UK Fuel Blockade

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Danny

Danny

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Are you kidding?
Not wishing to incite panic, but a source in the AA has told patrols (including my dad) that fuel delivery drivers are planning a secret blockade (ie, no fuel deliveries) within the next few days.

I don't really know what to make of it, just thought I'd suggest that if anyone needs to fuel up soon, now might be a good time. My mum's just scarpered to fill up just in case.


Now I have no written source to back this up, but I thought it might benefit you guys.
 
Danachronism
I don't really know what to make of it, just thought I'd suggest that if anyone needs to fuel up soon, now might be a good time. My mum's just scarpered to fill up just in case.
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That's just about the worst thing you can do. Along with telling everyone about it.
 
Famine
That's just about the worst thing you can do. Along with telling everyone about it.
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Yes, posting this ranks alongside a holocaust.

And why would simply filling up her car be such a crime as well? Especially if she was planning to do it anyway.
 
Well my source in a local Tesco petrol station hasn't said anything so I'm safe for now... I think. Perhaps he forgot me.
 
Danachronism
And why would simply filling up her car be such a crime as well?
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Imagine.

You don't know when fuel is coming back - or indeed running out. Maybe this week. Maybe next week. In any case, you don't know if you have the fuel you need. So you and everyone you tell goes and fills up today. Everyone they tell goes and fills up today too. As does everyone they tell...

Soon everyone's going today. Petrol starts to get a little thin on the ground and it starts getting rationed. With supply static and demand rising, prices rise - some forecourts are selling it at £2 a litre and no more than 10 litres per customer. Queues are coming out of every petrol station - and, stuck in those jams, cars are using more petrol than normal. That's even more demand for diminishing supplies... Then only protected industries are permitted petrol - the emergency services and public transport - and the rest of us can go hang.


So, even if this planned blockade doesn't happen, the rumour of it - and the propagation of the rumour - leads to massive civil inconvenience and, perversely at the same time, record monthly profits for petrol companies (with it being the ass-end of May). The end message? They can charge what they like, and we'll still buy it. And the blockade itself won't really solve anything anyway - Blair caved because he courted popularity, Brown doesn't and won't do anything unless it directly affects him.

Danachronism
Especially if she was planning to do it anyway.
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If she was planning to do it anyway, go right ahead. But I'd advise not to take more than she thinks she needs and not to blab to anyone else.
 
Meh. Its always doom and gloom isn't it? Don't worry, I'm sure that we here in the US/Canada will be happy to ship you some of our oil if you suddenly "run out" or something.

People are so worked up over an extra $1.00 a gallon, $15 a tank (well, in my car) that its really making me laugh. Do yourself a favor and don't go out to eat as much, walk to places nearby, etc. Sure, its food prices that are getting to me... But fuel prices? I still say they're a bit low for us in the US.
 
So your advice to the entire haulage industry in the UK is that they should go out less and walk more?!? That's an idiotic thing to suggest, frankly. The issue is how to safeguard these businesses from a double-whammy of sky-rocketing fuel prices and a change in taxation which threatens to penalise heavy petrol users the most...

It is a moot point whether non-essential petrol users should be taxed more - but they too are paying alot more for their petrol anyway, but atleast their jobs/livelihoods don't utterly depend on the issue.... Although I am in favour of taking steps to wean people off 'other than essential' petrol/oil use, I also think that businesses should be the protected from crippling fuel price increases as much as is possible...
 
Touring Mars
So your advice to the entire haulage industry in the UK is that they should go out less and walk more?!? That's an idiotic thing to suggest, frankly.
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I think he was talking about people in the US driving 100 yards down the road to go to the shops, etc.

Danny - petrol runs short because everyone thinks there's a shortage, not the other way around; people are sheep, and will fall for it every time. The media - especially the tabloids - will jump all over the slightest rumour of a petrol shortage, whether there is one or not, because they know it'll sell papers and they don't care if they cause an actual shortage; indeed, I'm sure they'd rather they did create a shortage so that they can sell more papers covering it.
 
Roo
I think he was talking about people in the US driving 100 yards down the road to go to the shops, etc.
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Yeh, I get that, but that's not what this proposed blockade is about...

I agree that in a future where petrol/oil consumption is going to become an increasingly contentious/fraught issue, the first people to get hit should be those who don't need to use as much petrol, such that the people who do need to use it can do for as long as possible...
 
I've been informed that haulage companies are exempt from (or rather can claim back on) VAT on fuel. This currently corresponds to 19p/litre less than everyone else currently pays.

But wait, there's more!

Their proposal is to cut Duty (50.3p/litre) on diesel by 25p for hauliers only, and fund it by an increase in Duty for non-commercial fuel buyers. Beermat calculations put this at about a 6p/litre increase for everyone else.
 
mmmm...kaaaay....

Is this a case of Media misinterpreting and misrepresenting the facts?
 
Not really :confused:

The main issue is that prices are going up and the amount of duty on fuel set by the UK government is significantly higher than that of other European countries, which UK hauliers have to directly compete with. Currently, duty is something like 57p per litre (on diesel) in the UK, whereas it is up to 25p less in other European countries...

Famine has a point, though. If the hauliers are given a rebate to help them compete on a more level playing field with their European counterparts, it will be the other UK fuel users who foot the bill....
 
Famine
I've been informed that haulage companies are exempt from (or rather can claim back on) VAT on fuel. This currently corresponds to 19p/litre less than everyone else currently pays.

But wait, there's more!

Their proposal is to cut Duty (50.3p/litre) on diesel by 25p for hauliers only, and fund it by an increase in Duty for non-commercial fuel buyers. Beermat calculations put this at about a 6p/litre increase for everyone else.
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If only that was mentioned on the news when they talked about all the public support they were getting.
 
Touring Mars
The main issue is that prices are going up and the amount of duty on fuel set by the UK government is significantly higher than that of other European countries, which UK hauliers have to directly compete with. Currently, duty is something like 57p per litre (on diesel) in the UK, whereas it is up to 25p less in other European countries...
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Ahhh okay, that makes more sense now. The truckers were complaining about the same thing here in the US a few weeks back, not much came of it.

Still, more or less, it sounds like you guys are going to try to cut the taxes on fuel. Any idea where the lost revenue would come from? That may be a bit more difficult to sort out...

The idiot candidates (McCain and Clinton) suggested that we cut the Federal gas tax to save drivers fuel costs over the summer, that one fell flat on its face. Turns out that at average driving rates, it would have only saved us $40 for those three months... Any idea what something similar would be for you guys?
 
YSSMAN
Any idea where the lost revenue would come from? That may be a bit more difficult to sort out...
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The hauliers' proposal is on Duty for non-commercial fuel buyers.

Personally, I'd be thinking of cutting our tax burden - like the salaries and expenses of 650 MPs, local councillors, tiers of middle-management in the public sector, luxury prisons and QUANGOs.
 
Oh oh I know, do what all those facebook groups tell me to do, stop buying petrol for a day, or like from Shell/BP/Esso, or like um the super markets, or yeah. Do that. :dopey:
 

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