However, a survey by the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents independent fuel retailers, found that 27 per cent of petrol stations were out of fuel on Thursday – the same number as the day before.
“Some of our members haven’t had any fuel deliveries for nearly a week,” said Brian Madderson, chairman of the PRA.
“There’s been no easing off of the pressure from drivers wanting to refuel whenever they can, wherever they can. Trying to calm this down appears to be a monumental task at the moment.”
‘Gaslighting the public’
One petrol station owner in Surrey attacked the Government for claiming the situation was now under control.
“It’s like they are gaslighting the public,” the owner told the Telegraph. “It was chaos [on Wednesday], it was chaos [on Thursday], and it will be chaos [on Friday].”
Whitehall sources said the PRA survey was “not the full picture” and insisted supplies across the country were steadily improving.
According to internal figures seen by The Telegraph, 563 petrol stations were left without one grade of fuel on Thursday, compared with 800 on Tuesday and 1,800 on Sunday. BP garages are understood to be particularly badly affected.
A separate Whitehall analysis showed that the crisis was improving in the North East, Yorkshire and Wales while London, the South East, the North West, the West Midlands and East Midlands were all rated red, with fuel levels of less than 20 per cent.
The AA said it saw signs that the pressure on fuel pumps was starting to ease, with a sharp fall in the number of drivers stranded without fuel.
“We believe we have turned the corner,” said Edmund King, president of the AA.
Don’t use the word panic, councils told
Meanwhile, it emerged that councils have been instructed by government officials not to use the word “panic” when discussing the crisis.
Leaked documents produced by the Cabinet Office’s behavioural science team, known as the “Nudge Unit”, told local authorities to instead use phrases such as “filling up earlier than usual” and “changed patterns in demand”.
“The term ‘panic’ can then lead to behaviours that look like panic as people assume others are in a heightened state of threat, which is contagious,” the document said. “Do not link behaviours to moral values such as taking fuel away from those that need it the most, as this could lead to psychological reactance and backfire.”
Earlier this week George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, blamed the crisis on “panic buying” and said motorists should stop filling up needlessly.
Meanwhile, pharmacy bosses said deliveries of vital medicines were being affected by the acute shortage of truck drivers.
A spokesperson for the Company Chemists’ Association, which represents large pharmacy operators, said: “The whole supply chain has been impacted from inbound wholesale depot supply down to outward depot deliveries to pharmacies.”
