Selfish drivers pack their cars with jerry cans and fill tanks to the brim

Desperate motorists have been filling up dozens of jerry cans as the UK's fuel crisis continued today and Boris Johnson revealed a visa U-turn for 5,000 foreign truck drivers. 

Motorists ignored Government pleas for calm as they jammed roads and police had to be called in to marshal drivers amid fears that fuel shortages could bring the economy to its knees.

Photographs are today circulating online showing 'greedy' drivers stocking up on fuel - which is already in short supply because of the absence of drivers to transport it from source to stations. 

Some had multiple jerry cans in the boot of their cars and spent time filling each up while others queued for hours to reach the pump. Meanwhile, around 400 stations owned by the EG Group is limiting customers to £30 worth of petrol to give everyone a 'fair chance to refuel'.

The Prime Minister is expected to buckle and grant visas for thousands of foreign drivers in a bid to tackle the shortages, while soldiers will also be drafted in to help at HGV testing sites to clear a backlog of drivers trying to get licences. 

But Britain is said to be short of more than 90,000 drivers, partly the result of coronavirus which cancelled the training and testing of tens of thousands of workers, and there are concerns an additional 5,000 may be too little, too late to halt the chaos.   

Photographs show desperate motorists queuing for petrol at 5.45am this morning at Sainsbury's Alperton station as the hunt for fuel continued overnight. Driver shortages are hitting every part of the economy, creating gaps on supermarket shelves, leaving pubs and restaurants short of key produce and jeopardising the supply of key chemicals to water firms. 

Parents on the school run on Friday could not get to the pumps, while the elderly and traders were among the many thousands of motorists caught up in the frenzy.  

The problems were triggered after BP and Esso admitted on Thursday that a lack of tanker drivers was hitting deliveries. The news led to a race to the petrol pumps with the result that hundreds ran out of some fuel types and dozens closed altogether.

And Transport Secretary Grant Shapps' appeal for drivers to 'carry on as normal' went ignored on Friday and throughout the night, leading to long jams and angry scenes at filling stations.  

Meanwhile on Friday, a private equity-backed haulage firm specialising in chilled deliveries to Asda and Sainsbury's went bust, adding to concerns about gaps on shelves. 

As the crisis deepened:

Police officers have been pictured standing among cars to ensure queues didn't block roads at one Esso station in Northwood, London, after a day of panic buying.

The EG Group has limited customers to £30 worth of fuel to try to manage the sudden demand in supply.  

In a statement, a spokesperson said: 'Due to the current unprecedented customer demand for fuel and associated supply challenges we have taken the decision to introduce a limit of £30 per customer on all of our grades of fuel.

'This excludes HGV drivers and emergency services due to their vital role at this time. This is a company decision to ensure all our customers have a fair chance to refuel and to enable our sites to carry on running smoothly.

'We kindly ask everyone visiting our sites to treat our colleagues, supply chain partners and customers with respect during these very challenging times.'

Many forecourts in London and other cities were closed or running low on both unleaded and diesel on Friday evening. The capital's South Circular road was at a standstill at one point. The Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association asked that its members should go on an emergency fuel register, giving them priority access to fuel.

BP said: 'We are experiencing some fuel supply issues at some of our retail sites in the UK and unfortunately have therefore seen some sites temporarily close due to a lack of both unleaded and diesel grades.

'We are prioritising deliveries to sites with largest demand and seeking to minimise the duration of stock outs.' 

Jane Smithson, 62, a retired carer who was stocking up on fuel in Eltham, south-east London, said: 'I'm gobsmacked, the world's gone mad, I just cannot believe it.'

Charlie Mansfield, a 34-year-old paramedic, was worried she would not be able to start her shift if she could not get petrol. 

'They should put a limit of the amount of litres you can buy, because people are just filling it up and taking it all,' she said.

Trafford councillor Mike Freeman described Manchester as 'bedlam'. He said: 'I witnessed two motorists not just satisfied with filling up their cars but filling large jerry cans as well – people have clearly been spooked.'

Early yesterday, Mr Shapps urged motorists to 'carry on as normal' and insisted there was no danger of fuel pumps running dry. 

Britain is said to be short of more than 90,000 drivers, which is partly the result of coronavirus, which cancelled the training and the testing of tens of thousands of workers.

Other factors include the long-standing issue of poor recruitment linked to poor pay and conditions, as well as Brexit, which saw thousands of EU drivers go home.

The Government has set up a taskforce run by the former Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay to address supply chain issues.

Howard Cox, founder of the FairFuelUK Campaign, blamed the Department for Transport for not tackling the driver shortage. He added: 'Pump prices will rise in direct relation to the 'don't panic' scaremongering messages from this clueless Government.'

A Downing Street spokesman said last night: 'We have ample fuel stocks in this country and the public should be reassured there are no shortages.'    

Officials have insisted a visa rule change, which Johnson appears poised to announce, would be 'very short-term' with the Government adamant that the industry needs to adapt to prevent future crises.

A source said: 'We believe in British workers being paid properly and we will not give in to big businesses who want to change immigration rules to drive down wages.' Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said early yesterday that he was wary about importing cheap foreign labour to solve the issue.

'We've started to see people come into the sector to alleviate this problem and what I don't want to do is undermine that in any way as we bring people in, attracted by higher salaries and wages,' he told the BBC.

'What I don't want to do, and I've been hinting at this, is undercut with, as has happened before, cheaper European drivers and then find our drivers drop out because they are being undercut.

'That doesn't solve the problem, it just creates a new problem.'

Ministers held crunch talks on Friday afternoon to thrash out a solution to the shortage. It came as retailers on Friday warned ministers they have just 10 days to save Christmas from 'significant disruption' due to the lack of drivers.  

The British Retail Consortium said that disruption over the festive period will be 'inevitable' unless the shortfall of an estimated 90,000 drivers is addressed.

Ministers have reportedly discussed contingency plans for the Army to be brought in to drive petrol tankers to station forecourts but it is thought they would only be enacted as a last resort.  

Tory MP Marcus Fysh said that bringing in the Army would 'not be an unreasonable way to think about dealing with an issue'.  

He said: 'If there is a problem that needs to be fixed in the near term then that might be a way of fixing it.'

But ministers have been accused of dooming Britain to a Winter of Incompetence. The Government has been lambasted for failing to see the problems coming, with fears rationing might even be needed.

Environment Secretary George Eustice is thought to have been pushing for a move to grant temporary visas to EU nations to shore up the number of HGV drivers along with Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is also seemingly lowering objections to a time-limited change. 

But critics question why it has taken so long to address the problems, as companies have been raising alarm for months about the brewing crisis. The driver shortage has been exacerbated by a huge backlog in HGV tests due to Covid, as well as foreign drivers returning home amid the pandemic and Brexit.

There have also been huge pressures on global supply chains with economies getting up and running after the effective coronavirus shutdown - as well as factors like the Suez canal having been blocked months ago.   

The scenes of queues outside petrol stations - which for some will stir up memories of the 1973 Opec Oil Crisis and the 2000 fuel shortage - come amid fears of a 1978-style 'winter of discontent' for the UK, with skyrocketing energy prices, food shortages and fuel rationing.  

On Thursday BP announced plans to ration fuel and a 'handful' of its petrol stations, along with 'small number' of Tesco refilling stations, while supermarkets warned of food shortages and more energy firms went bust amid rising gas prices - sparking fears of a new 'winter of discontent'.

And in a particularly unhelpful addition to the problem, eco-mob Insulate Britain returned to the roads today to block off a route to Port of Dover - Europe's busiest port and the UK's main gateway for trade from the EU.

On Thursday night the Petrol Retailers Association added to the rising sense of carnage by urging motorists to 'keep a quarter of a tank' of fuel in their vehicles in preparation for potential closures of local petrol stations.     

Mr Shapps on Friday stressed that transport firms were offering

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