Fuel tanker strike: Scotland’s experience with protests over price and pensions will help

During September of that year, hauliers used rolling blockades in an attempt to force the government to cut fuel taxes.

The action followed growing anger at the high level of fuel tax, which many freight firms said was damaging their businesses.

During their height, the protests led to petrol rationing at forecourts across much of the country. Protesters then gave the government a 60-day deadline to to cut fuel tax or face further action.

That led to convoys of lorries and tractors converging on cities, including Edinburgh and London, after Tony Blair’s government failed to meet the deadline.

Among the largest protests was one in the Scottish capital, which saw 150 vehicles from as far away as John o’ Groats converge on Princes Street.

The government had sought to head off criticism by announcing details of new rebates, but it failed to stop the protests.

Ultimately the government held firm, and the protests ended, although there was a threat of a repeat during 2001.

It later emerged that the September protests had cost the British economy an estimated £1 billion, as customers stayed away from shops across the country.

While the protest led to filling stations running dry, retailers suffered, as shoppers stayed away during the height of the crisis in the second week of September.

The London Chambers of Commerce and the Institute of Directors said that by the time fuel supplies returned to normal, the economy had lost the equivalent of £40 per household.

In 2008, motorists again laid siege to Scotland’s forecourts, stockpiling against a feared fuel shortage, after the country’s only oil refinery shut down in the face of strike action.

With analysts and government officials warning against panic, motorists queued from 5am at the pumps after pension negotiations between unions and management at the Grangemouth refinery broke down.

Luke Bodset, a spokesman for the Automobile Association, said that Scotland’s more recent experience of disruption after the shut-down of the Grangemouth plant meant that the country was better placed to deal with shortages this time around.

He said: “Scotland is a little more experienced than most parts of the UK in dealing with shortages.

“Predicting how long supplies will last depends on the nature of the strike, though, and whether it is a series of one- or two-day strikes, or whether it is a longer period of action.

“As long as drivers stick within their normal patterns of filling up, it should not be a problem.

“I don’t like to use the term ‘panic buying’ because some people feel like they are doing it out of necessity.

“But when normal fuel buying patterns are disrupted, that’s when you start running into problems.”