What Sunderland drivers are saying at petrol stations about the fuel crisis
The chair of the Petrol Retailers Association has revealed his disappointment in people continuing to “panic buy” fuel.
Brian Madderson’s comments come as the Jet petrol station on Shields Road in Cleadon has no fuel on Tuesday morning (September 28).
Our photographer Stu Norton captured some minor queues at the Gulf petrol station on King George Road in South Tyneside however there appeared to be no issues at Morrisons in Seaburn.
There was also fuel at Applegreen Harbour View in Sunderland however a lot of the pumps were not in use.
Speaking to the BBC, the chair of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), Brian Madderson, said: “As soon as a tanker arrives at a filling station, people on social media are advising that a tanker has arrived and then it is like bees to a honey pot. Everyone flocks there and within a few hours it is out again.
“It is panic buying when you go to fill up your car to the entirety of its tank capacity which you wouldn’t normally do. You would fill up, say, half. The average fill across the UK is about £25-worth.
"We have seen people filling up to £100-worth where they can.”
Some retailers have been putting a price cap on the amount of fuel that customers can buy in an effort to limit the amount people can have however PRA members are not following that trend.
Mr Madderson added: “It is confrontational, we don’t want to put our staff at risk with confronting their customers, so that has got some merits, but also a lot of demerits.”