petrol stations price discussion (was ‘chaos’)

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
37,804
Location
block 16, cell 12
We got 17.5% which on the face of it sounds great, I’m now on £12 per hr, in 2007 I was earning £9.75! - wages have been stagnant in this job for a very long time and as a consequence many have left the industry.

Many agencies are offering crazy rates, £35+ per hour, not one of them will guarantee you work after January….

Yep pushed out by cheap foreign labour.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
8,266
Location
Near Cheltenham
EV prices will go through the roof!

And on the other news, Energy prices set to quadruple in 6 months.. EV prices to plunge..

Like all good people, I am not rushing out to fill my M3 up just to ensure I can get to work for the next 2 weeks.. (I have already got the Mrs to do it for me, so that doesn't count, right?)..
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Nov 2006
Posts
23,940
And on the other news, Energy prices set to quadruple in 6 months.. EV prices to plunge..

Like all good people, I am not rushing out to fill my M3 up just to ensure I can get to work for the next 2 weeks.. (I have already got the Mrs to do it for me, so that doesn't count, right?)..

It's perfect timing for me, just about to start a week of driving to various places around the country...
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
91,053
Was being commented on chat at work that the queues to get into the fuel stations are big and it is causing traffic chaos - haven't ventured out myself yet. Some of my relatives have cancelled a visit as it is chaos in their town and they don't have enough fuel to get here and back if the availability gets hit.
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Dec 2005
Posts
10,541
Can confirm in London its chaos get it now doubt many will have any fuel left this evening until it fills up again early tomorrow! Complete insanity caused by our terrible government & their short sighted incompetent leader!
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Mar 2007
Posts
13,509
Location
South Yorkshire
Got stuck trying to do my usual fill up this morning due to panic buying, we've got a station up the road from work and the roads been blocked both ways since 08:00, madness
 
Associate
Joined
2 Jul 2019
Posts
2,426
Filled up yesterday for my standard weekly 25L. Filled up work's van today as was near red, had to queue for 20mins. Forecourt said they've got loads, just people have lost their minds.

Xmas "shortage" is going to be another joke. People will buy even more, and then throw away even more food wastage. Madness.
 
Associate
Joined
20 Feb 2010
Posts
268
Can confirm in London its chaos get it now doubt many will have any fuel left this evening until it fills up again early tomorrow! Complete insanity caused by our terrible government & their short sighted incompetent leader!

Did Boris print the newspaper headlines screaming about a non existent shortage??? This panic buying is the fault of the media. They should be in prison for their lies if you ask me.

The studies I found show a 5% decrease in wages due to immigration, where is the other 25-30% coming from? Let me guess you don't have anything to back up your thoughts? Probably only some screenshots of newspapers?

How about 20 years of experience in the industry? The driving the down pay and conditions hasn't just happened in this country, go ask a Dutch or French truck driver their thoughts on freedom of movement and cabotage, but I guess they are all thick racist gammon. The EU along with individual governments has enabled a system that allowed big business to exploit workers. Ask a Bulgarian or a Romanian how the current system treats them. Being paid the very low wages of the old eastern bloc to work for months at a time in the western and northern European countries. It's as unfair on them as it is the workers they replace by being able to work for less than the market rate.


Hahaha, must be Brexit.

Good on him.

I’m getting inundated with on the face of it incredibly good rates, until you look deeper into it and you either have very short shifts or your only required on certain days and no guarantee of work after Christmas, which is often the case with agencies…

The whole driver shortage is also a massive red herring. There are something like 300,000 more HGV license holders than there are vacancies. The question is not where the workers have gone, but why they don't want to drive.

I'm sure Scania agrees pay is one aspect, but who here would want to work any random 5 days from 7 as most jobs offer right now. No weekend premium, no bank holiday premium, no bonus for unsocial hours. No decent facilities on the road. Very little genuinely safe and secure parking. Banned outright from parking in Kent outside of expensive and undersized truck parks. 15 hour shifts 3 days a week, with as little as 9 hours off, then another 3x13 hour shifts. Up to 21 hours duty time if double manning, again with 9 hours off. Locked in tiny stuffy waiting rooms sitting on a plastic chair for 3 hours while your unloaded because your banned from sitting in your cab. Banned form the using the toilets at many site you deliver to. Turned away if your early, rejected if your late, oh, and banned from parking on the very industrial estates your delivering to. Tachographs, driving facing cameras, Microlise monitoring. Some pointy shoe wearing office clerk telling you how you should be driving when they've never been in a truck. We are hated if we drive during the day, we are hated if we deliver at night.

I certainly wouldn't choose this industry if I was starting out my working life now.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2003
Posts
5,594
Ah I did wonder why local shell garage was unusually busy at 5am this morning.

Why do people think panic buying fuel achieves anything, it's not like you can realistically store it so as soon as your tank is nearing empty you're in the same boat as everyone else.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Aug 2009
Posts
7,740
I only found out last night on the 10 o'clock news by which time the forecourts will be closed. Was in sainsburys earlier too. I expect everywheres sold out by now. Local newspaper reports "chaos" across town and long delays to bus timetables due to roads being blocked by drivers queueing for hours. Police have even released a public statement. Hopefully by the time I'm in dire need of fuel i.e. next week the panic will have died down otherwise it'll be multiple bus trips everywhere. Oh joy.

Why do people think panic buying fuel achieves anything, it's not like you can realistically store it so as soon as your tank is nearing empty you're in the same boat as everyone else.

when there was the fuel shortage previously people were driving around all the stations trying to find one open and join a queue just to top up their tanks when they were almost full basically just burning any fuel they can pick up in the process this is the kind of panic mentality that seizes peoples minds

The studies I found show a 5% decrease in wages due to immigration, where is the other 25-30% coming from? Let me guess you don't have anything to back up your thoughts? Probably only some screenshots of newspapers?

Guy we found the Remainer in the thread!
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
1 Apr 2003
Posts
11,890
Location
Northamptonshire
Ah I did wonder why local shell garage was unusually busy at 5am this morning.

Why do people think panic buying fuel achieves anything, it's not like you can realistically store it so as soon as your tank is nearing empty you're in the same boat as everyone else.

Indeed, which is why I think this wont last too long.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2009
Posts
24,849
Why do people think panic buying fuel achieves anything, it's not like you can realistically store it so as soon as your tank is nearing empty you're in the same boat as everyone else.

Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of it is the people who normally only top up '£10 a week because that's all I need', so by panic buying, they actually now have a 4 week 'store' that they normally wouldn't have, so in their mind have now secured their supply and don't need to worry about if there's any fuel left for next week's £10 top up.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Nov 2006
Posts
23,940
Did Boris print the newspaper headlines screaming about a non existent shortage??? This panic buying is the fault of the media. They should be in prison for their lies if you ask me.



How about 20 years of experience in the industry? The driving the down pay and conditions hasn't just happened in this country, go ask a Dutch or French truck driver their thoughts on freedom of movement and cabotage, but I guess they are all thick racist gammon. The EU along with individual governments has enabled a system that allowed big business to exploit workers. Ask a Bulgarian or a Romanian how the current system treats them. Being paid the very low wages of the old eastern bloc to work for months at a time in the western and northern European countries. It's as unfair on them as it is the workers they replace by being able to work for less than the market rate.



Hahaha, must be Brexit.



The whole driver shortage is also a massive red herring. There are something like 300,000 more HGV license holders than there are vacancies. The question is not where the workers have gone, but why they don't want to drive.

I'm sure Scania agrees pay is one aspect, but who here would want to work any random 5 days from 7 as most jobs offer right now. No weekend premium, no bank holiday premium, no bonus for unsocial hours. No decent facilities on the road. Very little genuinely safe and secure parking. Banned outright from parking in Kent outside of expensive and undersized truck parks. 15 hour shifts 3 days a week, with as little as 9 hours off, then another 3x13 hour shifts. Up to 21 hours duty time if double manning, again with 9 hours off. Locked in tiny stuffy waiting rooms sitting on a plastic chair for 3 hours while your unloaded because your banned from sitting in your cab. Banned form the using the toilets at many site you deliver to. Turned away if your early, rejected if your late, oh, and banned from parking on the very industrial estates your delivering to. Tachographs, driving facing cameras, Microlise monitoring. Some pointy shoe wearing office clerk telling you how you should be driving when they've never been in a truck. We are hated if we drive during the day, we are hated if we deliver at night.

I certainly wouldn't choose this industry if I was starting out my working life now.

I've always fancied doing some ice road trucking, looks fun!
 
Back
Top Bottom