Petrol stations are beginning to get back to normal, two weeks after being plunged into chaos by panic-buyers.
But many forecourts are still dry due to difficulties re-filling pumps after they were emptied much quicker than expected.
It’s taken more than a week for many petrol stations to receive deliveries and some are still waiting to be stocked up.
If you are running on empty and don’t want to risk driving to your local petrol station in case it is out of fuel, there is a way of using Google Maps to check the likelihood of petrol being available before setting out.
The tip involves finding the petrol station’s listing on Google and scrolling down to the section which indicates how busy it is.
There should be a graph that provides live updates on what’s happening at the pumps. If there’s a big pink bar, it means the petrol station is busier than it would be normally.
This indicates that there is a very high chance the retailer has fuel at the moment as it is being used by lots of customers, who are unlikely to just be stopping for a Mars bar.
However, if there is a small bar showing on the graph, it means the petrol station is less busier than it would be normally.
This means that there is unlikely to be any fuel available and the pumps may well be closed.
How much fuel is there in my region?
New Government figures show filling stations in Britain had an average fuel stock level of 25% on Sunday, down from 33% before the crisis.
But the situation varies in different regions. Here is a breakdown of average fuel stock levels at filling stations on Sunday:
- North-east England: 33%
- North-west England: 28%
- Yorkshire and The Humber: 28%
- East Midlands: 22%
- West Midlands: 26%
- East of England: 19%
- London: 18%
- South-east England: 16%
- South-west England: 26%
- Wales: 30%
- Scotland: 35%
The fuel crisis was sparked by warnings from BP that a lack of HGV drivers was making it difficult to transport fuel around the country.
Vital petrol stations – such as those on motorways – were prioritised as fuel was rationed across the country.
This led to panic-buying which increased the problem ten-fold and caused problems at almost all forecourts.
London and the south east of England have been hardest hit and the latest figures indicate these are still the areas where it is most difficult to find fuel.
Retailers have claimed ‘inept prioritisation’ of deliveries is to blame for continued shortages.
Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), warned that fuel supplies are being sent to ‘the wrong parts of the country’.
‘We do not know when the deliveries are arriving and we do not know how they are being prioritised,’ he said.
‘The return to normal fuel volumes continues to be blighted by the current inept prioritisation policy.’
On Friday September 24, fuel sales were up 80% compared with normal levels.
Sales remained ‘substantially above’ average until the middle of the following week when they ‘began to trend back to normal levels’, the Department for Business said.
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