The UK government is beset with potential bear traps for the coming winter. Energy prices are escalating sharply with smaller companies in danger of going out of business, one after the after.

As the days get shorter and the country tries to put the pandemic behind it, there are growing concerns about public resilience against a combination of flu and COVID-19.

And now, lines of cars are blocking petrol forecourts as worried drivers ignore government pleas not to panic-buy fuel for their vehicles.

There's plenty of fuel, say ministers, just a shortage of drivers for the tankers.

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"There is no shortage of petrol, plenty of petrol in both our refineries and in storage," says Environment Minister George Eustice. "The only reason we don't have [it on] petrol forecourts is that people are buying petrol when they don't need it."

That may be so, but as the lines grow longer, public anxiety is growing as well. There are reports now that nearly two-thirds of the UK's 8,000 petrol stations are dry and that forecourt closures in Britain's cities are up to 90 percent.

A Petrol Retailers Association spokesperson said that stations can't restock fast enough, and that one station was refilled at midday and then emptied by the end of the same afternoon. 

The government has pulled one lever by temporarily exempting the oil industry from the Competition Act 1998, designed to prevent companies creating monopolies. The fuel companies will for now be able to tackle the current logistics dilemma together, even filling each other's stations if necessary.

There's also the possibility of deploying soldiers to drive the trucks, but that will require extensive retraining. There is also talk of temporary visas for the thousands of European drivers who left the country after Brexit became law.

Nearly a million letters have been sent out to drivers holding a Heavy Goods Vehicle license, hoping to lure them back to the industry, and there are plans to train 4,000 new HGV drivers. 

But all this takes time. Industry leaders say the pandemic has disrupted driver training programs and Brexit has removed the safety net of European drivers.

There are also concerns that the same issue will soon start to affect the food and retail sectors. The government may find itself having to relax the competition laws for supermarkets as well as allowing them to collaborate on stock levels and deliveries to keep the shops filled as the Christmas season approaches.

Publicly, the government is still optimistic that these are glitches that will pass. But privately, some MPs are starting to express real concerns about the coming winter and how the country is going to react to a combination of fuel shortages, energy price rises and empty supermarket shelves.