News analysis: Panic Buying 2: This time it’s petrol…

The news agenda has been dominated by images of snakes of cars leading to petrol stations as the great British public reprises its performance from the first lockdown where we saw loo roll, pasta and other essentials stockpiled. In our analysis Martin Friel examines what is driving the current issues in the motor space and assesses the insurance implications.

We are told there is no shortage of fuel, just extreme difficulty getting the fuel to petrol stations due to an acute lack of lorry drivers. That shortage is estimated to be around 100,000 and the Government’s short-term plan to permit the recruitment of 5,000 European drivers seems like a drop in the ocean. 

At the time of writing, the army was on standby to break the transportation deadlock. This isn’t what living in a modern, healthy economy is supposed to look like.

But here we are and the