Some forecourt stores continue to trade well even when the petrol pumps run dry

David Charman, who runs the 3,000 sq ft Spar forecourt store at West Malling in Kent, said that the pumps being closed has been disruptive, but had also shown that most of his customers came to shop as much as to fill up their fuel tanks.

Charman said: “The petrol station has been closed three times in the last week because of no delivery.

“Apart from shortage of drivers, the difficulty is that people are rushing to fill up, so a delivery that should last two days is only lasting one.

But yesterday was interesting because it was an entire day without fuel and shop sales remained consistent.

“It shows that 80% of our customers come to us purely to shop. Our takings were not down at all.”

Other retailers reported a different experience. Paul Cheema, whose small group of stores includes a forecourt store near Coventry, said that business had been affected.

He said: “The problem is that people stop at the pumps, see there is no petrol and then turn their key and drive off.”

Most retailers expect the delivery problems to continue. Charman said the only solution he saw was for the government to encourage more foreign truck drivers to come to the UK.

Meanwhile Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that refineries had plenty of petrol and that despite supply problems, people should carry on buying fuel as normal.

It is estimated that the UK is short of 100,000 HGV drivers – with both the pandemic and Brexit often blamed.

Several reports have suggested that the government is considering getting soldiers to drive fuel tankers under emergency plans.