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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

#291

Post by whatever1 »

fsslrisrchr wrote: post #261
whatever1 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me you are an American without telling me you are an American. Jokes apart, in Europe the gasoline is so expensive that you need ~80€ to fill up a small car. For an SUV can be close to 100€. So we just fill up to just what is absolutely necessary and then we live in anxiety :)

I lived in Europe. Add to that a general lack of cash liquidity of the middle class. I.e. when you're poor you're not sure you might not need those extra euro 60 next week for an unforeseen emergency. When we lived in Europe in the 90s, my mother would never fill up past a quarter tank.

The european gas pumps even have prespecified fill volumes typically 5,10,20,50€. So when you select the 20€ it will dispense 20€ worth of gasoline.

Many times youth is also splitting gasoline costs for a night out, so everyone will chip in 2-3€ to pour enough gasoline.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#292

Post by lelanthran »

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?

> 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. When I am in a hurry I buy fuel for an exact amount of cash, so that I can hand over cash and move on.

When I am not, I fill up to the first click[1], and then wait for the attendant to amble on over with a payment terminal so I can use my card.

If I was always paying cash, I would never fill up because I don't really want to hang about while they make change for whatever money I give them. [1] I had a 1986 BMW 525e that, if you filled up to the very top, will leak out excess fuel through an overfill pipe when on a slight (or not so slight) incline. Filling up to the top wasted that fuel.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#293

Post by lotsofpulp »

azalemeth wrote: post #254
lotsofpulp wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With US engine sizes, fuel efficiency, and number of miles driven, I would guess it makes no difference for most people. Much fewer proportion of people are driving those peugots or other tiny cars where the weight of fuel would be material relative to the time it would take to fill up fuel more often. Another British thing that amazed me was their auto insurance prices were based on engine size, and they were fretti…

No normal person needs a 4l car. You just don't. Heck, 3l is huge and not required with modern engine sizes; between 1 and 2l is plenty for the vast majority of people who are not farmers routinely getting stuck in mud whilst towing heavy equipment. In 2019, the average new petrol ("gas") car in the UK requires 5.7 l of fuel per 100 km (49.2 mpg) [1]. The corresponding figure for the US is ~9.44 l/100km (24.9 mpg [2,…

I know. My neighbor just upgraded from a mini SUV to a 5.7L pickup truck to commute to his office job.

The spoils of a government that does not have a high fossil fuel tax.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#294

Post by kristjansson »

kbenson wrote: post #282
kristjansson wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which you can't keep up with under any circumstances What? This is a stocks and flows problem. If everyone filled up to the brim every time, but followed the same pattern of use otherwise, the weekly fuel consumed is exactly the same (modulo some tiny loss of efficiency due to cars being marginally heavier). Of course a nation of half-full cars suddenly filling them to the brim demands much more fuel during the (sh…

> the weekly fuel consumed is exactly the same That assumes people fill up every week. Not everyone does, it really depends on the amount of driving they do and size of their tank. > Of course a nation of half-full cars suddenly filling them to the brim demands much more fuel during the (short) period of time over which they make that transition, but that shouldn't create an expectation of drastically increased futur…

s/weekly/per unit time/g

But to the broader point, perhaps I misread. I fixated on the ‘cannot be kept up with’ bit which I read as implying a change in expected future consumption, but I see could also be read as a referring specifically to the demand shock.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#295

Post by [deleted] »

notatoad wrote: post #210
photochemsyn wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#296

Post by zyemuzu »

louthy wrote: post #170
mkohlmyr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not unlike the panic buying at the start of the pandemic. The media is driving this hysteria because a) it fits their narrative around brexit, and b) fear & outrage sells.

> it fits their narrative around brexit What narrative around Brexit? I see a lack of narrative around Brexit. We are always told about “supply chain issues” with barely any reflection on the cause. Yes, other nations in Europe have supply chain issues, but they’re not seeing the problems we’re seeing in the uk. This is a Brexit issue, but no major media outfit seems to be holding the government (who are the architec…

Edgelord leftist.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#297

Post by Closi »

sockpuppet_12 wrote: post #286
djhworld wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that it's not simply an issue of pay, and there aren't enough Brits willing to do those jobs. From what I've read (and take this with a pinch of salt) there are a lot of licensed HGV drivers in the UK who don't drive anymore, with common reasons being long, unsociable working hours, management that treat you like dirt, shitty rules around where they can park to take rest stops with substandard (typical everywhere i…

This seems like a case of trying to cram the ruinous practices back into pandora's box, which has been leaking for a very long time. Transport companies have had a long time to optimise their extraction of value from cheap, easily exploitable employees from overseas. The easily exploitable workers aren't available anymore, so the companies who exploited them will have to change their exploitation habits if they want…

There has been a driver shortage for years - a whole variety of factors have just all come along at the same time to knock it over the edge and cause all the resulting chaos.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#298

Post by throw8383833jj »

danuker wrote: post #206
petercooper wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But, don't forget that evaporation will be greater by maintaining a full tanks.

Besides, you don't want your fuel aging more than 6 or 12 months. So, if you drive less than 40 miles per month (as in a pandemic), it can make sense to just fill up 1/2 way or 3/4.

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#299

Post by brianwawok »

bluGill wrote: post #135
ben_w wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mm. A Facebook friend in the UK just reported a petrol tout to the police for storing more than 15 litres without a licence.

Depends on where you live. Farmers in the US typically have around 8000 liters petro on their farm in various grades. They have a contract with a local company to keep those tanks full of whatever the correct fuel for the current season is. When it is a long way to town and many vehicles never go to town having your own private fuel station starts to make sense.

They also dye diesel, the dye shows no tax was paid so you get in poo-poo if you try to drive on public roads with it

https://www.ricochetfuel.com/blog/dyed-diesel-fuel-vs-regula...

Re: Pumps run dry at gas stations in Britain

#300

Post by [deleted] »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #128
timellis-smith wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't comment on the child of the post for some reason. Here is another source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/09/24/dont-blame-b... Somehow it seems on these forums that any left leaning publication is immediately trusted but any right leaning one immediately distrusted.

It's just that the shelves in the UK are empty, and in the other countries they aren't. Both in the UK and in the rest of the EU there already was a shortage of professional drivers. And the companies in the UK do seem to blame the VISA situation as a major contributing factor.

[deleted]
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