The voice of the lone ADI.
Petrol Crisis
There is no petrol crisis, this is just a story put about by the BBC and others because they were having a quiet news week and it is the ordinary people who are suffering from it.
I am a driving instructor and regularly, just like all the other driving instructors in the country – unless they have electric cars, pop into the garages at least once a week. Usually, it is twice a week for a top-up. Taxi drivers are the same, delivery drivers, etc., it is a very long list. There is nothing, I repeat nothing unusual to see a few pumps covered up with, no petrol, or no diesel signs on them. Or, even a garage that is closed.
This happens regularly and it is only because the garage is waiting for a delivery. These places do not have direct pump lines to the refineries, or massive underground tanks that go down to the earth’s core. They hold enough for a usual week of trade, otherwise, they would be guilty of bad planning. We don’t have 40 pints of milk in the fridge, nope – just enough for a few days, and then we buy some more. This is exactly what the manager does in the garage, watches to see the levels in the storage tanks, and then orders a delivery when they need it. As long as hundreds of twits don’t come in and buy up all their stock in just a day all will be fine.
Suddenly a journalist with no big stories for his editor realises, or hears of this happening and thinks BINGO, I can make something of this. And away it goes.
Unfortunately, the story rapidly grows legs, and before he/she realises it there is a huge story in the six o’clock, ten o’clock, and every other news bulletin going. The BBC is flooding the airwaves with it, the papers are buying up all the ink in the land and social media has gone into meltdown. And, the queues get longer and longer for the twit who falls for it.
This is a false panic built on nothing and feeding on itself as there is no justifying it. Europe, America, Africa, and Asia are all looking and thinking the British have lost the plot, even the Scotts can see the funny side of it and are far more rational, Northern Ireland is stumped. It is just England that is embarrassing itself.
Please, folks, there is no shortage of petrol, just a few late deliveries to the garages, just the same as usual.
PS. See you at the pump in the morning.