MOTORISTS in Newbury are being warned that petrol station fuel supplies may run out this afternoon (Friday).
Petrol stations in West Berkshire have reported panic buying and slumping fuel supplies after tanker drivers for petrol company Shell started a four-day strike.
The strike – which is over pay - began this morning and is affecting 14 Shell depots across the UK.
Reports suggest that tanker drivers who are not employed by the two firms were also refusing to cross picket lines into the fuel depots.
Sales assistant, Augustine Medickl, who works for the Shell Tothill Services on the A34 Newbury Bypass in Burghclere, said they expected to run out of fuel by 5pm this evening as they only had about 10,000 litres of petrol left in stock and they had not heard if there was any more coming from the depots.
The manager of petrol station Snax 24 on Bath Road, Woolhampton, Andran Siva, said his station would run out of fuel this afternoon.
He said: “Everybody is panic buying, we’re really busy because of the fuel strike, we’re seeing new customers.
“We’ve already run out of unleaded but we still have some diesel.”
He said they expected to get 30,000 litres of unleaded and 10,000 litres of diesel delivered tonight but it was not guaranteed.
“If that comes through we’ll be open tomorrow but if it doesn’t, only the shop will open. We are expecting another tanker on Monday but at the last moment they can cancel it,” said Mr Siva.
However, sales assistant, Kirsty Brown, for the Chieveley Motor Company on Long Lane, Newbury, reported that they had not seen any panic buying at the petrol station and they had enough fuel in stock.
The emergency services will not be affected by the strike.
Talks over drivers’ pay between the union, Unite, and Shell’s contracted fuel distributors, Hoyer UK Ltd and Suckling Transport Ltd, broke down yesterday.
Unite, who represent 641 tankers drivers across the two companies, wants a 13.2% pay increase.
The union said that Shell tanker drivers today earn a basic wage of just under £32,000 per year for a 48-hour working week while in 1992, a typical tanker driver directly employed by Shell earned approximately the same salary for a 37-hour week.
Shell said it would not intervene in the dispute as the pay row was between two of its suppliers and their workers, and it did not involve Shell staff.
Unite assistant general secretary Len McCluskey said: "Shell's failure to intervene in this dispute means that Shell's drivers have no alternative other than to go ahead with strike action.”
The union rejected a pay offer of overall value of 6.8 per cent, increasing drivers’ average earnings by £2500, according to Hoyer UK Ltd.