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Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

reuters.com

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Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#201

Post by listless »

humps wrote: post #105
TomGullen wrote: post #17

Unlike the toilet paper panic buying there is limited capacity people can buy, so I would expect this to naturally end short term when people don’t have capacity to buy any more. What concerns me is government planning to address this looks a lot more forward looking than a few days/a week, so I can see it getting worse. Interesting how the government say it’s not a shortage, if the refineries were running low you wo…

As Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association, explained on BBC Breakfast this morning. This happened because a BP document was leaked to the media, which unsurprisingly got them excited about a possible shortage and led to the panic buying. Madderson also said the industry is used to dealing with about 2 million liters of fuel being required a week, but that's with typical weekly fill-ups. He sugg…

So the trucker shortage is a false conclusion? Cause this article states that’s the definitive cause. It reads to me like an axe to grind with Brexit and trying to tie this crisis to that political football.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#202

Post by fallingknife »

thinkingemote wrote: post #110
fallingknife wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like they do understand panic buying. The issue is that it's completely rational on an individual level. "Panic" buying isn't really a good term for it.

The issue is that everyone thinks they are rational, there's not a bunch of people panicking and another bunch of people reacting to them. There's just one bunch! So yes the term is wrong but also people don't know what it is, and how they negatively contribute to the cycle. People don't panic when they "panic buy". People don't see themselves as panic buying and they are not reflective

They don't just think they are rational, they are rational. When there is a run on the bank, the rational thing to do is join the run, because if you do, you have a chance of getting your money, but if you don't, you have no chance. That is why this behavior is so hard to stop.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#203

Post by stinkytaco »

lpapez wrote: post #141
chrononaut wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ..as I think most people are just filling up to the top instead of half way.. Perhaps I am missing something here, but are you referring to vehicles in this context? Is it not common to always fill your tank to the top?

Depends a lot on the social status I think. Growing up in a poor household, we never worried about gas prices. When the salary came, we would buy 200HRK worth of petrol and use the car as long as it had petrol. After that, you walk. It was never a full tank and these days its not even half a tank.

I think about myself as a pretty standard middle class person who's obviously empathetic to those who have less. But this proves how easy it is to be out of touch an not even realize it. I really had no idea. I just assumed when you filled, you filled all the way.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#204

Post by jedberg »

tialaramex wrote: post #145
chrononaut wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ..as I think most people are just filling up to the top instead of half way.. Perhaps I am missing something here, but are you referring to vehicles in this context? Is it not common to always fill your tank to the top?

No. It's a waste of money. Britain is a small country, you're not going to run out of fuel (ordinarily) on a trip and so it makes sense to keep the money in your pocket instead of turning it into fuel that's sat there doing nothing useful. Also, it's very common to buy round amounts of value e.g. £30 of petrol, periodically, rather than just fill it up for however much that costs, for some people this makes it easier…

Unless you value your time at 0, the amount of money you'll save by not carrying around the extra weight is less than the value of the time you'll spend filling up twice.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#205

Post by rootusrootus »

chrononaut wrote: post #133
TomGullen wrote: post #17

Unlike the toilet paper panic buying there is limited capacity people can buy, so I would expect this to naturally end short term when people don’t have capacity to buy any more. What concerns me is government planning to address this looks a lot more forward looking than a few days/a week, so I can see it getting worse. Interesting how the government say it’s not a shortage, if the refineries were running low you wo…

> ..as I think most people are just filling up to the top instead of half way.. Perhaps I am missing something here, but are you referring to vehicles in this context? Is it not common to always fill your tank to the top?

I think for some folks living check to check, it's pretty common to not have enough money for a full fill. In the end it's the same amount of gas, so this seems like just another one of the myriad ways poor people end up spending more resources than wealthier people because they can't invest a bit more now for better returns later.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#206

Post by danuker »

petercooper wrote: post #182
chrononaut wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ..as I think most people are just filling up to the top instead of half way.. Perhaps I am missing something here, but are you referring to vehicles in this context? Is it not common to always fill your tank to the top?

I always fill up myself because I hate filling up any more than I have to, but when it costs the equivalent of $70 to fill even a tiny car or $140 for a large car, no, it's pretty common to just buy "what you need" for the next few days or whatever.

I'd rather keep my money in fuel than cash, in the off chance hyperinflation strikes, triggering a bank holiday, without me having any physical cash.

But so far this has happened 0 times since I have a car.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#207

Post by bb123 »

joeberon wrote: post #72
TomGullen wrote: post #17

Unlike the toilet paper panic buying there is limited capacity people can buy, so I would expect this to naturally end short term when people don’t have capacity to buy any more. What concerns me is government planning to address this looks a lot more forward looking than a few days/a week, so I can see it getting worse. Interesting how the government say it’s not a shortage, if the refineries were running low you wo…

> when people don’t have capacity to buy any more. I'm confused, can't they just fill up jerry cans, or if garages aren't allowing this, just siphon the fuel out of the car at home?

Most modern cars have anti-siphon traps preventing this.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#208

Post by jillesvangurp »

addingnumbers wrote: post #154
mcot2 wrote: post #120

Solar + Battery + EV - No need for a pump, just sayin…

How much panel surface would you need to drive an EV, say, 100 miles a week?

A Tesla does about 4 miles per kw, give or take. So 100 miles would use about 25 KWH. Typical solar panel setups for domestic usage are around 3-4 KW. So depending on the season, you could get to 25KWH in a single day in the summer and you might struggle to get there in a week in the winter. All depends on you latitude, cloud coverage, etc. If you are in the north of Scottland, probably not a great plan in the winter but fantastic yields in the summer due to the long days.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#209

Post by timellis-smith »

dhosek wrote: post #164
timellis-smith wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure. "A fifth of all EU border checks are now happening in Northern Ireland, the government has said." https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/brexit/unsustainable... There is a distinct possibility that the EU is being vindictive

Or there is the distinct possibility that this was a heavily-traversed border pre-Brexit and with Brexit it now requires a lot of border checks.

I'm not going to argue whether the actual statement is true or not: Many people don't trust the government at the best of times but if it is true, I seriously doubt whether it constitutes 1/5 of all EU trade (assuming that border checks are in proportion to trade).

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#210

Post by notatoad »

photochemsyn wrote: post #197
qzw wrote: post #5

> "The free movement of labour is part of the European Union, and we tried very hard to convince the British not to leave the Union," said Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrat candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor. "They decided differently. I hope they will manage the problems coming from that," Scholz said. Man, I can smell the schadenfreude from all the way over here.

The issue with free movement of labor is that it only works out well across a region with standardized pay rates. Otherwise corporations will import labor from the low-cost zones and fire their high-cost local workers. This causes a lot of anger, see Brexit.

Yeah, that's what people keep saying. But if it were true, the staff shortages post-brexit would be easily resolved by simply paying a bit more.

The continued staff shortages would seem to mean that it's not simply an issue of pay, and there aren't enough Brits willing to do those jobs.

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