Fuel Shortage Warning

[cambourne7]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7356235.stm

[cambourne7]

[betula]

Oh no,remember queueing for petrol last time there was a problem

[cambourne7]

yep and there saying that it might last a month this time to get back to normal.

Either way petrol prices will go up and most likly not back down!!

[Mr Smith]

The only fuel shortage will be when people start to keep their fuel tanks topped up, if everyone just carries on  normal then there won't be a problem. and the main culprits are IMHO women who top up everytime they go past a service station :),  I think you will find that Grangemouth only supplies Scotland and now that they are a self governing country then it's their problem. :)

[dtw]

Quick, shore up the gaps in Hadrian's wall.  ;D

[Shelle]

From what I understand, Grangemouth not only supplies Scotland, but also the North of England as far as Yorkshire.

Not sure how to react to this.  I know in the past overreacting made the situation worse, but to risk waiting and having no petrol at all is even worse :(

[Mr Smith]

Shelle,
             You have just answered my question by the sound of your post, don't panic for 'Gods sake', theres loads of fuel about :) infact if I was running a petrol station and someone came on to top up there tank I would charge them double :)

[Shelle]

You get me wrong, I am not panicking, merely stating that Grangemouth doesnt only supply scotland as another poster said, but supplies the north of england.  That is a large area with no petrol.  I can understand why people feel the need to get petrol, and also understand why we need to not panic.

[Mr Smith]

Shelly,
           but 95% of the pop live south of Manchester, :)

[lorna]

In the early 70's (can't remember which year) we owned a filling station and there was a shortage of fuel. We had customers who only normally EVER bought a gallon at a time saying "Fill it up" was difficult to make a decision as we knew quite a few
customers needed fuel for their business or to get to work. In the end we only allowed £1.50 of fuel.

[Mr Smith]

Lorna,
             It was around 1972/74 not to sure and everyone was issued with fuel coupons :)

[Carol]

Folk are panic buying petrol now.  We went to the local petrol station with a can for petrol for the lawn mower and we had to queue up.  People were only allowed to buy £10 worth of fuel.  Oh dear, hope this is settled soon.

[lorna]

Mr Smith. Coupons? My memory must be failing me, don't remember any coupons. We definitely rationed people by our own methods. Must check with son tomorrow he has an excellent memory.

[manicscousers]

yep, coupons, Ray remembers them, we were running a driving school at the time and were worried we wouldn't be able to get enough petrol to stay in business  ;D

[Carol]

I think Coupons were issued to everyone but not sure if they were ever used.  I know in November 1973 we had to travel from Suffolk to the Scottish Borders for OHs Grans funeral and we travelled north with his brother and family.  Baby was in a cardboard box between the seats in the back.  It was a worrying journey in case we couldn't get fuel so the speed was kept at 50mph steady.

[redimp]

I can see it now:
"Sorry boss, can't get into work today - no diesel at the garages."

No panic buying here ;D

[grawrc]

I went to get diesel yesterday because my little fuel light was flashing. I didn't actually know about the Grangemouth problem. Soon learnt about it when I had to queue for the pumps!!  When i went to pay the guy said it had been like that all day with some people putting in less than £5 worth of petrol.

[aromatic]

 :-\ I worked at a well known supermarket the last time we had an all out petrol strike.... I was working on the checkouts and remember the havoc that was taking place in the car park and road leading up to supermarket!! It was gridlocked!!! We had to have members of staff to direct the traffic and I believe the traffic police had to be brought in to intervene once or twice.  Also due to the petrol strike food supplies were affected and we had to ration bread and milk and other essentials. It was our job on the checkouts to ensure each customer had the allocated allowance of bread and milk, etc, etc, so everyone had equal shares. I can honestly say it was horrendous. I was amazed at how unpleasant and abusive some members of the general public could be. A good many of us checkout ladies (all human beings with feelings!) were reduced to tears!! I dread to think how the girls were surviving at the petrol station tills!! Thankfully I no longer work at said supermarket!!!

                                                 

[Larkshall]

:-\  I was amazed at how unpleasant and abusive some members of the general public could be. A good many of us checkout ladies (all human beings with feelings!) were reduced to tears!!

I am not surprised. I used to work for BT and have seen operators reduced to tears by abusive customers, but you soon get hardened to it.

On one occasion I had a caller who was abusive, not only that but he was causing problems at a distant exchange where the customer had asked for her phone to be "plugged up". I eventually dealt with him by plugging up his phone (a dismissable offence). My chief supervisor agreed with my action. Thank God for digital, where you don't use the operators now.

Petrol coupons? I am sure the last time they were issued was in the Suez crisis. The last time I used coupons for petrol was in 1950 when rationing ceased (Friday of the Whitsun weekend).

[Mr Smith]

Lorna,
           What memory :)