Re: The Great Fuel Crisis of 2012 : Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:00 pm  

This whole situation is nothing but a joke. I can't understand the mentality of the people who are panic buying when as I understand it, any strike action would be after 7 days notice.

A BP garage near me is now charging 1.49 a litre, He has always charged considerably more than the 2 petrol stations within half a mile of him anyway (which earlier today where charging 1.35/1.37) yet people are so stupid that they let themselves get ripped off by him, and today he will be rubbing his hands together. But who can blame him if people are still stupid enough to go there... they deserve to be fleeced.

There's also just been a fight at my local asda after people queued for an hour waiting for a tanker to turn up, only for people to ignore the £20 per customer limit which has ended up with people brawling and police having to turn up, what is wrong with these people??

If people had just stuck to their usual buying patterns until any strike action had been announced everyone would be able to get what they need. Now we are left with this mess. Can't wait to wake up in the morning and see how many cars in my street have had their fuel lines cut......

Re: The Great Fuel Crisis of 2012 : Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:01 pm  

rover49 wrote:

I think the numbers will be insignificant compared to a full quarters GDP

If all the car drivers top up, all the pie eaters top up and all the senders of letters top up who knows.

Re: The Great Fuel Crisis of 2012 : Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:28 pm  

Cronus wrote:

I have to make a lengthy journey tomorrow for work and I'm running just above empty right now. I refuse to join the morons currently embarrassing themselves by queueing for hours so I'll probably go out at about 10pm tonight and fill up.

Well, just got back from a trip to Tesco for tomorrow's journey, oh and for some First Defence (feeling a bit sniffly tha knows), and also ended up with some nice reduced ham & prawns. Plus the petrol goes on my Clubcard. But I digress.

As I went onto the little retail park there must have been 7-8 cars couldn't get into the petrol station, with 12 filling up and around 8 waiting on the forecourt. I thought, sod it I'll go to a different one nearby. Luckily when I came out of the store the queue had gone down and there were 2 free pumps so in I went. Look around after paying and the queue was out of the forecourt again.

Really, people? Fecking really?

[DaveO]

Re: The Great Fuel Crisis of 2012 : Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:24 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

Can someone tell me how the tax rates for the 'rich' or the cost of rent in London have got to do with this? This isn't about the budget, or any other aspect of Government, it's about the drivers and their pathetic union not being willing to compromise on a fair deal offered to them.

What it has got to do with the tax rate for the rich is very simple. One reason that has been lowered, so we are told, is in order to entice the rich to stay here. They are vital to our economy apparently and we must not scare them off.

Well clearly the tanker drivers are also vital to the economy but unlike the rich who get the carrot of a tax break they are facing the stick of worse terms and conditions including the increasing casualisation of their employment.

So the rich get a carrot of a tax break and the workers a stick? And you do not get why people link the two?

Re: The Great Fuel Crisis of 2012 : Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:00 am  

Mintball wrote:

But not if you already have a vast income – and not if you're a domestic landlord in London, eh?

So in your world, the cost of living is rising hugely – but people should "accept that the economic climate has changed".

And what? Be unable to afford that rent? Have to choose between rent or food?

Have no disposable income – which would be so sensible, given how much of the economy is actually dependant on people having exactly that in order to survive, never mind actually grow.

So how is our service-based economy going to grow, in your mind and given your understanding of the 'changed economic climate'?

Landlords can only up the rent if someone is prepared to pay it? that is the economic reality?

Perhaps the reality is we have had it too good for too long and things are just returning to the status quo?

There are host of ways our "mixed economy" can grow - its a myth that we don't manufacture things in this country - you look in any sizeable town/city and you find a host of small companies making things.

Re: The Great Fuel Crisis of 2012 : Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:09 am  

McLaren_Field wrote:

You don't seem to have noticed Cod'ead's response to your earlier rant - this dispute isn't about pay bargaining, as far as I know they aren't asking for any more money at all and there is no "deal" as you intimated earlier, its about H&S and increasing pressures on drivers to fit more and more work into the same number of hours.

Thats the thing with HGV drivers, there is a clearly defined limit to the hours that they can drive, so assuming that an employer is flogging them to the limit each day there is only one other way to make them produce more - make more deliveries, and there is only one way to make more deliveries - be faster at the point of delivery or drive faster to get there.

Now think about how you would achieve that when you're driving a truck full of petrol.

Thats what the dispute is about.

In correct IMO - improved processes will gain efficiency - if someone developed a faster way of getting the petrol out of the tanker into the well at the station, improved route planning, perhaps delivering through the night so the drivers don't spend much of their time in gridlocked cities etc. No one should have to break the law to do their job but to suggest the current methodology cannot be improved is preposterous. I bet if you any of the formula 1 teams the tasks of improving the process it would be vastly different to what it is now.

Also have Unite the barmiest union around involved will hinder this no end.

Re: The Great Fuel Crisis of 2012 : Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:44 am  

Sal Paradise wrote:

In correct IMO - improved processes will gain efficiency - if someone developed a faster way of getting the petrol out of the tanker into the well at the station, improved route planning, perhaps delivering through the night so the drivers don't spend much of their time in gridlocked cities etc. No one should have to break the law to do their job but to suggest the current methodology cannot be improved is preposterous. I bet if you any of the formula 1 teams the tasks of improving the process it would be vastly different to what it is now.

Also have Unite the barmiest union around involved will hinder this no end.

Stick to paper, logistics, especially the distribution of hazardous fluids, is certainly beyond your grasp

Re: The Great Fuel Crisis of 2012 : Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:07 am  

Sal Paradise wrote:

In correct IMO - improved processes will gain efficiency - if someone developed a faster way of getting the petrol out of the tanker into the well at the station, improved route planning, perhaps delivering through the night so the drivers don't spend much of their time in gridlocked cities etc. No one should have to break the law to do their job but to suggest the current methodology cannot be improved is preposterous. I bet if you any of the formula 1 teams the tasks of improving the process it would be vastly different to what it is now.

Also have Unite the barmiest union around involved will hinder this no end.

Well you could cut out things like having to earth the vehicle properly before you start the delivery, that would save five minutes at least.

The current methodology has been developed over a period of time purely with safety in mind and is now being undermined with profits in mind, some of us are not surprised.

Re: The Great Fuel Crisis of 2012 : Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:08 am  

Robbo wrote:

This whole situation is nothing but a joke. I can't understand the mentality of the people who are panic buying ...

Those people are not panic buying.

They are following Government Minister guidelines.

Re: The Great Fuel Crisis of 2012 : Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:12 am  

DaveO wrote:

What it has got to do with the tax rate for the rich is very simple. One reason that has been lowered, so we are told, is in order to entice the rich to stay here. They are vital to our economy apparently and we must not scare them off.

Well clearly the tanker drivers are also vital to the economy but unlike the rich who get the carrot of a tax break they are facing the stick of worse terms and conditions including the increasing casualisation of their employment.

So the rich get a carrot of a tax break and the workers a stick? And you do not get why people link the two?

A lowering of the tax rate for the highest earners (Who STILL pay SIGNIFICANTLY more of their income in taxes than everyone else) is a GOVERNMENT move. These workers having changes made to their employment conditions is a move by a PRIVATE COMPANY.

So anyone linking the two is either stupid or very bitter about the current political situation.