Boris Johnson has said the crisis at the petrol pumps is "stabilising" and urged Brits to "go about your business" as normal.
The Prime Minister admitted it was "frustrating and infuriating" for families but the situation was "starting to improve".
Motorists have been beset by chaos as petrol stations across the country faced shortages due to a lack of lorry drivers to get fuel to the pumps.
The Government was forced to put troops on standby to drive petrol tankers as ministers scrambled to get to grips with the crisis.
Earlier, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps resorted to pleading with drivers to stop bringing "water bottles" to petrol stations.
Mr Johnson told reporters: "I want to say, first of all, how much I sympathise with people who've been worried about their journeys, worried about whether they'll be able to use their cars in the normal way, to see their loved ones or whatever it is, and I know how frustrating, infuriating it must have been to worry about shortage of petrol or fuel.
"We now are starting to see the situation improve; we're hearing from (the) industry that supplies are coming back on to the forecourt in the normal way.
"I would really just urge everybody to go about their business in the normal way and fill up in the normal way when you need it.
"What we want to do is to make sure we have all the preparations needed to get through to Christmas and beyond, not just in supply for petrol stations but all parts of the supply chain."
The PM tried to claim that shortages of drivers had been inflated and said there had been a surge in demand due to a "slightly misleading" account of the shortfall.
He said: "The actual number of lorry drivers that we're short in that particular sector isn't very big. But generally there is a shortage in that profession around the world.
"And what we want to see is an emphasis on high wage, a high-skill, a high-productivity approach to our economy.
"What I don't think people in this country want to do is fix all our problems with uncontrolled immigration. Again, we tried that for a long time - 20 years or so, perhaps longer.
"And in the end, people could see that it was leading to a low-wage, low-skill approach without enough investment in people or in equipment, in capital. And that's not the way we want the UK to develop and grow."
But Keir Starmer accused the Government of reducing the country to "chaos" and said hauliers were "beyond frustrated" by the lack of a clear plan.
He demanded priority access for key workers to ensure they can get to their jobs as filling stations ran dry.
But the PM rejected the calls, saying special rules were not needed.
