This last week raised the spectre of fuel shortages. With enough oil reaching the well heads, no blockages at the Suez Canal, and no wars getting the way, put shortages down to the bizarre twists that trade barriers create these days…
Looked at another way, there is no fuel shortage, it’s just in everyone’s tanks now. Which leads me to ponder the wacky world of well, consumer behaviour.
Panic buying gave rise to some funny sights….
In an hours-long queue approaching a locaI BP station that doesn’t have an electric charge point, I spotted a … Tesla? I don’t know much about cars, but I do know that this is not strictly necessary. Clearly, no one had told the driver. They must have wanted a Toblerone really badly, eh?
Then there was the lunatic behaviour of the determined hoarder, pumping fuel into a plastic bag. See below. I have no words for this behaviour at all, save a friends’ observation that ‘it’s just as well she didn’t have a fag on’.
Back to BP for a moment. I was whizzed around town the other day in the passenger seat of the all-electric Renault Zoe. Before setting off, I asked driver Gloria, ‘what’s it like then?’ She said, the car's great, but the BP app. just keeps crashing.
Come on BP!
If fuel shortages point the way towards battery power we won’t encourage people to make the transition with crashy apps.
