Like so many of you I also was a taxi operator.
The cost of public liability insurance is high ,they are policed by local councils I had to get 2 mots per year also certificate of fitness taxi driver licence and taxi operators licence. it all adds up!!To drive a fare 2.5 miles the car has to go find the location do the drive and return to base depending on circumstances could be a 10 mile run.I should have worked harder at school!!
stevegibbins:
pulled into the truckstop at watling st nr st albans and for the second time in a week i had to wait while a luton minicab driver filled up with red diesel and when i finished, another one pulled in behind me. these people are putting up their fares and blaming the credit crunch but are probably making more money than they have for years by running on illegal fuel…[zb]…if i did it would i get away with it ?.dont think so.If it needs stars it’s not allowed. L.
you sad sad boring man.
have you got nothing better to worry about.?..do you have kids…get them sweets if you have…
i would hate to meet you in a truckstop and say to you,i had to go 2minutes over my time.
you are what is typically known as a grass.
and for no good reason except to satisfy your own ego.
whatever that may be.
i drove truck s all my life up and down the roads of europe,ireland and england.
yes i used red diesel in belly tanks in the belly tank days.
a lot more of the guys in here did so as well.
i am now running a brand new car and doing private hire in liverpool/
not a junker,i hit2000 miles on the speedo today.
i dont use red and i dont know of anyone else that does around here,
indeed if i did,i would not say a word about it…
get your head together,never mind what other people are doing.
you will find yourself very unpopular if you get the reputation of being a grass.
if you see a big load of heroine,yes grass/
this does cause problems.
get a life…silly man
by the way all.
a 2 mile journey in liverpool is approx £3.60
dont all go moving up here for cheap taxis
What the hell is red diesel doing being sold at a truckstop■■?
Are you SURE its red diesel?
Im only asking because I was born and bred on a farm
G8YMW:
What the hell is red diesel doing being sold at a truckstop■■?
Fridge motors
G8YMW:
Are you SURE its red diesel?
They definitely sell it at Watling Street.
I stand corrected
To be a taxi driver you dont have to be the sharpest tool in the box.
Why not use frying oil like they did on last nights edition of 5th gear.There are penalties for red but vegetable oil wont leave a trace and is cheaper.
I know this is a little off topic, But it got me thinking.
As far as i know red diesel not only has dye in it, But it has a trace chemical in it.
So if you buy some diesel from what you expect to be a legit source, How do you know it’s not red diesel with the dye removed?
This may seem a little far fetched, But it wasn’t that long ago that some blokes were convicted for supplying illegal fuel to petrol stations.
Can you buy a test kit to check your fuel?
It is so simple to remove the dye that i think dodgy fuel is more widespread than people think.
I think its very difficult to remove the dye from red diesel but you can dye it another colour. Ebay often sells blue dye for diesel. The blue dye is used to deter fuel thefts as the diesel would be easily identifyable. When I asked the seller if it would dye red diesel blue he said yes.
Lankytim:
I think its very difficult to remove the dye from red diesel but you can dye it another colour. Ebay often sells blue dye for diesel. The blue dye is used to deter fuel thefts as the diesel would be easily identifyable. When I asked the seller if it would dye red diesel blue he said yes.
I seem to recall that making red diesel legit was quite a cross-border thing in Ireland. I believe Fullers Earth is used to remove the red dye by some process or other?
Ragnarok:
Lankytim:
I think its very difficult to remove the dye from red diesel but you can dye it another colour. Ebay often sells blue dye for diesel. The blue dye is used to deter fuel thefts as the diesel would be easily identifyable. When I asked the seller if it would dye red diesel blue he said yes.I seem to recall that making red diesel legit was quite a cross-border thing in Ireland. I believe Fullers Earth is used to remove the red dye by some process or other?
From the 80/90’s buy red in NI take across the border and filter through Fullers earth to remove the red dye.
The dye has since been changed and cannot be removed by this method ( so don’t bother trying!! )
TC
I thought it was illegal to sell red diesel to normal road vehicles (I know this thread refers to an automated site)
alamcculloch:
To be a taxi driver you dont have to be the sharpest tool in the box.
Why not use frying oil like they did on last nights edition of 5th gear.There are penalties for red but vegetable oil wont leave a trace and is cheaper.
well alan,i do a bit of taxi driving and a bit of european truck driving when she complains about my never being in the house.
i will admit,you dont need to be the smartest to drive a taxi,but you need to be street wise.
you get that many undesirables in the car.
as for using frying oil.
i think it is you that is not the smartest tool in the box.
read up before you post silly remarks
i dont use bio in my car,its a disaster,causes all sorts of problems in the lines.
i dont know of anyone haulier or taxi operator that uses frying oil alone.
this frying oil has to be cleaned,its a long and expensive operation to make it into bio diesel.
check you facts before you let yourself down.
Some years ago i carried out an experiment with red diesel, I didn’t use fullers earth, peat, or any chemicals and it worked.
I told my mate not to use it for about another week at least as it wasn’t quite ready. But he did, He drove no more than 1/2 a mile and got dipped. He’d never been dipped before and didn’t expect to as he was in an ex-waterboard transit 4x4 which was customised.
The customs bloke checked the fuel and said it was just 5% red, My mate was dead straight with him and said he was desperate as it was nearly empty so he filled it with red, but the customs guy couldn’t understand it.
If he’d left it a little longer then he’d have been in the clear.
He had to pay the duty of £200. He was then allowed to use the rest of the red diesel, My mate expained that this would take some time as he didn’t use the van much, The customs man agreed and said the receipt would cover it. So he bought another barrel. 
I’d love to try it again, But this time i’d like to test the fuel with some proper equipment.
Just out of scientific interest of course. Never for financial gain or to use on the road.
greg50:
alamcculloch:
To be a taxi driver you dont have to be the sharpest tool in the box.
Why not use frying oil like they did on last nights edition of 5th gear.There are penalties for red but vegetable oil wont leave a trace and is cheaper.well alan,i do a bit of taxi driving and a bit of european truck driving when she complains about my never being in the house.
i will admit,you dont need to be the smartest to drive a taxi,but you need to be street wise.
you get that many undesirables in the car.
as for using frying oil.
i think it is you that is not the smartest tool in the box.
read up before you post silly remarks
i dont use bio in my car,its a disaster,causes all sorts of problems in the lines.
i dont know of anyone haulier or taxi operator that uses frying oil alone.
this frying oil has to be cleaned,its a long and expensive operation to make it into bio diesel.
check you facts before you let yourself down.
Are my remarks that silly?This weeks edition of 5th gear featured the presenters going to a chip shop to buy oil ,it was clean oil this was poured into a Merc. and driven to a gig.I am a former taxi op., I know about the scum and zbs.You will see from my other posts that Ihave been on the buses for 10 plus years as well as truck work during school hols…I am reasonably streewise.There have been a number of programmes on tv. and radio about recycled oil being used as road fuel.
To run most diesels on veggy oil is ok as long as it is cleaned and the glycerine is removed.
You can run 80% diesel and 20% oil in the winter.
20% diesel and 80% veggy in the summer.
Run it on red you dumb taxi drivers.
limeyphil:
To run most diesels on veggy oil is ok as long as it is cleaned and the glycerine is removed.
You can run 80% diesel and 20% oil in the winter.
20% diesel and 80% veggy in the summer.
i think the red is about 75/80 p per ltr now limey.
im getting white diesel in the shell garages for 94,9p.
not much difference anymore.
not worth the hassle.
iv seen a lot of probs with the bio,i wouldnt touch it myself.
did you ever do anymore about that hydrogen mix?
I hav’nt done a thing about the hydrogen for ages.
But now you’ve mentioned it. i’ll have to get round to it.
i was hoping i could get one of the old scrappers off my boss to play with.
i need to put a lorry through some rough ground because the generators don’t last.
The stuff works, but it’s no good as a business yet. I need to make an unbreakable tonka toy version.
the thing is, last time i did it was with a truck with no computer, so if it went wrong it wasn’t much of a problem. with the new trucks it could result in the biggest, fastest bancruptcy in history.
Couple of years ago I worked as the manager for a small trucking company that got interested in green fuels. They went as far as buying their own kit to convert bio-oil and waste oil into usable bio-fuel. Turn around then was 1400l per hour on virgin oil.
I spoke to DAF and Scania at length to get their boffins to agree on biofuel use, the problem being that dealers would invalidate any warrantees with its use. Finally got the ok from those guys, but the bigger problem of finding supplies in bulk of oil was raised.
Both DAF an Scania ‘advised’ that a second filter be fitted alongside a new fuel line (DAF only as Scannies already had the necessary one) and that it was essential to have the tanks cleaned out before using biofuel as the stuff acts as an engine cleaner. A lot of people came unstuck there as all the crap in the tank headed towards the engine, which is what was bunging up the filters.
Issues at the moment still are that biofuel has become non sustainable and the growing of crops for biofuel consumption is causing more damage to the environment than diesel or petrol.
Greenfuels Ltd down in Stonebridge also produced a hydrogen converter which we fitted to two DAF CF and an LF. They worked just fine once they’d ironed out a bracketing problem.
The vehicles we used as test beds ran on 100% biofuel in the summer months with no problems. The hydrogen test truck returned around 5% in savings.
Producing biofuel cost around 65p/l an then you add on the tax. Realistically, for a 35k outlay on equipment you are not going to see a brilliant return.
very interesting and informative read why reg.
i bought a 04 skoda octavia during the summer,this was a bog standard 1.9 td.
reading through the handbook,
they said is was ok to use bio.
i didnt bother,stuck with white diesel.
i liked the fuel economy so much,i bought an 08 one.
this has every thing you could ever need.
also has the same engine,but in the handbook and on the fuel filler,
it says no bio.
must be something to do with the computer,im not sure.
greg50:
very interesting and informative read why reg.
i bought a 04 skoda octavia during the summer,this was a bog standard 1.9 td.
reading through the handbook,
they said is was ok to use bio.
i didnt bother,stuck with white diesel.
i liked the fuel economy so much,i bought an 08 one.
this has every thing you could ever need.
also has the same engine,but in the handbook and on the fuel filler,
it says no bio.
must be something to do with the computer,im not sure.
As far as I remember that is correct, the electronic ignition systems can be a problem which is why biofuel runs better in old vehicles. I would presume there would be upgrades or ways of resetting that could be used. Phonecall to the dealer boffins would sort it.