A14 J33 sports to avoid

[David Williams]

1: Queueing to buy fuel at the Milton Tesco filling station

The Milton exit had a queue that reached back three cars onto
the roundabout when I drove into Cambridge earlier this
afternoon and was two cars short of the roundabout when I made
my return journey just now.

Worth avoiding, as is the inbound side of Elizabeth Way (past the
filling station). You'll find the Tesco store is pretty empty, by
several accounts - but arrive by foot or cycle.

Bit topical, eh? (And a short post by my standards.)

--
David

[tony sayer]

In article <87k0j6k...@yahoo.co.uk>, David Williams
<davi...@yahoo.co.uk> scribeth thus

They'll be buying bog rolls by the crate whilst there justin case;!...
--
Tony Sayer


Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.

Give him a keyboard, and he will reveal himself.

[Alan]

On Fri, 24 Sep 2021 16:42:19 +0100, David Williams <davi...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

And with the media ans social media reporting all the queues and closures,
it'll get even more stupid for a few days I suppose....

--
Alan

Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

[David Williams]

One piece of advice - don't drive past/near a (open) filling
station unless you need fuel.

I avoided all but one on a trip yesterday evening and spent ten
minutes in a queue so long that I thought at first that there
were roadworks or an accident. (This was after I passed the J33
roundabout again, with the queue stretching back onto the
A10. There were three traffic management vans at the roundabout
but I have no idea if that was connected or not.)

Reports are that Tesco Milton is out of diesel this morning.
Sainsbury's at Coldhams Lane had cones out by 10pm last night, so
was either totally out or rationing what it had left.

<double sigh>

--
David

[Roland Perry]

In message <87fsttk...@yahoo.co.uk>, at 10:21:16 on Sat, 25 Sep
2021, David Williams <davi...@yahoo.co.uk> remarked:

>Reports are that Tesco Milton is out of diesel this morning.

Tesco Ely was out of diesel by yesterday afternoon.
--
Roland Perry

[David Williams]

It's not a competition, Roland. ;-)

--
David

[Tim Ward]

On 25/09/2021 10:21, David Williams wrote:
>
> or rationing what it had left.
>
> <double sigh>

And they're doing the rationing wrong *again*, having apparently learned
nothing from last time.

The way to reduce the queues is to get rid of the people who drive from
petrol station to petrol station topping up the few ml that they have
burned getting from one to the other.

The way to do that is to ration people to a MINIMUM spend (of, say, £50)
not a MAXIMUM, so that only people who've actually got some space in
their tanks join the queue.

(Yeah yeah, edge cases, like the C90 which can only hold 0.9 gallons,
but they can be sorted.)


--
Tim Ward - 07801 703 600
www.brettward.co.uk

[Roland Perry]

In message <877df5k...@yahoo.co.uk>, at 11:13:57 on Sat, 25 Sep

2021, David Williams <davi...@yahoo.co.uk> remarked:
>Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk> writes:
>
>> In message <87fsttk...@yahoo.co.uk>, at 10:21:16 on Sat, 25 Sep
>> 2021, David Williams <davi...@yahoo.co.uk> remarked:
>>
>>>Reports are that Tesco Milton is out of diesel this morning.
>>
>> Tesco Ely was out of diesel by yesterday afternoon.
>
>It's not a competition, Roland. ;-)

I know, but it's "news" after a fashion.

Anyway, now reported to be out of petrol too, and closed until the next
delivery (maybe this afternoon). Were rationing to £30 per vehicle.
--
Roland Perry

[Roland Perry]

In message <simtg7$7ds$1...@dont-email.me>, at 11:26:17 on Sat, 25 Sep
2021, Tim Ward <t...@brettward.co.uk> remarked:

Quick fix: ration to people with less than half a tank. There's three or
four people marshalling the queues at Tesco Ely, and they could easily
eyeball the fuel gauges.
--
Roland Perry

[Tim Ward]

No fuel gauge on a C90!!! - there are probably other motorbikes which
manage fuel by "when the engine stops, move the tap to the reserve
position, then go and buy some".

I could flip the tap without looking and without noticeably slowing
down. The booby trap, of course, is leaving the tap in the reserve
position when the tank is full ... that way when the engine stops you've
*really* got no fuel left.

[Ken]

On Sat, 25 Sep 2021 11:39:38 +0100, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk>
wrote:

Yes, better than Tim's plan. I wouldn't want to insist that a care
worker with an empty tank has to find £50.

Come to think of it £50 is too high anyway. I've only ever managed to
pay a petrol station over £50 when filling my car by also buying Wine
Gums or Maltesers alongside the fuel.

[Alan]

It should all be moot now any way, Tesco and Sainsbury both have petrol in
Ely, with no queues this morning. So if the media play ball, it should
blow over real soon.

(Neither have diesel, but we all know that's bad for the environment these
days :-) )

[Roland Perry]

In message <op.1adiy2ewl776by@alan>, at 11:19:40 on Mon, 27 Sep 2021,
Alan <eternal....@ourmailbox.org.uk> remarked:

I saw several filing stations over the weekend that had no queues, but
no diesel. I'm not sure why the diesel sold out so much quicker than
petrol.

>(Neither have diesel, but we all know that's bad for the environment
>these days :-) )

If we want to fuel "essential" vehicles, then they are more likely than
not to run on diesel.
--
Roland Perry

[Alan]

On Mon, 27 Sep 2021 11:33:47 +0100, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk>
wrote:

>

> I saw several filing stations over the weekend that had no queues, but
> no diesel. I'm not sure why the diesel sold out so much quicker than
> petrol.

Could it be down to E5 and E10? Most pumps seem to have one of each of
those, and one diesel. So if the tanks are equal, twice as much petrol as
diesel. (Assuming like my car, it will take E5 or E10, all be it at a
price premium)

[Theo]

Alan <eternal....@ourmailbox.org.uk> wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Sep 2021 11:33:47 +0100, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > I saw several filing stations over the weekend that had no queues, but
> > no diesel. I'm not sure why the diesel sold out so much quicker than
> > petrol.
>
> Could it be down to E5 and E10? Most pumps seem to have one of each of
> those, and one diesel. So if the tanks are equal, twice as much petrol as
> diesel. (Assuming like my car, it will take E5 or E10, all be it at a
> price premium)

Also commercial vehicles (vans etc) are mainly diesel, and they do more
miles (used for business purposes) at a lower mpg, so the demand is likely
higher. They also have larger tanks so it takes fewer of them to run a pump
dry, assuming the underground tanks are the same size.

That's an interesting question: how do forecourts size their tanks?
Presumably some have tanks dating from decades ago (eg four star days) and
maybe they aren't sized for modern demand.

Theo

[Roland Perry]

In message <op.1adng5dvl776by@alan>, at 12:56:55 on Mon, 27 Sep 2021,
Alan <eternal....@ourmailbox.org.uk> remarked:

>On Mon, 27 Sep 2021 11:33:47 +0100, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk>
>wrote:
>
>>
>> I saw several filing stations over the weekend that had no queues,
>>but no diesel. I'm not sure why the diesel sold out so much quicker
>>than petrol.
>
>Could it be down to E5 and E10? Most pumps seem to have one of each of
>those, and one diesel. So if the tanks are equal, twice as much petrol
>as diesel. (Assuming like my car, it will take E5 or E10, all be it
>at a price premium)

Why would the tanks be equal sizes. They aren't inside the pumps
themselves (which several Facebook bloggers appear to think).
--
Roland Perry

[Alan]

On Mon, 27 Sep 2021 13:34:15 +0100, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk>

wrote:

> In message <op.1adng5dvl776by@alan>, at 12:56:55 on Mon, 27 Sep 2021,
> Alan <eternal....@ourmailbox.org.uk> remarked:
>> On Mon, 27 Sep 2021 11:33:47 +0100, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I saw several filing stations over the weekend that had no queues,
>>> but no diesel. I'm not sure why the diesel sold out so much quicker
>>> than petrol.
>>
>> Could it be down to E5 and E10? Most pumps seem to have one of each of
>> those, and one diesel. So if the tanks are equal, twice as much petrol
>> as diesel. (Assuming like my car, it will take E5 or E10, all be it
>> at a price premium)
>
> Why would the tanks be equal sizes. They aren't inside the pumps
> themselves (which several Facebook bloggers appear to think).

As they change their use over time, I could quite imagine they might be
equal sizes. They would just have a different filling pattern depending
what is in them.

But I don't have any evidence either way to be honest. I did say "if" the
tanks are of equal size. I'm happy to concede to your knowledge.

[Roland Perry]

In message <op.1adw73pel776by@alan>, at 16:27:29 on Mon, 27 Sep 2021,

Alan <eternal....@ourmailbox.org.uk> remarked:
>On Mon, 27 Sep 2021 13:34:15 +0100, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk>
>wrote:
>
>> In message <op.1adng5dvl776by@alan>, at 12:56:55 on Mon, 27 Sep 2021,
>>Alan <eternal....@ourmailbox.org.uk> remarked:
>>> On Mon, 27 Sep 2021 11:33:47 +0100, Roland Perry
>>><rol...@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> I saw several filing stations over the weekend that had no queues,
>>>>but no diesel. I'm not sure why the diesel sold out so much
>>>>quicker than petrol.
>>>
>>> Could it be down to E5 and E10? Most pumps seem to have one of each
>>>of those, and one diesel. So if the tanks are equal, twice as much
>>>petrol as diesel. (Assuming like my car, it will take E5 or E10,
>>>all be it at a price premium)
>>
>> Why would the tanks be equal sizes. They aren't inside the pumps
>>themselves (which several Facebook bloggers appear to think).
>
>As they change their use over time, I could quite imagine they might be
>equal sizes. They would just have a different filling pattern
>depending what is in them.
>
>But I don't have any evidence either way to be honest. I did say "if"
>the tanks are of equal size. I'm happy to concede to your knowledge.

If you look at a typical filling station, there's only one set of pipes
the tankers connect to, in order to unload. That means the model of "one
tank per pump" is simply a misunderstanding.

Here's the unloading bay at Tesco, Ely:
<https://goo.gl/maps/y2Pchj262ywzCNRZ7> which has six pipes, and with
three flavours at each pump suggests they have two sets of tanks, for
servicing the six double-sided pumps. That's perhaps how sometimes one
pump will have run out, while another still has supply.
--
Roland Perry