This is me losing my virginity on the forum as it is my first post.Why is nobody mentioning weekly fuel price rises,are the big boys getting a rebate we dont know about. I am spending between 500 and 600 a month more than i was in march i would imagine anybody else tramping is the same,so why everybody so quiet 
jimbo 480:
This is me losing my virginity on the forum as it is my first post.Why is nobody mentioning weekly fuel price rises,are the big boys getting a rebate we dont know about. I am spending between 500 and 600 a month more than i was in march i would imagine anybody else tramping is the same,so why everybody so quiet
It’s creeping closer and closer to the 90p a litre now, I tend to be using my credit card more than my fuel card, as it’s often cheaper.
I think, we’ve just been ground down that far by it, that we haven’t got the heart anymore 
Or is that just me?
1.5 - 2.0 ppl rise this week on a couple of my cards too 
glad I filled up fri night 
Denis F:
1.5 - 2.0 ppl rise this week on a couple of my cards tooglad I filled up fri night
Shell are doing a credit card, that gives about 5 ppl back, for a limited time, I’m not sure of the restrictions yet. I think I’m gonna get one of them, and the new Capital One one. and any others that give me loyalty promotions that I can use 
think we’re all probably resigned to the fact that at some point the jobs not going to be viable anymore, the big boys aren’t making a fuss because they’ll just pass the cost on to the customer who in turn will pass it on to the man in the street, who’s gona be bothered about the small operator? certainly not the government, not the big operators or the man in the street! i hate to say it but i think it’s a loosing battle.
We should be more like the French have a national strike or stoppage
its £1.01 near me for diesal in a few garages…I have been down the A12 today near chelmsford and I saw 1 garage charging £1.08 for diesal…a litre…
I know I am putting at least 110 litres in my van nearly every day …No wonder my company just put its prices up A lot for puncture repairs and tyre fitting…
williemac:
We should be more like the French have a national strike or stoppage
This whole French thing is fast entering the realms of Urban Myth. French drivers haven’t had a national strike or any kind of action for years and the last few occasions they did try anything it fizzled out for various reasons, the main one being threatened with the loss of their driving licences for taking part. The whole sticking together thing went out the window faced with that threat. Gone are the days when the French police stood by and let the drivers get on with it, they now deal swiftly any sort of demonstration by drivers and as a result French drivers now have about as much sticking togetherness and ability to take action as drivers from any other country - none.
Coffeeholic:
French drivers haven’t had a national strike or any kind of action for years… Gone are the days when the French police stood by and let the drivers get on with it…
The last time I remember that was around 1983/4 ish. Everything stopped, the drivers having parked their trucks strategically at cross-roads, but they did allow cars and some other vehicles to circulate. I was at a few places in France during such strikes. The 3 I remember being caught up in were at Les Attaques, Orange and Cluses. (Not on the same trip ) There was one more hold-up I suffered, fairly near Le Boulou, but I can’t remember where exactly.
There was also a tactic the French drivers called “jour d’ l’escargots” (the day of the snails??) during which the drivers drove at around 30mph, even on motorways. I reckon Spardo can fill in some gaps on this one.
I have to say it’s sad, but us Brits just won’t stick together. (Remember 1978?)
paul b:
think we’re all probably resigned to the fact that at some point the jobs not going to be viable anymore, the big boys aren’t making a fuss because they’ll just pass the cost on to the customer who in turn will pass it on to the man in the street, who’s gona be bothered about the small operator? certainly not the government, not the big operators or the man in the street! i hate to say it but i think it’s a loosing battle.
Can only sympathise, really, it just gets tougher and tougher with profit margins continually being cut, I really feel for all those ODs trying to make it work, fuel will not go down tho not matter how hard we shout, we really shud turn a negative into a positve and push NOW FOR HIGHER RATES!!!
Gud luck to yer all now…
Routier’s post sums it up perfectly.
Fuel prices will not go down. They will continue to rise. £1 per litre is, after all, only a number; and numbers tend to keep rising where costs are concerned, whatever industry you’re in.
Imagine what it’s going to be like in five years’ time? Oil reserves getting lower, earth getting warmer. Britain’s government will be “green-taxing” even harder to ease the burden on our collective conscience, whilst making “tax-hay” while the sun shines (hotter, in this case).
Turn a negative into a positive. Rates will eventually have to rise; look at agriculture (arable production).
In the meantime we can speed up the process. Talk to your customers; you may be surprised! If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Much tougher times are ahead. The stark reality is there will be casualties. It has happened before, and it will happen again.
There’s little point in protesting. The government deals with far more harsh adversaries than its road-transport industry. Yes, we can continue to push the point that trucks keep the country running (and they do!), but big organisations that work very closely with government (RHA & FTA) seem to have little impact where fuel price is concerned, so what chance have we? Bugger all!
Better to use your time to call your customers and see what you can thrash out.
So, we are all approaching a crossroads, whether now, or in the near future.
Find ways of making it pay (and I know what tends to happen there, sadly), or exit stage-left and exist as a drone for someone else’s gain; (admittedly, you will sleep-soundly knowing the mortgage is paid).
I think I’ll stick with the trucks thanks!
And by the way; another positive. Don’t for a minute imagine that because a company is “big” or “large”, that they’re not feeling it as well. You’ll be surprised how tight their margins are, and they have to compete for work as well. Contracts that include rate-revisions coupled to fuel-prices? Pretty rare, I’d say.
When Mr. Big with many many trucks has to cut his wage down to see his business turn a profit, the ship is already beyond salvage. Owner-drivers and small hauliers are doing it on a weekly basis. That’s steering the ship on a different course!
Now who’s worried?!!
in an ideal world we’d all go to our customers for more money but what barganing power have you got when theres other hauliers waiting to take over the work if you can’t sort something your happy with, regards the rates?
then of coarse theres johnny foreigner who thinks it’s ok to do a manchester to ashford for £160!
the latest fuel price hike is just another bite out of your profit, at what point do you decide the profit put against the amount you have to invest on a monthly basis to actually do the job simply isn’t enough? it wasn’t very long ago that most thought the job was worth doing at an average of £1.20 a mile minimum now your looking at more like £1.50! as someone has posted the costs will only go one way and thats up, will you be able to raise your rates on virtually a monthly basis to keep pace?
Thanks for your thoughts guys,im glad ive only one vehicle and not twentyone,oh well sunday lunchtime once again so better get pointed south once again and see how much Mr Brown and his band of merry men can screw out of me this week 
I think on this topic there is one thing we can learn from the O/O’s in USA/Canada and that is the fact that on most contracts there’s ALWAYS a certain fuel surcharge built in.
Don’t ask me how it exactly works but its something to do with every certain % the fuel price increases the surcharge passes on around the same % rise in the rates. 
I read somewhere the other day there are 6,000 members registered on this site now (mods correct me?)
Can you imagine if we all parked up for half a day. . !!
ReD fuel cards are the cheapest followed by Keyfuels (86.5ppl - 2/11/07)
something good:
I read somewhere the other day there are 6,000 members registered on this site now (mods correct me?)
6303 at this time. The information is at the bottom left of the main forum page. That doesn’t mean 6303 individuals though because some members have more than, sometimes several more than, one username.
I’m going to be parked up all next week, no one will notice. 
Well its good to see it growing.
Maybe not this year (or the next) but one day there might be hope for us all. .
jimbo 480:
Thanks for your thoughts guys,im glad ive only one vehicle and not twentyone,oh well sunday lunchtime once again so better get pointed south once again and see how much Mr Brown and his band of merry men can screw out of me this week
That’s where you’re going wrong! Sunday Luchtime is pub time
Sat on M25 last night waiting for a wrecker from 6.0pm to 10.30 alongside 4 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic at 60ish mph. Even by 10.30, it hadn’t started to abate.
Every year prices go up, every year folk moan about it, every year traffic increases.
Not until it reaches a price where traffic volumes start to decrease is there any incentive for the government to reduce taxes and the price.
If I had a product that increased year on year sales, I’d want to maximise it by increasing the prices at regular intervals and that’s really all the government is doing.
And don’t bleat on about the British haulage industry being essential. A haulage industry is, but not a British one. There’s plenty of foreign drivers as cheap labour to offset fuel costs and plenty of foreign hauliers to move the freight if needed.
Just tell people that the Eastern Bloc drivers are on the same wages and they believe you, so the problem of immigrant drivers is solved, or at least the public and government don’t see the problem. They are probably even grateful that foreigners will do the work that British drivers ‘don’t want to’. Shame I upset the Pole I was speaking to by telling him that £6.20 per hour with £7.20 per hour after 10 wasn’t the going rate for class 1 night drivers. But I often hear they are on the same money!
Talking to a manager a couple of weeks back during a ■■■ break as I wasn’t loaded, I discovered that he considers £1.25 a mile for containers as good money as he has hauliers (NOT foreign) competing for his work and currently pays less than £1.00 per mile for 44 ton fridge work. That rate is the problem, not the cost of fuel.
And if anybody thinks the government or anybody else gives a toss about the ‘British’ haulage industry, just think back to when we had a textile industry, a motorcyle industry, a car and lorry industry, a coal industry, shipbuilding, steel etc. It wasn’t only government that failed those industries, it was the buying public as well. So long as the goods get moved, nobody will care what language is written on the lorry, or whether the driver speaks English or Martian or whatever.
Rant over!
williemac:
We should be more like the French have a national strike or stoppage
Even the French dont do that anymore since the unions have seperated. Its every man for himself in France too. The days of the Gendarmes supporting the Truckers have gone. The railways, farmers and fishermen will still disrupt France and no one gives a Gallic shrug
OK. I know that was posted by Neil about 6 hours ago but I have have been surfing ■■■■ sites cos Im on holiday