Fuel shortages in Melbourne servos

Just a small example of how one commodity running short can seriously inconvenience you.

I try to always maintain half a tank. I topped up yesterday in anticipation of a shortage and will do the same this arvo.

By coincidence I ordered a small plastic jerry can last week for such an instance.

Let this be a small practice run.
 
Byron said:
TheEnd said:
Both of my country town servos are out of all fuels....Luckily I have enough to get to another servo later today..... Something to do with a crackdown on Fuel trucks?

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/p...ns-after-tanker-crackdown-20131008-2v5p0.html
Click to expand...

Fatal Tanker accident in Sydney has halted hundreds of fuel trucks. Short term shortages predicted.

Let the price gouging begin.
Click to expand...

By coincidence I drove up that part of the road in Warriewood last night. Tried to imagine the truck hurtling out of control coming down on me.
 
Ye a fuel shortage can really screw things up....People cannot get to work, people running out of fuel on side of road, people stuck at home and cannot go anywhere etc etc...... Just goes to show how reliant we all are on 'the system'...
 
Come to the gold coast, seems to be plenty of fuel and it's down 4 to 5 cents per lt.
Still going to get some on the way home just to be sure
 
sammysilver said:
I try to always maintain half a tank.
Click to expand...

That's been mentioned on here elsewhere, and it's usually a strategy I employ. Means your tank is generally going to be somewhere between half to full at any one time - on average you've got 3/4 tank of fuel available to you.

Just sold most of my jerry-cans through the barter thread, been a bit lax about it lately but I used to ensure I always had at least 20L reserve in a jerry-can in the shed.
 
Wow just saw the footage, I used to live at the top of the hill in Terry hills.
I have followed lots of trucks down that road, most on the verge of a runaway, not surprised. There is a roundabout at the bottom next to the cemetery at the junction of warriewood rd, lots of skid marks before it.
It's not just the bottom section that's bad it starts at the top. 80kms zone then down tumble down dick (first hill) past tip single lane before up steep hill so they let the breaks go early to get up the hill to powder works rd, next to the Baha'i temple. Then 2-3 Kms down with no run offs.if you run miss a gear and get locked out, you are in truble.
There is nowhere to go if your going up either if there a problem. Rock face on the high side cliff on the lower side.
 
goldpelican said:
sammysilver said:
I try to always maintain half a tank.
Click to expand...

That's been mentioned on here elsewhere, and it's usually a strategy I employ. Means your tank is generally going to be somewhere between half to full at any one time - on average you've got 3/4 tank of fuel available to you
Click to expand...

I try and do the same thing - when fuel is cheap I fill up, even if I have 3/4 of a tank in the car anyway. Also doubles as the sort of thing you'd read in The Alpha Strategy.
 
Keeping your car half full to full all the time costs tge same as keeping it perpetually empty.

* if you're skint you still have half a tank to get by
* you just know that you'll run out at the most in opportune time & place
* got half a tank (& 20 litres at home)? You don't have to fill up when the fuel companies are gouging
* if you need to go somewhere in a hurry which is better? 1/2 a tank of fuel or the nearest servo?
* empty tank = condensation in your tank and grime getting into your cars system or so I've been told
* unexpected bill / expense? You've got some flexibility in that you don't have to buy fuel. Better that you've got a store of food / non perishables ala Alpha Strategy

Full disclosure my wife operates on the perpetual empty strategy because a magic fairy puts fuel in the tank every so often.

If you do use jerry cans don't forget to rotate your fuel

Caveat - I'm not a mechanic / expert
 
Ooo - 1 story

My in laws have four cars. When I visited they had an "emergency". Not one of their cars had enough fuel to get beyond the servo O_o
 
Nugget said:
Ooo - 1 story

My in laws have four cars. When I visited they had an "emergency". Not one of their cars had enough fuel to get beyond the servo O_o
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Give 'em a tow. It'll build up your quads :lol:
 
What about poor me...The local 'Shell' is the only servo that has LPG and they run out all the time.... I rang Shell today to find out when next delivery to servo was but they could'nt trace an order from the servo..... Thank god I was able to fill up 30klms away and had enough in tank to get there..... I run LPG because it saves me $30-60 a week with two cars running it....

Just had a major breakdown with one car last week requiring it to be towed home with RACV.... I'm a mechanic but I could'nt work out what was wrong with it...... Got a younger mechanic mate that came around home and sorted the problem within fifteen minutes.....Gave him $50 just for his professionalism..... I feel a little silly for not finding the problem myself lol!
 
Chillidog said:
Come to the gold coast, seems to be plenty of fuel and it's down 4 to 5 cents per lt.
Still going to get some on the way home just to be sure
Click to expand...

Cootes doesn't run many if any tankers in Qld. The refineries seem to run their own branded tankers.

Regardless, I've switched to a 44Gal drum of fuel that I fill/top up with jerry cans. I always have 200l up my sleeve for the genset & car... and its safer & more space efficient than the jerry cans. Practically immobile though unlike the jerry cans.
 
Clawhammer said:
Chillidog said:
Come to the gold coast, seems to be plenty of fuel and it's down 4 to 5 cents per lt.
Still going to get some on the way home just to be sure
Click to expand...

Cootes doesn't run many if any tankers in Qld. The refineries seem to run their own branded tankers.

Regardless, I've switched to a 44Gal drum of fuel that I fill/top up with jerry cans. I always have 200l up my sleeve for the genset & car... and its safer & more space efficient than the jerry cans. Practically immobile though unlike the jerry cans.
Click to expand...

Do you add a fuel stabiliser to keep the microbe population down and to stop the fuel going off?
 
Results not typical said:
Clawhammer said:
Chillidog said:
Come to the gold coast, seems to be plenty of fuel and it's down 4 to 5 cents per lt.
Still going to get some on the way home just to be sure
Click to expand...

Cootes doesn't run many if any tankers in Qld. The refineries seem to run their own branded tankers.

Regardless, I've switched to a 44Gal drum of fuel that I fill/top up with jerry cans. I always have 200l up my sleeve for the genset & car... and its safer & more space efficient than the jerry cans. Practically immobile though unlike the jerry cans.
Click to expand...

Do you add a fuel stabiliser to keep the microbe population down and to stop the fuel going off?
Click to expand...

Yep. I use "Stabil" for petrol for the lawn mower & generator (I got rid of all my petrol powered whipper snippers, hedge trimmers, chainsaw etc and have gone down the Ryobi 32Volt battery route)

I'm on diesel now for the car ...but still use a diesel fuel treatment. Many of these diesel treatments do the same as "Stabil for Diesel"...which I can't seem to get up here :/ Mainly its just to stop algae growth. The diesel treatment goes a lot further (treats more litres) than the petrol treatment.

Every time I filled up the car I'd grab a 20L Jerry can full too. All it took was 10 fill-ups and the drum was full.
 
Byron said:
TheEnd said:
Both of my country town servos are out of all fuels....Luckily I have enough to get to another servo later today..... Something to do with a crackdown on Fuel trucks?

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/p...ns-after-tanker-crackdown-20131008-2v5p0.html
Click to expand...

Fatal Tanker accident in Sydney has halted hundreds of fuel trucks. Short term shortages predicted.

Let the price gouging begin.
Click to expand...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9QEkw6_O6w[/youtube]
 
SilverSaviour said:
Byron said:
TheEnd said:
Both of my country town servos are out of all fuels....Luckily I have enough to get to another servo later today..... Something to do with a crackdown on Fuel trucks?

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/p...ns-after-tanker-crackdown-20131008-2v5p0.html
Click to expand...

Fatal Tanker accident in Sydney has halted hundreds of fuel trucks. Short term shortages predicted.

Let the price gouging begin.
Click to expand...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9QEkw6_O6w[/youtube]
Click to expand...
Here I was thinking price gouging was pure evil.
I think a problem with the example is that it is set in a state of anarchy, where as in the real world government intervention destroys competition which creates opportunities to price gouge without supply going down or demand increasing.
 
FWIW, There was a tanker incident up here a few weeks ago too.

179_tanker.jpg
 
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