LONDON — British drivers have been panic buying gasoline in recent days, leading to lengthy lines, gas station closures and concerns that doctors and teachers won’t be able to get to work. 

While ministers from the UK government have repeatedly insisted there are no fuel shortages, the lines to reach gas stations have been long since the beginning of last week.

According to the RAC, unleaded fuel prices have soared by a penny over the past week due to this surge in demand. Meanwhile, U.K. retailer Halfords said the sale of jerry cans — which many motorists use to store gasoline — increased by 1,656% over the weekend.

Oil giant BP and Exxon Mobil‘s Esso confirmed Friday that they had temporarily closed a handful of their U.K. gas stations due to an industry-wide driver shortage which had impacted their supply chains. After days of gas stockpiling, the problem became more prevalent this week. Some gas station owners reported on Monday that 95% of their locations were still dry according to U.K. Petrol Retailers Association.

Sky News was told Tuesday by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps that there were “the first very tentative signs” of stabilization at forecourt storage. However, he admitted this wouldn’t be evident in long lines for gasoline.

She explained that they keep hearing of it and don’t have a clear solution. If you think toilet paper and Covid at the beginning of the pandemic, that was the same thing. There was no solution [being offered]. There was no solution. People felt they had to do something. Even if this isn’t rational, it makes us feel that unless we act, everything will go wrong. People will buy stuff even if they don’t have to.

In recent days the government announced measures to minimize supply shortages. These included temporary visas that allow truck drivers to enter and suspending fuel competition laws. The three-month visas were criticized for not being sufficient to attract foreign drivers. However, ministers and fuel suppliers insist that the problem does not stem from the refining or supply of gasoline.

Jansson-Boyd said that although the government has stated, “Don’t panic, there are no shortages,” he did not believe people were hearing any solution. The best thing for people to do is calm down. They need structures designed that they can rely on. This is only increasing anxiety and people will continue to panic buy.

CNBC also heard Tuesday from Dominik Piehlmaier (a University of Sussex Business School lecturer in Marketing). He said that panic buying is a common behavior. People will go to gas stations, wait hours, and then buy fuel because they fear for their lives.

Piehlmaier conducted an experiment to determine what could cause panic buying. He found that showing images of empty shelves on supermarket shelves would suffice to increase anxiety levels and make people feel more dangerous.

In a telephone conversation, he explained that “Seeing is believing” and people react to these images. It depends on whether they’ve been in similar situations where they felt weak and powerless or vulnerable. People feel the need to find a gasoline station open for customers in a crisis situation. In this way, government officials can speak whatever they like, as long as images are available.

Piehlmaier stated that pictures in the media and social media sites were more effective at triggering the reaction of the public than the politicians telling them. This was because the people who saw the images first-hand were more likely then what the politicians had to say.