Fuel Situation Dampening Enthusiasm

[+daleswalker]

 

Finished work last night, sun was out, mood was high, perfect for a couple of quick cache and dashes....Boots on, swapsies packed and into the car...Better put a few litres of go-go juice in the jalopi, so it's off down to the local supermarket forecourt. 40 minutes later and my will to live is sapped. I know I could have gone to seek a quieter outlet but my fuel was quite low and once I'm in a queue I'm always loathed to give up my place. Needless to say I didn't get any cacheing done but at least I have fuel now so tonight I won't be thwarted. (Unless the truck drivers are blockading the roads!!!)

[Nediam]

I filled up yesterday lunchtime but was lucky enough not to have to queue at all.

 

Current waiting time at the same garage is now 25mins+

 

Looks like caching might be quiet this weekend.....

[+Munkeh]

Think I'm going to go to the refinery round the corner tomorrow and protest against the protesters

 

its this bunch of protesters that started it all the last time, even organising a jarrow march type crusade and that was an insult to the marchers, the marchers pursued their march in the 1936 due to people starving in the town and the high unemployment, not just moaning because they don't like the price of a comodity

[markandlynn]

I am sure this will be of interest

Current commercial price of diesel (to a large haulage company with its own underground tanks) has just crept over the 80p per litre mark.

[+Haggis Hunter]

If you look at other countries within the world, you will realise that our fuel costs in some cases are twice as high.

 

Yes, the blockade is going to stop me from caching.

Yes, it may stop my wife from getting to work, which means less income next month.

Yes, it will mean we will have to walk to get our shopping.

Yes, I know I will be lucky if there is food in the shops to buy, once I have walked there.

 

NO!!! I am dadgum* well sure I am not happy about paying £1 a litre for fuel, which also has an effect on the price of my weekly shopping, as I won't have as much money to spare, but the costs have gone up to cover the price of fuel for haulage. There are numerous other examples of fuel being raised that will effect us dramatically, but the Good Ole British way is to sit back and say,

 

"Nothing we can do about it, if we want to just get on with life??"

 

So I am for the truckers doing something, despite the hardships it will entail.

This country is bled dry by taxes, something in the region of 50% of your earnings go back to the tax man one way or the other.

 

Let's support these people who are losing money from day one, to make our life better.

 

*Why is the word D A M N americanised?

[+HazelS]

I agree with HH...

 

However, I think that the other things we should be looking at is to boycott certain petrol stations who DO (whtever the Monopolies commission say) price fix the petrol...

 

My sister is on the management team at our local Sainsburys, and they set their fuel prices in line with local competition. So - you can go to one sainsburys and pay one price, and go to another, and pay a different price.

 

The hillarious (and bizzare) thing is that I drive past Stanlow every morning to go to work, and the price of fuel at the Shell station outside the gates of the Shell refinery is, on average, 5p per liter more expensive than the Shell petrol station 100 miles further north where my sister in law lives.

 

Don't get me started on petrol costs.... with working and caching our costs have soared, and I'm fully supporting the protester, but also thkning about where I get my petrol!!

[+daleswalker]

Don't get me wrong, I support the protesters, especially those in the transport industry, I was just canvassing opinion!... I might delay tonights cacheing, theres no saying how long this might go on for, best save the fuel.

Edited September 13, 2005 by daleswalker

[+Rebel Alliance]

Just had to queue for half an hour in Sheffield.

A large number fo fuel stations have 'run out' already

 

So our trip to the west midlands this weekend is off.

 

I do agree with the protests, but if the Government reduces fuel duty it will make up the funds from elsewhere! As a nation we do rely on fossil fuel to much, so this is perhaps a good thing

[lakeuk]

I'm frustrated with the media, watched GMTV this morning when the were interviewing a spokesman for the protesters who said they were not going to stop any tankers going about there business - they will just be there doing a peaceful protest. A rep for the petrol association was also interviewed who said there's no need to panick buy and theres enough petrol available if people do there normal thing. But in later reports and the main news GMTV carried on with the line that petrol stations are running out and people have been queuing up for petrol and the protest is going to be a major thing.

 

Went to the local asda this morning 7:30 to fill up as normal to be greeted with the usual couple of commuters filling up plus 20 vehicles with parents and kids queuing up for petrol. There's just no need

 

My petrol will last me till Thursday, if I can't get any on Friday as normal then I just stay at home.

[+Learned Gerbil]

I commute to work on a vehicle that has a 7 litre tank. Knowing I was down to my last litre and a half, which would last me less then two days, I tried to get some fuel thiss morning. On the way to work in to Central London (10 miles) I found only one petrol station selling unleaded at 7.30am, and they were about to sell out. This is before any disruption! To behonest, I am looking forward to a fuel blockade. Last time, with the streets of London free of cars and lorries, it was a much nicer place.

[+jochta]

Beat the queues

 

http://www.petroldirect.com/

[+mongoose39uk]

Nice one

[+Mr Nibbler]

Excellent website - but now I have tea on my keyboard

[+bobuk]

Well that put a on my face.....

 

 

B.

[+bobuk]

wooops sorry

Edited September 13, 2005 by bobuk

[+third-degree-witch]

No queues here in herts...Time tax was slashed by at least a £1 a gallon in fuel,thieving bas*ta*ds the goverment are.

[+kbootb]

I'm sure the garages here are creating queues. I have had to drive up and down the same 5 mile stretch of road 6 times today (don't ask, it's just the way the appointments worked out)

 

Some had only one pump working, but when I came past another time it was a different one pump working.

 

Another had coned off the entrance. Someone I know pulled up to ask when the next delivery was going to be and was told 45 minutes. He decided to wait as the queues at other garages were at least that long. 5 more cars joined behind him in a few minutes, assuming he knew something. COnes were lifted and in they went. He waited about 5 mins - what happened to the 45 min wait? Half an hour later it was coned off again. Next time I went past it was opened again but with about 20 cars in the queue.

 

What is going on?

[markandlynn]

Simple profiteering.

Our local petrol station put its prices up 8p in a day.

Strangely it's supplied by the same supplier as us The price we pay has gone up 1p per litre in the last week

[Helen in Mustardland]

Some eejits out there are SO not helping. I had an empty tank at lunchtime and queued up, turned out to be the second car behind a camper van. The camper driver took an absolute AGE to fill up - "well it's a big tank" I supposed.... then sauntered to the kiosk (too numbskulled to use the Pay at Pump, evidently), and sauntered back again. When he finally stopped arsing around and left, I pulled up to the pump ...... and saw that he'd put in the grand total of EIGHT LITRES of fuel.

 

EIGHT LITRES?!?!?!? Enough to get his camper van roughly to the end of the road!!! Who behaves like that when there's a queue halfway round the block????

 

Incensed of Essex.

 

[+jochta]

Simple profiteering.

Our local petrol station put its prices up 8p in a day.

Strangely it's supplied by the same supplier as us The price we pay has gone up 1p per litre in the last week

Our local supermarket had put up a sandwich board with "last few litres" on it. If that isn't driving demand and profiteering I don't know what is.

 

This is a self-fulfilling protest. Threaten action but do nothing but watch the dumb motorists create their own chaos.

[Lactodorum]

*Why is the word D A M N americanised?

Because there is an automatic filter used on Groundspeak's forums to remove words deemed to be offensive. Strangely, Americans seem to find the word "D.A.M.N" offensive enough to censor

[Rozey Bear]

I think its quite funny how theres so much chaos - I'd rather wait til the crisis is over than get any petrol, filled up on Sunday @93.9p a litre! well hacked me off.

[+Sue and Bernie]

Dear Old Labour!

 

I wondered how long it would take for their ingrained tax-and-spend philosophy to break through. It did take a long time but now it's here with a vengeance.

 

Do you remember when Golden Brown got caught using two different inflation indicies, a low one to work out an increase in pensions, a higher one for raising more tax from the rest of us.

 

...and now they've jailed an ex-Vicar! He wouldn't pay more tax than the percentage rise in his pension. What a government! They really want to balance their books by taking food from the mouths of pensioners.

 

...and then some prat pays £70,000 for a rock to put in a hospital foyer!

 

With regard to the fuel tax, Golden Brown is no doubt delighting in the extra tax he will reap across the board...

 

Let's emigrate!

[+Stuey]

I wish people would stop panic buying. I've been out caching today, did about 150 miles, down to just under half a tank left. That'll get me another 300 miles. I drove past stations with queues, some with no queues, some were closed. There is no way I'm contributing to the shortage by buying diesel when I don't need it yet.

[SlytherinAlex]

Another had coned off the entrance. Someone I know pulled up to ask when the next delivery was going to be and was told 45 minutes. He decided to wait as the queues at other garages were at least that long. 5 more cars joined behind him in a few minutes, assuming he knew something. COnes were lifted and in they went. He waited about 5 mins - what happened to the 45 min wait? Half an hour later it was coned off again. Next time I went past it was opened again but with about 20 cars in the queue.

 

What is going on?

They needed the time to put the prices up.

[+Wadders]

I better not mention that my 4x4 runs on LPG that cost about 38p a litre then

I support the protests though, put some pressure on this goverment.

 

cost me £1200 to convert..................................worth evry penny

[+Team Maddie UK]

I filled up last week so am set for at least another 2 weeks. But I drove by one petrol station today and it did have a queue but not that bad. However 2 hours later on my way back the prices had gone up 2 p a litre and there were no queues at all. Station 5 iles away no queues and 5 p a litre cheaper. I think some petrol stations are price gouging again like they did last time.

Haven't been to the supermarkets to see if the shelves are empty like last time though.

 

Lynn

[+davy boy]

Just been to fill up at the local station and the owner was telling me they have sold 45,000 litres since 7.30 this morn and they are nearly out and this is only a small town...........Someone ought to hang opec and this high tax government...................

[+Wadders]

THERES ONLY ONE LPG

THERES ONLY ONE LPG

ONE LPG.......

THERES ONLY ONE LPG

 

Makes a change for me to get something right!!!!!

[+Munkeh]

seems to me that most of the ques are down south

[+Naefearjustbeer]

We have 4 filling stations in our nearest town, when the prices went up unleaded hit 105.9 per litre diesel hit 102.9 3 out of the 4 stations put the price up immediately, the last one waited until its supplies of fuel ran out before they modified the price for the new delivery. I was lucky I manged to fill the car up at 99.9 per litre for diesel at that one before they ran out which they did quite quickly. The others obviously made more money initially as they were selling existing stocks at the hiked prices. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! I hate paying all that tax.

[+Dangermouse 1968]

 

Yep, I'm on LPG as well - and I'm not happy having to pay 36.9 pence per litre in Cambs when I got some from the same supermarket chain at 32.9 in Halifax.

 

Can anyone tell me the way to the protests?

 

Still I spent half the day feeling smug, then the second half of the day realising that no matter what fuel i'm on - i'll still have to que forever!.......... then i remembered the local Vauxhall dealer only sell LPG and Vauxhalls. Might pay him a visit on Sat morning.

Edited September 13, 2005 by Family Miller

[+bobuk]

105.9 per litre diesel hit 102.9

 

I filled up this morning @ 94.9 litre>>> and no waiting

 

 

B.

[+Naefearjustbeer]

105.9 per litre  diesel hit 102.9   

 

I filled up this morning @ 94.9 litre>>> and no waiting

 

 

B.

there isnt a smiley face with tears boo hoo. I supose there has to be one downside of living in Caithness

[+Tupperware Hunters]

lots of nice oppinions but can it be moved to off topic please

[+StrongGale]

I would be more than happy to convert to LPG, but at two grand per conversion, it's hardly value, is it?

 

Lets face it, we get taxed on everything, income tax, then after that's come out we have income tax, council tax, fuel tax, vat, road tax, beer & spirits tax, ciggie tax, tax on savigs, inheritance tax (if you're lucky enough to get any!) and god knows what else.

 

We better watch it or they'll be having "cache tax" where you have to pay per visit! :-)

 

Dom

[+Learned Gerbil]

*Why is the word D A M N americanised?

Because there is an automatic filter used on Groundspeak's forums to remove words deemed to be offensive. Strangely, Americans seem to find the word "D.A.M.N" offensive enough to censor

A friend of mine runs a forum with a filter designed to filter out innocuous Americanisms and replace them with something more English. For example, "Gee!" becomes "Bye gum!" etc.

 

As for everyone having a go at fuel taxes - as I mentioned the current government has frozen the taxes on fuel for a few years now. The only benefit the Government gets from high fuel prices is VAT, and that tax was set by the Conservatives. Remember - if the taxes on fuel were zero - then the percentage increase paid at the pump in the recent increases would have been even higher!

[+sTeamTraen]

For those who want to slag off Tony and Gordon on this, don't forget that above-inflation rises in fuel duty were introduced by the Tories. And to make it even more bizarre, they were prepared to claim - in public - that they did it for (gasp) environmental reasons (post-Rio summit, many years before Kyoto).

 

I find it amusing that many people (none of them here though, of course) claim to want to protect the planet by burning less fossil fuel, then complain when things - either directly intended to bring this about (duty) or not (world price of oil) - happen which mean that they personally feel constrained to use less fossil fuel.

 

If you ask any of these questions:

- "Should we burn less fossil fuel ?"

- "Is putting the price up an effective way to get people to use less fossil fuel ?"

- "Do you think petrol is too expensive ?"

then you can easily get 70% "Yes" to all three. So apparently what everybody means is "we want everybody else to use less fossil fuel". Something not quite right there, I feel.

[+The Hancock Clan]

Why not target the VERY cheap aviation fuel instead? No wonder they do flights to Dublin etc. for a couple of quid! I'd rather spend a bit more on a flight ticket if it means getting more caches for my money!

[+Naefearjustbeer]

Yes we should burn less fossil fuel

 

No putting the price up is not an effective way to burn less fuel, I live in a rural area where owning a car is required, I am indirectly employed by the government and we used to have free transport provided to get us to and from work, now not only is the free transport gone but the bus I would of used is no longer running, those that are lucky enough to live on the bus route pay more for a weekly bus ticket that it would cost to run a car, If I want to stay employed I need a car or other viable form of transport to get to my work. Very little of my annual mileage is unnecessary and no matter what the fuel costs are I will have to pay them if I want to continue to work. If the government spent some of the fuel tax they rake in on finding environmentally friendly transport then it will be good for everyone. It would save everyone money and help prevent global warming. But no the government and the oil companies know that as long as there is oil to be sourced they have us dangling on a string. The more fuel costs the less money I have for all my other bills.

 

Yes petrol/diesel is too expensive.

 

How about this for a few ideas, All freight goes by rail. all government employees get free buses laid on to get them to and from work. Cars get taxed by MPG rating. cars get banned from city centres. All income from fuel tax get poured back into finding super economic super environmentally friendly personal transport.

Oh wait a minute the goverment doesnt get as much money out of us anymore that wont do!!

[+The Hancock Clan]

All freight goes by rail.

Speaking of trains, have you seen how many empty ones there are? That must be a huge waste of fuel!

[+Kitty Hawk]

 

As for everyone having a go at fuel taxes - as I mentioned the current government has frozen the taxes on fuel for a few years now. The only benefit the Government gets from high fuel prices is VAT, and that tax was set by the Conservatives. Remember - if the taxes on fuel were zero - then the percentage increase paid at the pump in the recent increases would have been even higher!

Hobbyhorse alert

 

My memory is that the govt hasn't frozen fuel tax increases, merely defferred them to a more politically expediant time to show that they understand the public's concern over fuel prices. A March budget statement for instance has said "fuel duty is going up by 2p a litre, but not until September".

 

I've just done a little count back, and it's more than 7 years since the tory's were in govt and for the 4 years before that they couldn't do anything without popular political support as they had a majority of only 2 in the commons. So, 11 years since effective tory govt - it's time to stop blaming them for everything, labour has had time to sort it out and has chosen not to.

 

dismounting from hobby horse

 

The %age increase arguement doesn't wash with me, not even on spin.

 

disclaimer - not a tory voter.

[+Alice Band]

I don't own a car and cache by bike or public transport. I once took a cacher out like this and they had palpitations - missed his car too much.

[+-radar-]

I wonder if we could start a rumour on the net that there will soon be a shortage of Kidney Beans and see people panic buying them?

 

I think the British public are generally quite stupid and this petrol carry on helps prove it.

[+daleswalker]

I only really wondered wether this was going to effect peoples cacheing, didn't want to start a political commentary...Interesting as this thread has been, I am now closing it. Thanks for posting.