The UK is estimated to be short of more than 100,000 lorry drivers - causing problems for a range of industries, including food suppliers and supermarkets, in recent months. However, there is still little improvement in the numbers of forecourts who are out of one grade or all grades of fuel. The Petrol Retailers Association also said there was some evidence that the number of motorists visiting petrol stations was slowly beginning to calm.Ĭiting anecdotal evidence, it said some filling stations that saw a 500% increase in visits on Saturday compared to normal were now seeing visits around 40% higher than normal. Grant Shapps said: "Once we all return to our normal buying habits. The transport secretary said there were "tentative signs" of stabilisation in petrol stations and queues would start to reflect this in the coming days. The surge in demand came amid fears a driver shortage would hit fuel supply - which is plentiful at refineries. Up to 150 military tanker drivers will prepare to deliver to forecourts which have run dry because of panic buying.
The Army is ready to help ease fuel supply problems after a fourth day of long queues and pump closures.