Wholesaler urges people to stop stockpiling petrol after he sells out of jerry cans in record time

by Karl Baxter, CEO of Wholesale Clearance UK

“Since it was announced that there is a shortage of lorry drivers available to deliver fuel to petrol stations in the UK, people have been stockpiling fuel all across the country.

But as drivers nationwide dashed out to fill their cars up, panicking that they wouldn’t be able to access petrol to travel – a fuel crisis was inevitable.

Local stations in particular, have experienced fuel shortages due to the panic buying, with people spotted filling up jerry cans.

Before the crisis, our stock of jerry cans sold at a steady pace, but over the weekend, we sold out in record time.

On Friday, I had 5,000 jerry cans being sold for £3.50 each which we sold in job lots of 12 – we’re now completely sold out!

Bear in mind, these items had been listed for months without much interest.

While we did have a few retailers purchase job lot’s, most of these sold under request as singular purchases.

According to the Petrol Enforcement Authority, you can store up to 30 litres of petrol at home or non-workplace premises without informing them.

However, any more than this, it is a legal requirement to notify your local PEA in writing, giving your name and address of storage location.

It’s hard to believe the pace at which people are buying. The issue now is, will there be any petrol left to deliver the items to the customers? Plus, the morality question of whether the purchases are driving the shortage further?

While people go into panic mode, shortages are being created, and despite many petrol stations putting a cap on people purchasing petrol, who’s to say they can’t go and fill up elsewhere after one purchase?

Even if we wanted to, we would not be able to source further supply of jerry cans until at least 3 months. It is likely that this could be creating a jerry can shortage, too!

After selling out, we currently have no further plans to source and supply jerry cans until the situation regarding petrol has returned to normal to discourage panic buying.”