[feckit]

So the Unite Union has got the required % to call a strike.
Looks like the strike over deliveries will be on the Easter Weekend.
How long before we see panic buying & forecourts running dry?
Will it effect you & how you get to work if it does?

[bootneck02]

If you can afford a tank of petroland my wife is working 20 miles away in Ashford that weekend.

[Reefsmoka]

49 litres of dirty diesel just cost me £79

[TriplexDread]

A shade under 1.40 here now for petrol. I don't fill up simply because of pennies and weight and petrol cost ratio.

I only use my car to get my son at weekends and maybe a few miles in between. If it continues too rise I don't get to see my son. 2x two return trips each 45ish each way. Just short of 180mile every weekend to see a smile and hear the words daddy. Worth every penny!

Something needs to be done however

[nivrip]

Just paid £1.449 per litre for diesel.

Don't think there will be much sympathy fot the drivers. I read that they are on £45,000 a year before any overtime.

The country being held to ransom by higher rate taxpayers? The public won't stand for it.

[crazylegs]

The ridiculously high price of fuel is to blame here, yes the drivers are wrong to vote for strike action but at the end of the day are just trying to protect there own way of life..

The government MP's are quick to diss any action and described the
vote as very disappointing news for hard-working families and
businesses...but shed no tears over the COST of fuel to these same families and businesses.

Yet the fatcats and cityworkers carry on getting bonuses worth tens of thousands a year and no one bats an eyelid, but the average blue collar worker stands up for what he believes in and gets bandied around like a criminal, yes they are on good wages but its also health and safety on these tankers that is being overlooked..
Anyone who's driven a HGV for a living will know the hard work and long hours put in to earn a crust, my father drove HGV's all his life and regularly worked 16 hour days and was away from home half the time due to all the hours and long driving trips up and down the country.

This is just a smokescreen to take the heat off the government over the stupid price of fuel at this time hitting £1.40 a litre, when we all know that 70% of that is tax and shouldn't be there!

[Becky]

Originally Posted by nivrip

Just paid £1.449 per litre for diesel.

Don't think there will be much sympathy fot the drivers. I read that they are on £45,000 a year before any overtime.

The country being held to ransom by higher rate taxpayers? The public won't stand for it.

I think the strikes are over work conditions and safety, not salaries...

A statement from Unite said: "Tanker drivers work in an increasingly fragmented and pressurised industry, where corners are being cut on safety and training in a bid to squeeze profits and win contracts.

"Drivers face growing job insecurity as a result of the contract 'merry-go-round' and a 'beat the clock' culture has flourished, with drivers forced to meet ever shorter delivery deadlines. "

Diana Holland from the Unite union warns of "an industry that is in chaos"

It added that pensions were also inferior to those previously offered and some workers had switched pensions six times.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17512729

[Abarbarian]

Now we would not be in this state if Maggie and her good old Tory chums had not sold of all of our North Sea Oil.

Of course when toll roads are introduced you will not need to worry about fuel prices.

[floppybootstomp]

Wot Crazylegs said

Myself, I couldn't give a monkeys cos I ain't had a car since early January

But, but.... I do hire a car occasionally. Bugger.

[feckit]

on the way home from friends local petrol station had not had it's daily delivery.
but locals took this to be that the fuel was running out & people were panic buying.
hence the nearest bp had long queues from people who thought their were shortages.
in the next town they could not work out what was wrong.
seems the fuel deliveries are being upped as people will panic buy = more profit.
so the threat of a strike just sells more fuel & more tax for the taxman.

no winners in this apart from the fuel companies & the tax man!