Petrol panic - froth or fact?

Now that politicians have entered the fuel strike scare there is a real need to separate their froth from fact.

We called the companies responsible for more than 2,000 forecourts.

• Esso has 900 sites: It reports "increased demand in some areas" and told us "some sites may be temporarily out of one or two types of fuel". We have spoken to one Esso service station (in Wilmslow near Manchester) that was closed today.

• Shell has 800 forecourts and is reporting "business as usual". The firm that operates 480 Total sites says it is "not seeing signs of increased demand".

• I spoke to the RAC who asked their patrols to report back any petrol queues today. They say they have not had a single report of such panic.

Alongside that general message of calm there are some undercurrents.

I spoke to Brian Madderson of the Retail Motor Industry Federation he says sales of petrol were up 45% on a normal Tuesday yesterday, and sales of diesel up 20%.

He polled thousands of independent forecourts.

This indicates that savvy drivers don't hang on every word of jerry can wielding politicians, what they tend to do is perhaps fully fill their vehicle whereas they may normally only partially fill up.

Business drivers are often the first to stock up at even the earliest sign of trouble. In part this is because in the old days firms would often have their own stock.

Now, as a cost-saving they do not.

The AA tells me that the average driver fills up once a fortnight - so even if it comes to a strike most people would find that "easily manageable".

We are now at a trigger point - where a panic could be pointlessly created by the political froth or by pictures of very isolated shortages.

We cant rely on the politicians, unions or newspapers being sensible in this tricky time so let's place our faith in the average motorist to have more sense than all of them.