Fuel tanker driver shortage

[winseer]

So the government say that they have these military drivers at the ready, which now have to be trained… WTAF■■?

I thought the whole point of getting the military in was that they knew how to do everything already?

Who’s gonna train and licence these personnel?

DVLA - rolling strikes.
Driving Examiners - voted to Strike.
Driver Trainers - Furloughed/on holiday/not answering their phones

It is now too late for the University establishment to include a “Heavy Goods Studies” course at Campus as well…

Bachelor of Trucking Bsc C+E (3 years) (Get your blue card, 2 years experience, and be eligble to join any agency in the country)
Masters Degree in Heavy Goods Operation and Organization (4 years) Become a Transport Manager who actually still knows how to drive
PhD - Philosophy Driver (Doctor of Driving (6 years) Teach Driving as a profession at Campuses all over the country
DG Driving God - (10 year course of 60 hour any-five-from-seven weeks for minimum wage) Makes you beloved of the public, as they now won’t be pressurized into taking that job rather than you.
Makes you eligable for a MBE award, and a shiny pay rise comparable to a McDonalds manager on completion

[zac_a]

whisperingsmith:
What’s Next ■■
0

Not that wild an idea, when I lived in Republic of Ireland that’s how you managed your central heating fuel deliveries: order online, guy came next day and gave you whatever amount in the fuel tank in your garden.

[zac_a]

With all the home storage of Class 3 flammable liquids going on, I would expect we might get a few more news stories like this one from 2012
bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-17567179

[stu675]

Winseer:
So the government say that they have these military drivers at the ready, which now have to be trained… WTAF■■?

I thought the whole point of getting the military in was that they knew how to do everything already?

Who’s gonna train and licence these personnel?

DVLA - rolling strikes.
Driving Examiners - voted to Strike.
Driver Trainers - Furloughed/on holiday/not answering their phones

It is now too late for the University establishment to include a “Heavy Goods Studies” course at Campus as well…

Bachelor of Trucking Bsc C+E (3 years) (Get your blue card, 2 years experience, and be eligble to join any agency in the country)
Masters Degree in Heavy Goods Operation and Organization (4 years) Become a Transport Manager who actually still knows how to drive
PhD - Philosophy Driver (Doctor of Driving (6 years) Teach Driving as a profession at Campuses all over the country
DG Driving God - (10 year course of 60 hour any-five-from-seven weeks for minimum wage) Makes you beloved of the public, as they now won’t be pressurized into taking that job rather than you.
Makes you eligable for a MBE award, and a shiny pay rise comparable to a McDonalds manager on completion

It’s only ADR that the military are short of.

[the_nodding_donkey]

stu675:

Winseer:
So the government say that they have these military drivers at the ready, which now have to be trained… WTAF■■?

I thought the whole point of getting the military in was that they knew how to do everything already?

Who’s gonna train and licence these personnel?

DVLA - rolling strikes.
Driving Examiners - voted to Strike.
Driver Trainers - Furloughed/on holiday/not answering their phones

It is now too late for the University establishment to include a “Heavy Goods Studies” course at Campus as well…

Bachelor of Trucking Bsc C+E (3 years) (Get your blue card, 2 years experience, and be eligble to join any agency in the country)
Masters Degree in Heavy Goods Operation and Organization (4 years) Become a Transport Manager who actually still knows how to drive
PhD - Philosophy Driver (Doctor of Driving (6 years) Teach Driving as a profession at Campuses all over the country
DG Driving God - (10 year course of 60 hour any-five-from-seven weeks for minimum wage) Makes you beloved of the public, as they now won’t be pressurized into taking that job rather than you.
Makes you eligable for a MBE award, and a shiny pay rise comparable to a McDonalds manager on completion

It’s only ADR that the military are short of.

And experience driving tankers into tight little petrol stations, whilst Doris is trying to park to get cat food, Reginald is blocking the tanker bay ‘because he paid his raxes’, and six or more access points for different products, rather than the one as when they are refuelling a convoy of trucks or tanks. Air force driver only ever drive on airfields, or main roads.

[bin_man]

Petrol supply: Reserve fuel tankers on the road from Wednesday, says Kwarteng
By George Bowden & Mary O’Connor
BBC News
Published 16:30 - 29/9/2021

The government’s reserve tanker fleet will be “on the road” on Wednesday afternoon to boost fuel deliveries, the business secretary has said.

Civilians will drive the trucks from their depots in Cambridgeshire and West Yorkshire, Kwasi Kwarteng said.

He has also said soldiers would be delivering fuel in the coming days.

There are signs the situation at petrol stations “has begun to improve with more stations getting fuel”, he said, after days of long queues.

Mr Kwarteng admitted the situation had been “difficult” but denied there was a crisis in UK fuel supplies.

Ministers have decided to deploy troops to drive tankers in “the next couple of days”, he said, in addition to the civilians driving them from Wednesday.

Some 150 military drivers are ready to drive the fuel tankers, with another 150 Army personnel ready to support them.

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) said there were “encouraging signs” the pressure was starting to ease at the pumps, with forecourts taking further fuel deliveries.

The PRA, which represents nearly 5,500 of the UK’s 8,000 stations, said 27% of sites had run out of fuel on Wednesday - compared with two-thirds being without on Sunday.

Brian Madderson, PRA chairman, told BBC News that while there were “less queues [and] panic buying” there was still “unusually heavy demand”. He said “one or two” petrol station groups were reporting fewer dry sites than on Tuesday.

It would take more than “a day or a few days” to fully replenish stocks at all UK forecourts, he said, but there was still “plenty to go round”.

On Tuesday, speaking for the first time since issues began, Prime Minister Boris Johnson also sought to reassure drivers about supplies, saying that people should be “confident” to go about their business.

He said he was not seeking to prioritise essential workers at pumps because things were “stabilising”.

Sir Keir Starmer used his first in-person conference speech as Labour leader on Wednesday to criticise the government’s handling of fuel supply issues.

Referring to the government’s flagship “levelling up” policy to lower regional inequalities, he said: “Level up, you can’t even fill up.”

He accused the government of ignoring the issues, blaming others and delivering “half-baked” solutions with “no plan in place”. Mr Starmer urged the PM to “either get a grip or get out of the way and let us step up to clear up this mess”.

Read more - bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58729653

[winseer]

stu675:

Winseer:
So the government say that they have these military drivers at the ready, which now have to be trained… WTAF■■?

I thought the whole point of getting the military in was that they knew how to do everything already?

Who’s gonna train and licence these personnel?

DVLA - rolling strikes.
Driving Examiners - voted to Strike.
Driver Trainers - Furloughed/on holiday/not answering their phones

It is now too late for the University establishment to include a “Heavy Goods Studies” course at Campus as well…

Bachelor of Trucking Bsc C+E (3 years) (Get your blue card, 2 years experience, and be eligble to join any agency in the country)
Masters Degree in Heavy Goods Operation and Organization (4 years) Become a Transport Manager who actually still knows how to drive
PhD - Philosophy Driver (Doctor of Driving (6 years) Teach Driving as a profession at Campuses all over the country
DG Driving God - (10 year course of 60 hour any-five-from-seven weeks for minimum wage) Makes you beloved of the public, as they now won’t be pressurized into taking that job rather than you.
Makes you eligable for a MBE award, and a shiny pay rise comparable to a McDonalds manager on completion

It’s only ADR that the military are short of.

…That’s the very thing you’d think they’d have already, Royal Engineers and all that…

[the_maoster]

^^^ ADR is a civilian qualification, they don’t require it, Crown exemption and all that.

[owenmoney]

Who is going to carry the can when one of these civilian drivers puts the fuel into the wrong tank at the delivery point ?
Is this strange beast ’ the reserve tanker fleet ’ up to spec and up to the job ?
Is this fleet going into refineries to load by civilians who hold a PDP or is that overlooked too ?

[suedehead]

OwenMoney:
Who is going to carry the can when one of these civilian drivers puts the fuel into the wrong tank at the delivery point ?
Is this strange beast ’ the reserve tanker fleet ’ up to spec and up to the job ?
Is this fleet going into refineries to load by civilians who hold a PDP or is that overlooked too ?

Was thinking the same. Are they going to turn up in an army green Aec Matador or something more modern, like a Mammoth Major ?
ps " carry the can " i see what you did there

[franglais]

OwenMoney:
Who is going to carry the can when one of these civilian drivers puts the fuel into the wrong tank at the delivery point ?
Is this strange beast ’ the reserve tanker fleet ’ up to spec and up to the job ?
Is this fleet going into refineries to load by civilians who hold a PDP or is that overlooked too ?

Reserve tanker fleet?
Green Goddesses with petrol spec hoses?

[whisperingsmith]

> OwenMoney:
> Is this strange beast ’ the reserve tanker fleet ’ up to spec and up to the job ?

Reserve tanker fleet conjures up images of

[winseer]

Ok, then - hows abouts training ALL current blue card holders at either a heavily subsided rate (to keep out freebie-hunting illegal immigrants) OR just hand it over absolutely free, and risk the underworld producing blue cards for ££££s on the black market…

[whisperingsmith]

The best thing about all of this is that it has brought all us Brexiteers and Remainers together to laugh at this complete Cluster[zb]

[stu675]

OwenMoney:
Who is going to carry the can when one of these civilian drivers puts the fuel into the wrong tank at the delivery point ?
Is this strange beast ’ the reserve tanker fleet ’ up to spec and up to the job ?
Is this fleet going into refineries to load by civilians who hold a PDP or is that overlooked too ?

My diesel car’s filling point is too small to accept a petrol nozzle. Do the tankers have a failsafe system?

[winseer]

whisperingsmith:
The best thing about all of this is that it has brought all us Brexiteers and Remainers together to laugh at this complete Cluster[zb]

I wouldn’t say "Brought us more together, more “Set us less apart”.

[terry_cooksey]

stu675:

OwenMoney:
Who is going to carry the can when one of these civilian drivers puts the fuel into the wrong tank at the delivery point ?
Is this strange beast ’ the reserve tanker fleet ’ up to spec and up to the job ?
Is this fleet going into refineries to load by civilians who hold a PDP or is that overlooked too ?

My diesel car’s filling point is too small to accept a petrol nozzle. Do the tankers have a failsafe system?

Some places do, I know Costco do in their petrol stations. In these cases, a sensor detects what fuel is being delivered, and if it is the wrong fuel for the tank then it automatically closes a valve to prevent contamination.
As far as I know though, only Costco have this as standard.
Most fuel tankers have 6 separate compartments for carrying any combination of unleaded, diesel, super unleaded and super diesel. They will have 2 delivery lines and a vapour recovery line. Delivery lines are 4 inches in diameter and attach to both the tanker outlet and the customer inlet using a fitting known as an elephants foot. Since they only have 2 lines, they will both be used for different fuels, often even during the same delivery.
The driver has to ensure that the correct compartment on their tank is connected to not only the correct product, but the correct customer tank as they will often have several different tanks (the most I’ve seen at a single site was , as if you put it in the wrong tank, even if it’s the correct product you could end up overfilling the tank.
So no, there generally is no failsafe other than the driver having had adequate training, and hoping they don’t momentarily lose concentration and ■■■■ up (as happened to me!)

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

[stu675]

Terry Cooksey:

stu675:

OwenMoney:
.
Most fuel tankers have 6 separate compartments for carrying any combination of unleaded, diesel, super unleaded and super diesel.

You mean there’s actually a difference between normal and super beyond the price? [emoji13]

Cheers Terry for the detail. [emoji106]

[sniffy]

Franglais:

OwenMoney:
Who is going to carry the can when one of these civilian drivers puts the fuel into the wrong tank at the delivery point ?
Is this strange beast ’ the reserve tanker fleet ’ up to spec and up to the job ?
Is this fleet going into refineries to load by civilians who hold a PDP or is that overlooked too ?

Reserve tanker fleet?
Green Goddesses with petrol spec hoses?

A couple of years ago the MOD had circa 200 6 compartment tanks on standby, not sure if the numbers are the same today but doubt its changed much

[lolipop]

I do not agree with filling “jerry cans” BUT people like my Son, who has enough fuel in his tank, needs to fill “jerry cans” with fuel for his gardening business, ie mower -strimmer etc etc. With panic buying, its not the best time to be seen filling cans,he feels uncomfortable doing it, but what other choice does he have.