How much would people on this newsgroup be prepared to pay for a gallon of fuel?

I was just offering a comparrision , just be greatful the dollars dropped on the currency markets or we would be really screwed

I can see it hitting £2.00 a litre within 12 months as non opec countries realise they can make as much money restricting supplies as increasing them , we really do need to find an alternative supply or alternative fuel type then we could tell them all to take a hike

However there's more to it than just "the motorist". The cost of diesel hits everyone because it is passed on to the price of all goods, since diesel is the fuel which is used by almost all transport (rail included

- freight locos are diesel). So *everything* goes up as a result and inflation spirals. At the same time a lot of hauliers are going out of business because they can no longer make a profit.

I work in a town 25 miles away, my wife works here. One of us would always have to travel, and the very limited PT between these towns would take me about 2 hours. Yes, I'm trying to get a job closer to home, but in my kind of job there are not that many options at my level.

Conor's right, you need to have time for family life too.

Yes, I'm sort of in the same boat, but luckily I rent my house. That means when I change job, I just find a house near to work and move... I haven't lived more than 2 miles from work for 10 years now :-) Of course, that doesn't stop me driving 15,000 miles a year for fun..

Mike P

Similarish, but different. My wife and I work at the same place. 26 miles, between 35 and 60 minutes- typically 45. We could technically move, but have friends, family, and good neighbours here. We like where we live, and we like that we owe very little money on it.

Despte living on the edge of the West Midlands conurbation (supposedly the 2nd largest in the UK) and our PT being advertised as a network, it would take at least 2.5 hours each way.

Same here, at the moment, certainly. Plus my employer has some good terms and conditions.

Lets not forget buses use diesel too. Also, so many cinemas and shops are out-of-town and away from major bus termini now.

Of course the flaw with that approach is that lets assume that there 'is' a viable alternative to sticking a pipe in the ground and pulling out billions of barrels of cheap energy, human nature and big business being what it is will dictate that the producers and the providers of such an alternative will [just like Opec] still hold the world to ransom and attempt to screw the maximum amount of profit they can out of a hapless public, simply a question of supply and demand.

I live in Preston, Lancashire, *just less than 3 miles* from Europe's second largest bus station

John

The currency difference hasn't made a jot of difference to the price.=20 If we weren't in rip-off Britain where the currency conversion of GBP=20 to USD mysteriously hits =A31=3D$1 by the time it gets to the shelf, we'd= =20 be on fuel 40p/l less than it is now.

--=20 Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't=20 looking good either. - Scott Adams

The hauliers are going out of business because although the retailers=20 etc are upping the price, using the rise in fuel costs as an excuse,=20 the rates the hauliers are getting isn't going up.

One owner driver on the trucknet forums says his diesel bill is now=20 =A3240 a week more than a year ago and its hurting hard.

--=20 Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't=20 looking good either. - Scott Adams

What I do not get is why not? I would assume the haulage industry is close to a free market, so if the cost to supply a service is going up, why do the hauliers not raise their prices? Presumably this is hitting everyone the same, as the global costs have gone up. The only explanation I can think of (while knowing next to nothing about how the industry works) is that they have somehow got into multi year fixed price contracts, but surely the cost of crude has been on the rise for long enough now that anyone would include the cost of deseil into the contract price? The other possibiliy may be some sort of starbuck style loss making by a big player, but surely then they would be the target of protests rather the desiel tax.

They are competing against foreign owned trucks who fill up outside the UK where desiel is cheaper even befoe vat is a consideration , road tax is far lower and you can get a driver for penuts .

Many eastern european drivers drive on a piece work rate sometimes as low as 10 pence a mile , sleeping in thier cabs , no uk based company can compete with this ,The drivers often break driver hours rules and have scant reguard to our traffic regulations because the chances of prosecution and licence loss is remote

"steve robinson" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

So how come UK truckers can't take their trucks on a boozecruise, if it makes so much difference?

You might like to look into EU VAT rules.

Funny how UK truck drivers vary between hideously underpaid and raking it in, depending on the point trying to be made...

As I say, I do not know anything about the industry, but it seems to me that if it is ecconomical for the foreign owned trucks to come here with full tanks to deliver between 2 sites within the UK, why is it not ecconomical for UK trucks to go to the continent, fill up and then return to do the same job?

As far as people being willing to work for less, I fear that is the way the world is going. If you cannot command a higher price for your work that someone else then you have to work for what they are willing to work for, or retrain to make sure you can command the salery you want. This is more true for transferable jobs than location based ones such as delivery driving.

And I ment to add, this sort of thing is the only way I can imagine changing the guvments mind about fuel duty, if they are getting nothing because people are buying fuel abroad.

snipped-for-privacy@myself.com gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Mmm. It's worked so well with booze & baccy...

Yeah, but most people do not go to france for their booze and baccy. If if is more profitable to buy your fuel in france and do your driving in the UK, then every company should be doing it, so they would sell no fuel to HGV drivers. This would be a bit different from the very ocasional trip over the channel for ciggies.

snipped-for-privacy@myself.com gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Diesel is not much cheaper in France than in the UK - or, at least, wasn't over Easter weekend... Likewise petrol.

Belgium etc? Dunno.