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More than 600 filling stations have run out of fuel as the tanker drivers' strike enters its fourth day.

Reports of fuel shortages have come in from across the country, but there is particular concern about the supply in the south-west and Welsh borders.

Some fuel station managers have responded to the panic by raising prices - one garage in Exwick, Devon, has hiked its prices to £1.99 a litre.

The tanker drivers, who are employed by Hoyer to deliver fuel to Shell's petrol ...Read the full article

 

I've not seen any panic buying as yet, though stories like this aren't going to help.

How can stations justify a near doubling of prices?  I don't think crude oil has gone up that much.  However, this more than the oil market could reflect true demand and supply pricing.  The oil market from what I read has been affected more by speculation and foreign currency exchange rates.

 

What blatant profiteering! The manager or owner of the filling station in Exwick, Devon should be charged with defrauding the public.

I wish the media would stop hyping up this story. They are trying to initiate a situation that makes headline news. what happened to responsibility??.

A 4 day strike for one oil company, isn't going to leave Britian 'dry'.

As for oil prices, something needs to be done. There is a huge amount of speculation and manipulation in the oil markets causing these prices. There are a lot of rich men getting very rich.

Oil demand long term is on a upwards curve but oil demand has not increased by 50% in the last six months, so why has the price?

Boy do I feel sorry for you guys! We are whingeing here in Sydney as we pay around 73p a litre for premium unleaded at the moment. I filled my C240 on the weekend 50 litres and paid $78 or 38 GBP...The biggest complaint here is that fuel prices change daily - both up and down on fuel that may have been purchased weeks or even months ago.

I wholely agree, Maj1c.

Spurious media speculation has done nothing to help. The Daily Express has been the worst offender for this in it's headlines based on no more journalistic fervour for a story. Though no newspaper has been blameless.

Sorry, but no sympathy at all with the tanker drivers; £41K. That's well over the national average wage. They're not owner/operators so have no maintenance costs. I know someone who's brother is involved in this and with overtime some of these drivers are hauling in £50-60K per annum.

They've hijacked people's concerns over rising fuel costs and are fanning the flames. Get back to work!

A bit of context, maybe, to the story of the Exwick garage?

This garage is in the middle of nowhere.  You have to go out of your way to get there.  Because demand had skyrocketed during the day he decided to increase the price to preserve his stocks so that his loyal, local purchasers would be able to refuel.

After 6.00pm his fuel was back down to 120.9p per litre.  Below average for a rural, independent, station in that area.

No-one was defrauded or ripped off, no-one had to buy their fuel there and it was clearly priced as they did so.  Anyone that did by fuel from this garage during the time it was at 199p per litre recieved a voucher that gave them a 50% discount against an MOT. 

 

GD:

What blatant profiteering! The manager or owner of the filling station in Exwick, Devon should be charged with defrauding the public.

Why? It's not fraud - if the pump numbers spun 25% fast that would be fraud. What's all this 'profiteering' talk about too - did people think that oil companies and petrol stations were run as charities before? They've been 'profiteering' for years!

Petrol stations can charge what they like for fuel, same as any other retailer. When everyone else is charging £1.20 a litre putting your price up to £2/litre is hardly going to win many customers. From the BBC website:

"The Foxhayes station at Exwick, near Exeter, said it had put all petrol and diesel prices up to conserve stocks.

"The price will go back to normal as soon as we get a delivery."

In the meantime, drivers who buy petrol from the garage while the prices are high are getting a £24 discount off an MoT."

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7456458.stm 

 

I cannot understand why the government has not stepped into this argument to protect a vital commodity. We need to quit our addiction to oil, but in the meantime a stable supply is key to preventing more economic problems.

Other tanker drivers should not be joining the pickett lines, and police protection should be given to allow them to cross the picket lines.

What I did notice was that the tanker drivers are contracted to shell, not employed directly. I would hope that when the contract comes up for renewal, Shell think long and hard before renewing it.

I found myself saying,"My God, don't they know there's a war on!"

Which there is. Something the hard done by poor souls who strike seems to forget. Get them in the front lines and to those who served within their numbers, Shame on you.

Firstly i think everybody should give the truckers some support, they are fighting for better pay in a job thats stressful, and involves working long hours away from home and family.shell make enough money anyway so upping the wages isnt going to harm them much.Also to me it seems that truck drivers are the only ones fighting our corner over the rising price of fuel and that should be given credit to because how would we be able to live how we do if it wasnt for truck drivers? And as for the people on the front line? well credit to them as well they are doing their job just as the truck drivers are as well! If the cost of funding their exercises, food fuel, blah blah had gone up 30k a month from last year as it has with some haulage companies dont you think they would be no strike too??