Woman At Petrol Station 'Only Queuing Because Everybody Else Is'

A woman at a petrol station admitted she was 'only queuing because everybody else is'.

A shortage of HGV drivers had led to supply issues, prompting many motorists to resort to panic buying.

Sky News interviewed people queuing for fuel at a petrol forecourt, and one woman perfectly encapsulated the thought process behind panic buying.

PA

She said: "I'm only queueing because everybody else is queueing, to be honest.

"I need a bit of petrol. If it all runs out, I'm stuck; how am I going to get to work?

"I hope things settle down quickly."

The reporter then referenced comments by environment secretary George Eustice, who said 'there isn't a shortage' and the problem is that people are 'buying petrol when they don't need it'.

Responding to these remarks, the motorist said: "I mean he's right, yeah, but if I need petrol and my car's empty what do I do?

"Last night so many places were closed, I tried to get petrol yesterday, it's been going on for two days now.

"And I've just driven past and seen the queue, so if I can get some petrol, that's what I'm trying to do."

Speaking earlier, Eustice said there were currently no plans to deploy the Army to drive petrol tankers.

He said: "We are bringing Ministry of Defence (MoD) trainers in to accelerate some of the HGV training to clear a backlog of people who want to carry out those tests, and there's definitely a role there for the MoD.

"In terms of other things we've no plans at the moment to bring in the Army to actually do the driving, but we always have a Civil Contingencies section within the Army on standby - but we're not jumping to that necessarily at the moment."

There were long queues at filling stations over the weekend, and yesterday (Sunday 26 September), Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced he was temporarily suspending competition laws, allowing the industry to share information so it can target areas where fuel supply is running low.

The move came after Boris Johnson said the government was creating 5,000 three-month visas for foreign lorry drivers in an attempt to ease the pressure on hauliers.

A statement by Shell, ExxonMobile and other industry bodies insisted there was no 'national shortage of fuel' and that the pressures on supply were the result of 'temporary spikes in customer demand'.

Topics: UK News, Cars

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey