we should not stand side by side with the farmers.it does more harm than good no one gives a monkeys ■■■■ about the farmers, that bumpkin with the two ronnies acsent will never be taken seriously.its like asking me to enter a spelling contest ,truckers have there own issues,truck owners and farmers may have some thing in comon.both torys having a pop at tony
ok im sorry for my last post that was a bit harsh and im sorry for what i said.in fact i will delete it.
Just to try to set peoples misconceptions right…
my sister and brother in law had a dairy farm in Cornwall, they were tenant farmers on a farm of about 40 or so acres. They were paid 19p per litre for milk, if they overproduced their quota they were fined 19p per litre. If they overproduced they couldn’t just tip it down the drain as the water board would then hit them with a very substantial fine. Now I don’t know whether you’ve ever actually tried to tell a cow " that’s enough mate, we don’t want any more milk from you for the next 2 and a half months " but I can assure you it doesn’t work.
They had to buy quota from other farmers, now I can never quite understand why the farm next door to them, which hadn’t had a cow on the land for umpteen years, had a quota but he did and he was making money for nothing just by selling his quota to others. He was also claiming on the sick. Now this is one kind of farmer that makes money, the other kind is the one who owns 1000 acres or more and never touches the land himself. The ordinary farmer working the land 7 days a week and usually in excess of 12 hours every day is struggling just to keep his head above water and does it because it’s a vocation, they like the open air life and most can’t see a way out without losing everything.
What good will any kind of fuel blockade do for an EMPLOYED truck driver. 
This is about Tories scoring points off labour straight before an election, truck drivers will be used as pawns.
Convince me it will do drivers any good and I’ll support it, but nobody has so far…
What good will any kind of fuel blockade do for an EMPLOYED truck driver.
It will help you keep your job thats what. How long can companys keep paying nearly double to some european countries, before they go BUMP. Have you not seen an increase of foreign lorries on our road, they can undercut all of our haulage companys because there fuel bill is half of ours, So if you want to keep working in the transport industry in the long term future, surport anyone whos prepared to stand up and have a go, whether its in a massey ferguson or a FH12 Globby and stop being so childish about who got there first 
Well said Gav.
You only have to look around the M25 and yoou will probably see more foreign trucks than English.
This is all down to fuel.
Still not convinced.
I understand the arguement to a point, but surely if “our” trucks go abroad we pay less for fuel while over there. If they come over here they can only run cheap 'til they need to refuel.
I’m fully in favour of getting fuel costs down, I’m just not convinced this is the way to do it.
There are a lot of companies that don’t run over there though.
Newbie:
Well said Gav.
You only have to look around the M25 and you will probably see more foreign trucks than English.
This is all down to fuel.
i know i agree. i cant understand the goverment not cracking down on this why why why havent they done something about it its money being washed down the drain. all the other goverments do it cant understand why ours dosent.
There are a lot of companies that don’t run over there though.
I agree but then the issue is for the government to stop Wili Betz, Norbert Dentiststrangle etc competing for internal UK jobs. Or for our firms to take on jobs over the channel
why is everyone argueing about who did what first ,we as professional drivers should for once all stand together and take on the government about wages conditions etc as im sure you all must realise without drivers all you have got got is a lot of trucks parked up and the country grinds to a halt all it would take is for everyone to ring in sick next monday for a week and wait and see how long it took before they were begging us to go back to work
The success of what was achieved during the 2000 protests was not so much the shortages that followed, but the ‘panic buying’ that triggered those shortages.
The tanker drivers had their own concerns. They were in pay discussions and saw the protests as ‘leverage’ to assist in their dispute. They argued that if they continued deliveries, then they might be subjected to missiles being thrown off bridges. Admittedly, those was a possible danger, but they ‘milked’ it to their own benefit.
The other consequence was that supermarkets starting running short on food supplies. The story goes that after three days the shelves were running bare. A consequence of JIT deliveries and the fact that warehousing is taxed at the same rate at sales area, therefore there is little incentive for supermarkets to maintain ‘in house’ stocks. It is cheaper to ‘warehouse’ goods in vehicles in transit than to dedicate space to costly sales space to warehousing. (But that’s another gripe for discussion elsewhere)
Are the same tactics likely to succeed again? I doubt it. What the 2000 protests demonstrated most was that to get the publics attention, after petrol, target the food chain. And not necessarily the RDC’s because the supermarkets are able to switch deliveries direct to stores, and between stores. Who would I target in the position of the protesters? The main suppliers within the Cold Chain sector. And here I’m simply picking names at random, rather than their individual contribution to any sector, Turners, Wiseman, Hazlewood, FreshLinc, Corby Chill, are the most prominent that come to mind. Whilst the supermarkets could circumvent their deliveries by collecting direct from producers, it would be somewhat of a logistical nightmare. However, in the eyes of Joe Public the perception would be that the supplies on the shelves would be frugal and indeterminable, which would accentuate panic buying.
The surest way to make Government listen is to panic the public into acting like lemmings.
If the fuel protest had started any later it would’ve been pointless.
The General Election is just over a week away. The panic buying should start around the weekend, and by next Thursday the effects of fuel shortages would be felt by the public. It would certainly have a profound effect on the outcome of the Election, and I would like to see how Tony ‘the man who believes his own lies’ Blair would get out of that one!
Wasn’t legislation passed after the last fuel protest to stop this kind of action from happening again? Instead, blockade the ports and airports - let nothing in or out. There’s a surprising amount of meat and produce imported that ends up on supermarket shelves. Supermarket stocks would soon become depleted, thus supermarkets relying more on British farmers. Providing the farmers don’t back down, the supermarkets would then put pressure onto the Government to do something to about it. Considering the amount of persuasion the supermarkets could exert, surely a viable solution could be found that would satisfy everyone? Just a thought…!
Who gives flying ■■■■ who starts it or when they start it i am sick of the tax i pay to fill my car up and i support ANYONE who has the balls to go out and do something like David Handley is doing.
This is not only farmers protesting there are trucks on their way there and from what i have read car drivers are going too.
So please stop bickering over it and give them your 100% backing and support, i am an employed driver by one of the big boys it has very little benefit to me whatever the price of fuel but i still support them .
Hopefully it will do some damage to Tony Bliar and the tax party in the elections.
my honest opinion is, we’re going about it completely arse about face, yes a fuel protest may eventually see who ever gets in power make some sort of consessions on fuel but the price will never match that of mainland europe which is the real problem, a blockade of sea ports to stop foreign hauliers coming in with cheap fuel and in turn keeping haulage rates ridiculousely low would have far more benefits to everyone concerned because at the moment we’re operating under european regulations but without any of the benefits of being part of europe.
why farmers are protesting, i’ve no idea, if the powers that be said i could legally run on red i’d be dancing down the street, it would litterally double my earnings!
Britain is now seen as a service industry. Heavy industry, farming and haulage are no longer necessary as other countries have a comparative advantage on these things.
Steel, coal - gone; manufacturing - all but gone; farming - on the way; haulage - on the way. Thats why the farmers are protesting.
I think the government will not be caught out again and I think any blockade will be broken up and scenes of the blockaders attacking poor police will materialise on our televisions even though we all know it will not have happened. The government will send renta-mob in with the blockaders to cause a riot and loose public support, and anyone who thinks loss of innocent human life ever bothered a government is obviosly living in utopia.
The army will be in and the whole thing will be a million times more explosive than in 2000.
However I think the public is angry with a government that has contantly failed to do anything but lie, and power as always lies in public support. The press is following the situation with a growing excitment.
Although I think it will probably be ultimately futile, if Jarrow blockades again I will go back (albeit on a bicycle this time).
Just read through the posts on these topics again and we have squabbling about farmers? I seem to remember it being farmers lorries blockading in 2000, I know farmers drive flash cars but I dont seem to remember any hauliers in mini metros. And like lorry drivers I do not think farm labourers are rich (dont quote me on that, dont know any farm labourers).
I have an idea, why dont we argue about wether we are more deserving than the farmers and we can carry on arguing until both our industries are in the history books. That is what will happen.
jammymutt:
Who gives flying [zb] who starts it or when they start it i am sick of the tax i pay to fill my car up and i support ANYONE who has the balls to go out and do something like David Handley is doing.This is not only farmers protesting there are trucks on their way there and from what i have read car drivers are going too.
So please stop bickering over it and give them your 100% backing and support, i am an employed driver by one of the big boys it has very little benefit to me whatever the price of fuel but i still support them .
Hopefully it will do some damage to Tony Bliar and the tax party in the elections.
well said m8… i,m an employed driver, but i tell u this, the first strike/protest i come across on the road,ie if i pass one, i will be sacked the same day, why?? cos i will put all my 45/50 foot of metal right where its wanted,and join the flaming protest/strike.
and ■■■■ the company ringing me to see if i,m on time,… 
julian:
Britain is now seen as a service industry. Heavy industry, farming and haulage are no longer necessary as other countries have a comparative advantage on these things.
Steel, coal - gone; manufacturing - all but gone; farming - on the way; haulage - on the way. Thats why the farmers are protesting.
I think the government will not be caught out again and I think any blockade will be broken up and scenes of the blockaders attacking poor police will materialise on our televisions even though we all know it will not have happened. The government will send renta-mob in with the blockaders to cause a riot and loose public support, and anyone who thinks loss of innocent human life ever bothered a government is obviosly living in utopia.
The army will be in and the whole thing will be a million times more explosive than in 2000.
However I think the public is angry with a government that has contantly failed to do anything but lie, and power as always lies in public support. The press is following the situation with a growing excitment.
Although I think it will probably be ultimately futile, if Jarrow blockades again I will go back (albeit on a bicycle this time).
i take your point, but the steel industry is booming even though most of it is owned by scandinavian companies,brittish steel is still considered to be the best in the world!
julian:
Just read through the posts on these topics again and we have squabbling about farmers? I seem to remember it being farmers lorries blockading in 2000, I know farmers drive flash cars but I dont seem to remember any hauliers in mini metros. And like lorry drivers I do not think farm labourers are rich (dont quote me on that, dont know any farm labourers).
I have an idea, why dont we argue about wether we are more deserving than the farmers and we can carry on arguing until both our industries are in the history books. That is what will happen.
the farmers just jumped on the band wagon in 2000 and they’ll happily do the same now even though farming is the most subsidissed industry in the uk!
i think at the end of the year i’m gona write to the goverment and tell em what a hard time of had of it and maybe they’ll chuck me twenty grand to tide me over.