Competition rules relaxed after fuel stations run dry in major cities

Up to 90 per cent of fuel stations ran dry across major English cities on Monday after panic buying deepened a supply chain crisis triggered by a shortage of truckers that retailers are warning could batter the world’s fifth-largest economy.

A dire post-Brexit shortage of truck drivers has sown chaos through supply chains in everything from food to fuel, raising the spectre of disruptions and price rises in the run up to Christmas.

Just days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government spent millions of pounds to avert a food shortage due to a spike in prices for natural gas and its byproduct, carbon dioxide, ministers repeatedly asked people to refrain from panic buying.

But queues of dozens of cars snaked back from petrol forecourts across the land on Sunday, swallowing up supplies and forcing many gas stations to simply close. Pumps across British cities were either closed or had signs saying fuel was unavailable, reports said.

“Some of our members, large groups with a portfolio of sites, report 50 per cent are dry as of yesterday, some even report as many as 90 per cent are dry as of yesterday,” Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association told Sky.

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) represents independent fuel retailers who now account for 65 per cent of all UK forecourts.

“So you can see it is quite acute,” Madderson said. “Monday morning is going to start pretty dry.”

BP said on Sunday that nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel as panic buying forced the government to suspend competition laws and allow firms to work together to ease shortages.

Known as The Downstream Oil Protocol, this step would allow firms to share information and coordinate their response to ensure that disruption is minimised as far as possible.

“While there has always been and continues to be plenty of fuel at refineries and terminals, we are aware that there have been some issues with supply chains. This is why we will enact the Downstream Oil Protocol to ensure industry can share vital information and work together more effectively to ensure disruption is minimized,” Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said.

Kwarteng on Sunday met with senior executives from the fuel industry to discuss the issues caused by supply chain pressures and spikes in localised demand.

“We are in regular contact with Government ministers and policy officials and it was reassuring to meet with the Business Secretary again on Sunday evening and discuss further action,” organisations including the Association of Convenience Stores, said in a joint statement.

“We will continue to work closely in partnership over this period with local and national government and want to reassure the public that the issues that have arisen are due to temporary spikes in customer demand, not a national shortage of fuel.”

The government on Sunday announced a plan to issue temporary visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers.

But business leaders have warned the government’s plan is a short-term fix and will not solve an acute labour shortage.