearly empty. You could stick a maximum level as well if you wanted to try and ration stocks a bit too.
That would have been a problem for me. Filling up three bikes only came to around twenty quid.
Well it could be a different amount for cars/vans vs bikes maybe, that wouldn’t be hard to police either. Just look out the window, ‘Oh thats a bike at pump 3, £10 no problem!’
Oh, now you’ve let yourself down. Bringing common sense into it…
It’s surprising how many people don’t understand supply and demand. It’s basic economics.
It works with employment as well, There’s currently a shortage of heavy vehicle drivers, the solution is to pay them more.
The last time I flew with Ryanair (and it will be), everyone on the plane had bought a speedy boarding pass.
It didn’t turn out to be speedy 🙂
Oh well… sometimes it doesn’t work out. I’ve benefited on occasion from it.
Me too. That time was quite comical though as everyone (us included) went through the same process of trying to find the speedy boarding queue then realising the single big queue was it
Hi LR, I was in Fuel Distribution for 40 years. This is sheer panic driven by the leaked comments of the Road Haulage Association whose agenda is to carry on using foreign drivers at lower pay rates rather than training British drivers and paying them a decent rate. The demand has to fall away because once you fill up you have to use it. Just like Christmas. Every one fills up and then January is flat.
The backlog of testing isn’t helping at the moment.
Quite right LR.
Bla bla bla. I’m in logistics recruitment and the introduction of IR35 last April has done more to exacerbate the already existing driver shortage. Add to that several 10s of 1000 of newly qualified missing because of the covid hysteria and there we are. We didn’t use to pay “forriners” less than UK drivers, quite the contrary since as a rule they were more dependable and hard working.
The RHA has been pointing out the shortage for years, and they have not stopped me from taking my class 1. On the other hand, there is nothing that politicians cannot screw up.
The wages have increased about 25% in the last 6 months, if you think that it won’t have any repercussions on the cost of living, think again.
You didn’t pay foreign drivers less than UK drivers but you used that army of unemployed Eastern Europeans to depress the drivers’ wages. As you say yourself, now the employers don’t have access to the Eastern Europeans, wages have increased 25%. This is a good thing for UK drivers, isn’t it?
I regularly fill up when I’ve got more than half a tank. I have a regular journey that costs me about £20 – £22 in petrol; the tank is a bit above halfway after starting out full. I fill up when I arrive at my destination because I never know with what urgency I might have to do the return journey. It might be at one minute’s notice,on the other hand I might not need it for some time. I will continue to do what I do.
When you see someone filling up what you consider to be a small amount, £10, £15, £20, £25 (?), have a think. You don’t know where he’s going from the petrol station.
This is my normal pattern when working. As a full tank will last about a day and a half, I normally fill the bikes up at the end of the day ready for the next one. That way we don’t have to worry about it and can fill up at leisure on our way back to base.
When I’m not working or out on a run, I’ll wait until I’m on a quarter of a tank, just before going onto reserve.
If everyone had done this this past week, we wouldn’t have had a problem.
Went shopping early this morning. Drove past two garages with ‘no fuel’ signs, big Tesco had a smallish queue and ‘no diesel’ sign, one garage on the way back had fuel and a smallish queue.
It’s not over yet here.
I see that Ireland also has a lorry driver shortage. According to the Irish Times, it’s “an imminent national emergency”. Since we’re told our shortage of drivers is due to our leaving the EU, I’m guessing Ireland’s shortage of lorry drivers is also caused by that time Ireland left the EU.