Drivers urged not to panic buy amid shortages at petrol stations

There have already been some reports of long queues at petrol stations this morning as news of shortages emerges (Picture: i-Images)

The government is trying to prevent an outbreak of panic-buying as petrol stations are forced to close because of a distribution crisis.

Ministers are considering drafting in the army to transport goods as a temporary fix for the supply chain problems buffeting the economy.

BP and Esso have announced they’ve been forced to shut some outlets with immediate effect because they are unable to transport fuel around the country.

Garages at Tesco supermarkets are among those shuttered this morning, with unconfirmed reports emerging of long queues developing at some stations.

With rising gas prices and problems in the food industry, ministers have been forced to play down suggestions the country is heading for another ‘winter of discontent’.

An acute shortage of HGV drivers – which industry experts have warned about for years but has been exacerbated by Brexit and Covid-19 – has created problems across a wide range of retailers in recent months.

BP told the government in a meeting last Thursday that the company’s ability to transport fuel from refineries to its network of forecourts was faltering.

The firm’s head of UK retail Hanna Hofer said it was important the government understood the ‘urgency of the situation’, which she described as ‘bad, very bad’, according to a report by ITV News.

The government has stressed there is no shortage of petrol but distribution is being hit by a driver shortage (Picture: i-Images)

She added that BP had ‘two-thirds of normal forecourt stock levels required for smooth operations’ and the level is ‘declining rapidly’.

ExxonMobil, which owns Esso, confirmed ‘a small number of our 200 Tesco Alliance retail sites are impacted’.

Asked about the potential of looking to the military for help, transport secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC: ‘I will look at every possibility, every way of doing this.

‘With regard to things like whether there’s a role for military, obviously, if there is, if that actually helps we’ll bring them in.’

The government has previously rejected calls from within the industry to relax visa rules on lorry drivers in order to attract foreign workers as a way of making  up the shortfall.

Rod McKenzie of the Road Haulage Association called resistance to the policy ‘government by inertia’ and directly warned Mr Shapps about looming shortages and supply chain disruption.

The government is backing getting more UK workers through driving tests to ease the crisis rather than importing foreign workers (Picture: PA)

Mr Shapps said he wouldn’t definitively rule out a U-turn on visa rules but said attempting to ‘undercut’ the problem ‘with cheaper European drivers’ wouldn’t fix the issue long-term.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, he described Covid-19 as the ‘principle cause’, pointing to similar issues in Germany and Poland, but conceded there are ‘longer-term problems’.

He said the UK had struggled to recruit drivers for years, describing the occupation as ‘difficult – it is a long day’s work, it is hard work, it is a skilled job and, actually, it has been underpaid up until now’.

A government spokesperson said: ‘There is no shortage of fuel in the UK, and people should continue to buy fuel as normal.’

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