Fuel crisis: Petrol-hungry drivers follow tanker through Northampton... then find it's carrying CEMENT

A bunch of motorists were labelled "absolute morons" by a tanker driver they followed through Northampton because they thought he had a cargo of fuel.

Johnny Anderson revealed he had about 20 cars tailing him all the way to a building site where he delivered 44 tonnes load of MORTAR to build new houses.

One even told the trucker he should have stopped to warn them he wasn’t carrying petrol!

Thursday's (September 30) incident happened as pumps across the county ran dry and garages closed faced with unprecedented demand from drivers fearing a shortage.

Mr Anderson arrived at the David Wilson Homes development at Overstone and saw the line of traffic backed up behind him.

He said: “The man at the front actually said ‘You could have stopped and told us you weren’t a petrol tanker.”

Mr Anderson, from Harworth, Nottinghamshire, told the BBC: “I didn’t notice initially but then on the dual carriageway, I noticed nobody was overtaking me and saw a string of about 20 cars behind me.

“When I eventually turned left into a road that would take me to the site entrance, all these cars turned left with me.”

Three-quarters of a mile later, when he stopped at the site entrance, he heard car horns honking. Thinking something had fallen off his vehicle, he got out and saw the queue of vehicles.

He said: “The man at the front wound down his window and asked me which petrol station I was going to.

“When I said I wasn’t, he asked me ‘Why not?’ and when I said I wasn’t carrying petrol, he actually said ‘You could have stopped and told us you weren’t a petrol tanker.’

“I couldn’t believe it. I just went full McEnroe and said ‘You cannot be serious!’

“Then the bloke behind asked me where the nearest petrol station was. It just beggars belief.”

Mr Anderson, who drives for Weaver Haulage, based in Stoke-on-Trent added: “My cargo isn’t dangerous but if they are following a petrol tanker, their training is to call the police if they think they’re being followed.

“People need to stop and think. Driving a tanker, no matter what the product, is quite a pressurised job, so following them puts extra pressure on drivers already under pressure without having to worry about absolute morons.”

Panic buying set in after BP announced a 'handful' of its stations would be closed as a national shortage of HGV drivers meant some fuel could not be delivered.

Ministers yesterday (October 4) began deploying armed forces personnel to plug gaps in the supply chain.

■ A version of this article originally appeared on NationalWorld.com