Motorists in Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge have encountered queues at local petrol stations over the last few days following national media reports of fuel supply issues.
A nationwide shortage of HGV drivers has led to several fuel suppliers such as BP, Esso and Tesco closing a small number of petrol stations in some parts of the UK.
In scenes repeated across the country, there were long queues at Burnham and Highbridge’s filling stations on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Most fuel run out at Burnham and Highbridge’s filling stations on Saturday evening.
At the Applegreen filling station in Berrow Road, pictured here, all the pumps had ‘Sorry, out of use’ signs on them.
An Applegreen spokeswoman said: “It was an incredibly busy Friday – one of our busiest ever.”
The Transport Secretary has tried to dissuade drivers from ‘panic buying’ petrol. Grant Shapps MP said on Sky News: “The advice would be to carry on as normal.”
The shortage of drivers, which is estimated to be more than 100,000, has been blamed on a number of issues including Brexit and the pandemic.
Rod McKenzie of the Road Haulage Association said: “We have got a shortage of 100,000 drivers. When you think that everything we get in Britain comes on the back of a lorry, whether it’s fuel or food or clothes or whatever it is, at some point, if there are no drivers to drive those trucks, the trucks aren’t moving and we’re not getting our stuff.”
