‘I daren’t go any distance’: how are people coping with UK fuel shortages?

theguardian.com:

High fuel prices and shortages at the pumps continue to affect motorists, with those in rural areas with poor transport links particularly hard hit.

They come amid a wave of protests by environmental activists blockading fuel distribution terminals. A spokesperson for the UK Petroleum Industry Association sought to minimise the impact of the protests, describing the disruptions as “localised and short-term only”.

Three people speak about how fuel shortages and rising prices at the pumps are affecting them.

Diesel shortages have forced 65-year-old Robin Hunter, who runs a national car delivery service in Lincolnshire, to stop booking jobs for the first time in more than two decades in the business. “I’ve never had to cancel work before because I can’t get hold of [fuel]. I’ve always managed to muddle through,” he says. He doesn’t want to risk booking jobs saying he “doesn’t know when the situation will get better”: he visited five local supermarkets at the weekend trying to get diesel, to no avail.

“It was a bit of a job getting the last tank on Friday,” he says. “I daren’t go any distance – I was meant to go to Bedfordshire. With half a tank I’d get there, but would I get back? Or risk getting stuck in a compromising position on the side of the road? I may have a valuable car on board which you can’t leave unattended.”

The 65-year-old has also noticed the price of diesel increasing. Hunter paid £1.86 per litre for diesel last Friday, when he drove 300 miles moving four cars. “I managed to find fuel at the local garage in the next village to me. I tried supermarkets first because the price is more competitive,” he says, adding that he paid £1.49 at Sainsbury’s last month. “Diesel is used by working people – lorries, vans,