Why UK suspends competition law to get petrol to forecourts

As per BBC News top stories of the 27^th of September  2021, soldiers could be drafted in to drive petrol tankers after three days of panic buying coupled with a shortage of drivers has caused some pumps to run dry. Government ministers are expected to meet today to discuss the proposal they've already suspended oil industry competition laws to allow suppliers to work together. BBC business correspondent Katie Austin has the very latest news. These were the scenes of yesterday as panic buying led to some forecourts having to close people are going a bit nuts because 6 am in the morning people were queuing up petrol. 

The correspondent got around about two to three hours working about 20 miles so didn’t know what he would do. It’s really frustrating. As a driver and without petrol of course you cannot move a group which speaks for more than 5000. Independent fuel retailers said the impact had been severe. There is a large number more than half which already run dry and those others are running dry quite quickly. Companies involved in the supply of fuel say a spike in demand is the problem not any shortage of petrol or diesel. But they met the business secretary yesterday who agreed to temporarily relax competition laws so that in these circumstances the industry can better share information and prioritize the delivery of supplies to where they're most needed.

 

The government is considering deploying the army to help with deliveries and it's understood that option is under discussion ahead of a possible meeting of cabinet ministers. The first limited supply issues were down to a lack of tanker drivers that's highlighted a wider lorry driver shortage a long-standing problem that's got worse over the weekend. The government announced new measures aimed at tackling it including 5000 temporary visas so drivers can come in from overseas in the run-up to Christmas haulage and business groups welcomed any help but some argued the announcement didn't go far enough.

 

Supermarkets say they need 15000 lorry drivers to avoid disruption in the festive season. Katie Austin from BBC News and John M Aguirre went to a Philly station in Kidder Minster this morning. It hasn't opened yet. Presumably they're braced for another busy day good morning to you. This morning Dan Ron the main road between Kidder Minster and bronze grove the fuel station wasn't open yet. But it's been a tumultuous few days really for the staff here and when the cones are removed from the road. When it opens later it is of course expected to be busy not too busy. Probably it is hoped that makes any sense.

 

What has the last few days been like Thursday evening things started to get very busy they did and then it all got very silly on Friday  it would had a very tough time with the last 18 months but not seen anything like this at all. There is no reason to panic by we have got plenty of fuel. Most of the customers have been very good but trying to marshal them and keep the road open has been interesting and you've had queues quarter of a mile long something like that easily at times and what can you do and able to sort of say to somebody look. You know that you're not coming in here and putting in five quid worth we haven't put in well. Nobody's putting in five pounds right good. It's just a case of trying to get people parked up properly moving along and organized and get them through as absolutely quickly as we can the team in the shop have been absolutely flat out getting people through and that's not all we can do and you're going to be prioritizing workers.